- Kat's Newsletter
- Posts
- Democracy over party
Democracy over party
The most fundamental piece of the “grand American experiment,” the core of the United States of America is that it is a democracy. It is a government of the people, for the people and by the people.
Whether that democracy continues to exist is on the line this election.
This isn’t about left or right, Republican or Democrat, it is about upholding our democracy.
Donald Trump has made clear over and over and over that he does not plan to uphold democracy. He tried to overturn the results of the last election with the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the Capitol. He said just this weekend, that he thinks he shouldn’t have left the White House.
You don’t have to like Kamala Harris or all (or even most) of her policies, but if she becomes President, we’ll all have a chance to vote again in four years. When there’s a democracy, the constituents have an ability to course-correct. In a dictatorship or autocracy, that isn’t there. Trump is talking about deploying troops against Americans, using the military for domestic law enforcement. Numerous decorated Generals and other Military Veterans who served under him have come out warning of the danger if Trump is re-elected; they’ve said he wanted “the kind of generals that Hitler had.” If a President invoking Hitler as someone to emulate doesn’t scare you, I don’t even know where to begin.
As a kid, when I learned about World War II, I wondered where all the good people were who could have stood up to Hitler and those on his side before he amassed so much power. As a Government and International Studies Major (one of two majors) at the University of Notre Dame, I read about autocracies all around the world, including ones that followed democracies. I learned about Perón in Argentina and Trujillo in the Dominican Republic and Pinochet in Chile, of Mussolini in Italy and Khameini in Iran, of al-Bashir in Sudan, and so many more. I studied abroad in Spain – where I now live – which was only ~20 years into a democracy after four decades under Franco. I interned working with immigrants and refugees and asylees in Kansas City, Missouri, hearing stories first-hand from Kurds who had fled Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship in Iraq, from a woman who had fled authoritarianism in El Salvador. I volunteered with Displaced Dinners, meeting people who had fled Putin’s Russia and Assad’s Syria. Over the years, I’ve easily read 100+ books on democracy, authoritarianism and often on the battle for the former. In most cases, it wasn’t a sudden flip of a switch to a dictatorship. It happened gradually over time as someone with authoritarian tendencies consolidated power.
Through all that, until recently, I never worried about the United States falling into authoritarianism. We were the model for the world, one of the strongest democracies around. Sinclair Lewis’s book “It Can’t Happen Here” was many decades removed from my life and didn’t seem a real danger.
I hear some people saying recently that they would rather live under a “good” or “competent” dictator than under democracy. That is like saying: “The leopard won’t eat my face.” Under a dictatorship, one lives at the whim of the person in charge (and his/her allies).
Women’s rights, LGBTQ rights and immigrants’ rights are all already being hacked away at (or proposed being hacked away at) by Trump and allies. You shouldn’t need your own rights to be in danger to stand up for other peoples’ rights.
I’ll leave you with the famous Martin Niemöller quote: First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
This election is not about Democrats or Republicans. It is about democracy. This time, vote Democrat so we keep the right to vote, the right to have elections.