LI. The Presidential Election 2024

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I watched a show this week that reminded me of how bad the first phase of COVID-19 was. How quickly we have forgotten the health care infrastructure, the doctors and nurses who gave everything to save lives, with an estimated 3,600 of them losing their own life in the process. It was another reason I will vote this week for science and public service, to pay respect to these Americans that Trumpism threw a shadow over and made the work that much damn harder to do.

By the standards of the world, the United States operates on pretty stable ground. People come and go, and administrations ebb and flow, but the government has remained dependable.

Mostly.

But have you ever considered just how rare American democracy is? As we approach our 250th year of independence, we are a bit of an anomaly. The longevity and stability of American democracy is not just impressive—it's nearly unprecedented in world history.

Throughout history, democracies have been relatively short-lived experiments. Ancient Athens, often considered the birthplace of democracy, lasted less than two centuries in its democratic form. The Roman Republic endured for about 450 years before succumbing to imperial rule and a few men who thought they knew better. In more recent times, the average lifespan of democratic systems has been around 50-75 years. We are in the middle of this small pack on the timeline. Only a handful of nations, such as the United Kingdom, Canada, and Switzerland, can claim comparable longevity in their democratic institutions.

So why do we take our government for granted?

It is in part from our lack of respecting history, which offers sobering lessons about the fragility of democratic systems. Democracy has a hard time when the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. When the norms we come to expect go wrong, such as the peaceful transfer of power, we pay a psychological price. Polarization and breakdown of political compromise reward those in the best position to benefit, typically incumbency and deep pockets, while the majority suffer. External threats and national security crises encourage people to operate in fear. Corruption and loss of public trust undercuts the significant time and effort it takes to build institutions and makes it all the more easier to destroy them.

The United States has faced many of these challenges throughout its history, from the Civil War to the Great Depression to the Civil Rights drive of the 1960s. Many, including the fools, the followers, and the innocent, have paid a price along the way. Yet each time, our democratic institutions have bent but not broken.

What, then, are the crucial factors that have contributed to American democracy's resilience? And given the current threat from Trumpism, how can citizens work to preserve it?

Strong Institutions: The system of checks and balances enshrined in the Constitution has proven remarkably durable. The separation of powers between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches helps prevent any single entity from accumulating too much power. While the current generation of leadership has been dysfunctional, it has also been a feature of its stability. The distribution of power is a primary feature of protecting democracy. Things may not get done as fast as we would like, but slow and steady is much more palatable than most of the alternatives.

Rule of Law: A robust legal system and respect for the rule of law have been cornerstones of American democracy. When political crises have arisen, they have generally been resolved through legal means rather than through violence or extra-legal methods.

But not always.

The Civil War happened, and we have remained a nation complacent with citizens killing citizens. Perhaps this mentality has always been around, maybe lying dormant until Fox News and Trumpism nourish the fears of living in a multicultural world. For several years now, partial judges, police officers exhibiting thuggish behavior, and public servants who have betrayed their obligations have been putting our system of rules to the test. The rule of law depends upon force, but the force of words always comes first.

Civil Society: A vibrant civil society, including a free press, advocacy groups, and civic organizations, has played a crucial role in holding leaders accountable and fostering democratic engagement. Public spaces must grow and evolve, not become dumping grounds for the forgotten. When journalism and media is controlled by a few billionaires, who is to keep them in check? We saw the recent anger with Jeff Bezos putting his thumb on the scale of truth and journalism. That’s an uncivil act conducive to the way authoritarian governments operate. Finally, when we fall in love with our own voices, our little power, our ears become full of our own words and leave no room to hear others. Civil life is a privilege and a responsibility of living in a democracy.

Adaptability: The American system has shown a remarkable ability to grow and adapt to changing circumstances, whether through constitutional amendments or shifts in societal norms. The Bill of Rights was the first major adaptation, providing that the Constitution be a living document. We must change as the world changes. Pretending the threat is an internal enemy, as Trumpism likes to portray, is moving backward and not an adaptation. It is a gift to the likes of Putin who depend on keeping a controlled state.

An engaged and informed citizenry is essential for progress in each of these areas. History shows that democracies thrive when citizens are active participants rather than passive observers. We need a higher expectation of voting and easy methods to do it. We need to end gerrymandering, roll back Citizens United, remake the Senate and House representative ratios, and change voting systems to support more consensus choices.

We need to become more mindful of an economic system built to endorse division, in picking our own neighborhood, our own schools, our own news sources (basically building our own bubbles). It is going to take that much more work to engage with Americans different from us, even just a neighborhood away.

Finally, we must make it easier to run for office, which calls for an overhaul of campaign financing and the voter choice process. While we protect the ability to be as dumb as we want to be, we must always protect an expectation of being as informed as we need to be.

