Can Democracy be Saved, and what happens if it’s Destroyed?

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, education, Election 2022, Environmental Issues, Global Issues, History, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Re-blogs, Social commentary

Robert Vella of The Secular Jurist is a published author and political opinion writer who I have followed for a number of years. His post today is both thoughtful and thought-provoking and well worth the few minutes it will take you to read it, so PLEASE, if you read nothing else today, do read this from start to finish. I am especially drawn to the quote by Albert Einstein … truer words were never spoken. Thank you, Robert, for this well-considered post about not only our current situation here in the U.S., but around the globe.

The Secular Jurist

By Robert A. Vella – June 30th 2022

Now that the House Select Committee has begun public hearings on its investigation into the deadly and destructive January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol which attempted to forcibly overturn the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election (see:  House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol), concern for the future of democracy has finally reached the crisis level.  What then-President Donald Trump, his Christo-fascist minions (which have seized control of the Republican Party), the white supremacist group Proud Boys, and the anti-government group Oath Keepers, among other factions, had tried to perpetrate was nothing less than a violent coup d’état;  and, that is precisely the terminology used by the committee on June 9th in its opening statements.

The political class and government bureaucracies, which had for years avoided any such…

View original post 2,178 more words

16 thoughts on “Can Democracy be Saved, and what happens if it’s Destroyed?”

  1. I am sitting here, doing another catch-up (i could reply to notifications but not posts….go figure).
    Anyhow, this was a good and painful share Jill and Robert Vella makes very good, and salient points, ones which express hope in the system prevailing, which is a good hope, and a positive one.
    Storm cloud warning….
    Sorry folks the next part is grim. It’s meant to be, to make you want to work harder for what I would call ‘The Civic Option’. (No apologies for saying this before)
    Because the other option harks back to your War of Independence and your Civil War. You know those were not dealt with by discussion and legal work in court and legislative assembly.
    When people with resources are backed into a corner by aggressive reactionary forces, the resort to the next level of defence becomes inevitable.
    In The Right’s continued overt aggression, they seem to overlook the fact that they are not the only ones with access to firearms.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Yes, and that is one of the many things causing me nightmares … that our streets will turn into a battleground. Hell, in some places that’s already the case and it can only get worse, I fear. But worse would be capitulation, for good people to simply give up. As the quote that is often mis-attributed to Edmond Burke goes, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” If only 60% of the people vote as was the case in 2020, or even fewer, as has been the case in every other election for the hundred years prior to 2020, then we have brought our destruction upon ourselves with our apathy.

      Liked by 1 person

  2. I read it the other day & thought it was a great post, very well written & informative. However, I think our democracy is done & has been done for quite a long time. At least since Gore was denied the presidency; the Patriot Act was definitely another knife in the belly of democracy. Where I’m sitting, it’s been one killing thrust after another for the last twenty-two years. I’m amazed that people still talk about saving something that is clearly dead … or is on life-support & if it ever comes out of political ICU, it’s going to have years of rehab to get it back on its feet, if it ever recovers.

    I’m not one of these people who are filled with hope that everything is going to get better. It’s going to change … it’ll be better in some ways & worse in others. All any of us can do is get used to these changes or get into the streets & fight. I know a lot of you like to write to your congressperson. Writing to your congressperson is useless. I know. I used to work in politics & I was the person who answered those letters. There’s a bunch of ways to nicely tell someone thank you for your concern but forget about it. That was some real creative writing!

    Vella writes, “Totalitarianism, whether fascist or communistic, attacks civil liberties and freedoms with great fervor while the former does so under the banner of corporatism and the latter does so under the banner of socialism.” I think it is clear that we are already well within the boundaries of fascism, since our civil liberties & freedoms have been being attacked for WELL OVER twenty years, & the people who rule us are definitely the corporations who own the politicians for whom we vote. Just because we have elections does not mean we have a democracy! That’s an illusion! To paraphrase Noam Chomsky, we have one political party, the corporate party, which has two factions, the Republicans & the Democrats. Honestly, it’s not so different than the NFL. Tom Brady switching from the AFC to the NFC was no different than a politician switching from Democrat to Republican. It felt like a betrayal (well, not to me, I’m a Bills fan) but it’s the same old game.

    & why are we looking at it like it’s a game anyway? I’ve said this a HUNDRED times. You aren’t voting for your favorite rock star. You aren’t voting for the person with whom you’d like to have a beer & a laugh. You’re voting for someone to WORK for the country or the city or the county or whatever it is. This whole attitude of who’s in front, by how many points, this gaming/entertainment attitude of politics … it’s a distraction that keeps Americans looking away from what they should be viewing.

    We don’t have a democracy anymore, there’s nothing to save. We’re in uncharted waters.

    Like

  4. Pingback: CAN DEMOCRACY BE SAVED, AND WHAT HAPPENS IF IT’S DESTROYED. |jilldennison.com | Ramblings of an Occupy Liberal

    • Agreed. I don’t see how, after all the testimony we’ve heard in the televised January 6th hearings, especially this latest one, he can fail to bring charges against Trump and Meadows both. If he doesn’t, then there is no justice in this nation.
      Cwtch

      Liked by 2 people

  6. Jill, we must loudly applaud the truth tellers and share a warning about those who are damaging our country with their lies and name calling. I think we should let the truth tellers know we appreciate their actions and when other politicians do well, even if it is on occasion. Keith

    Liked by 3 people

Comments are closed.