As the United States navigates the challenges of the 21st century, from technological disruption to climate change to new-age autocrats, the resilience of its democratic system will be tested anew. The remarkable longevity of American democracy is not guaranteed to continue. There is no God to save us from ourselves if we vote for hate, anger, and division.

Like any complex system, our country requires constant maintenance and renewal. Each generation of Americans bears the responsibility of stewarding this democratic experiment, learning from the past while adapting to the future. If we continue to approach it with a what’s in it for me mindset, we will not make it through another century.

In an age of rising authoritarianism, the United States' democratic tradition stands as a beacon. But we must tend to that light carefully. There are not many others. The future of the world's oldest continuous democracy rests, as it always has, in the hands of its people.

Vote like you know this.

• Here are some resources for dealing with anxiety from political turmoil.

• The coming winter is a great time to relax with a book on American history. This one seems parallel with many issues we grapple with today.

• Google has such a monopoly on search, we freely use the term, “Google It.” But here comes ChatGPT with an ad-free search experience.

If one stops to realize that Apple controls nearly 70% of the U.S. phone market, and has a trillion dollars in cash on hand, one wonders why it has taken so long to support unions. Businesses that give a say to their workers typically provide more benefits and reap more profit. American auto workers enjoyed decades of middle-class living until the corporate model got fat in the past. They didn’t keep up with the changing times, with a demand for compact vehicles and the workers paid a heavy price. In today’s economy, nothing can be taken for granted, but neither should workers have to foot the bill for corporate excess and wasteful management. I’m going to support these union initiatives until CEO-level pay and responsibility mirror the care and feeding of its workers.

My time in the Peace Corps taught me so much about the value of people-to-people interactions, international diplomacy, and service to others. It also taught me the pain and anguish of bureaucracy. I still wouldn’t trade the experience, and I look back longingly on my time in a Russian winter in places no American had been in generations. AmeriCorps is akin to Peace Corps for the United States and if you don’t have a clear path in life, service to others is never a bad step to figure things out. I am of the mind that two years of service to the country should be mandatory. Doesn’t have to be military.

Not such a fan of this. And truth be told, I’ve found LinkedIn to be one of the social platforms that I could most likely ditch with the least amount of disruption. It has gone toward quantity over quality, and attracting attention over substance. We have a lot of work to do when we have a generation of people who want to work and feel they need to do this type of advertisement to find a decent job. We are in a transition in service industry-type jobs, and we are going to need to get more aggressive in protecting jobs. While I am a supporter of AI and tech, it is quite obvious that many gains will offset some jobs, while other jobs that can be supported won’t be because there’s no plan to do so. While we need to continue creating Americans who have diverse skills and interests, we need to make sure we have a variety of jobs available. Do you know the other thing that would benefit job creation? Universal healthcare, but that’s another story.

Regardless of your level of involvement in sports, this is one to monitor. This summer was brutal, with several heat waves, shifts in paths of major storms, dry spells, and flooding. It’s the heat that is going to change things; the way we work, the hours we work, locations, buildings, and so on. If you live in the city, there are typically many sidewalks, not always easily connected, but they are there. Next time, notice how much sidewalks are open to the elements. For several decades, most places have planning laws in place that require sidewalks with development. It does not require shade. If we are going to protect and improve the time we spend outdoors, shade, whether natural or artificial, is going to need to become part of regular policy.

By now, most people have heard of these ocean garbage patches (not Puerto Rico) where currents collide and all the floating plastic collects. These ocean garbage patches are immense pools of plastic, and over the last several years, people have made efforts to collect and recycle the waste. We have a responsibility to keep the Earth clean for the next inhabitants. There is no right to pollute. This would be the perfect project for the world to get behind, and hopefully spur some effort to change solid waste policies from the source.

I’ve never been a fan of seeking change through lawsuits, but the more and more litigious we are, the more entrenched the old economy becomes. Maybe the courts are the only way to move forward. Plastics will be a scourge of existence that we pass on to our kids to deal with. It is immoral that our convenience comes at such a cost. I don’t see recycling getting anywhere to where it needs to be without changes in public policy and regulation. One is to up the mandatory recycled content in new products. People can change all these cultural norms. They had a beginning. They can have an ending. This is something we can do. 

Years ago, I planted a red maple in the backyard where my father lived. It is now a beautiful tree that hopefully will be there for others to enjoy. This is a nice little informative piece to finish on. No matter the outcome of the election, dedicate some of your time to nature, even time observing the trees and the leaves. They are living creatures and will be here long after we are gone. However, in the greatest of paradoxes, our limited time on earth has a significant role to play in the longer lifespans of trees. This makes our role as stewards even more important to realize and understand. If you need grounding, if you need a time of calm and peace, go outside and pick up a leaf, and let nature take its course.

And Now….

Hope to see you next week after the page has turned. Keep reading, practice your gratitude, and remember to fight the power with your vote, voice, actions, and heart.

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