Democracy – Page 4 – Susan Feathers

On the Precipice

I consider Citizen’s United the Trojan Horse that released democracy’s enemies into the Body Politic. ~ Citizen for Freedom

July 3, 2024

As a young child I loved this week which contains both the 4th of July celebration and my birthday. It was a time of great celebration of our country’s role protecting freedom at home and abroad. 1950. I was five years old and IKE was Predident. American and Europe were free from the Nazi menace and rebuilding Europe and its allies, forming the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as a guardrail for democratic nations, pledging to come to each other’s aid when enemies of freedom attacked unprovoked.

Is that world I knew as a child and grew up in – the family, the nation, and a free world – passing?

This present day America which has grown rich and powerful, is in a world of hurt. Gnawing at its foundational principles and structure is a cancer fed by disinformation and superwealth of individuals and corporations empowered by the Citizen’s United ruling – the agent of its dissolution. Corporations do what they do not by consent of their employees but by the inclinations of its leadership: superrich CEO’s and Board members. Whose freedom of speech did Citizen’s United protect?

This abberation of the law is what gnaws at the heartwood of American Democracy. It empowers wealth to choose for us. We can see clearly today that it matters who we put on the Supreme Court. The justices who made the ruling on July 1, 2024 extending Presidential Immunity from the law, struck deep into our essential freedoms, making it not only easier but likely that Presidential power will be abused. It circumscribes citizen’s freedoms making it easier for men to become despots and citizens no more than serfs.

The current Supreme Court has made one ruling after another in which we witness the slow but sure weakening of the Body Politic: 1) Circumscribing the Voter’s Rights laws; 2) Eliminating guardrails on discrimination; 3) Striking down Women’s Rights; 4) weakening the administrative state which has long stabilized the democracy from one adminstrtion to the next; and 5) re-balancing the Balance of Power in our democractic structure and function by giving unlimited power to the Presidency though immunity from the law.

They struck at our basic tenet: no one is above the law in America.

While in theory, a President with character and true loyalty to the basic laws and tenets of a free people would not abuse this power, the fact is that we are now left with the elimination of the legislature’s role as a check on Presidential power (i.e. the people’s consent). Or, the burden of proof just got harder.

Freedom-loving Americns must rise to this singular moment in the country’s history. While we are not perfect by any means, we are still a democracy where voters determine its future.

No matter one’s opinions on political philosophy, you cannot deny that Joe Biden is a man of character and his Cabinet has worked tirelessly to help average Americans. The Blue Ticket has always been for the average citizen but this year the Blue Ticket is about preserving the Republic.

We are at the precipice of freedom.

A Free People is the final refuge of Liberty. Today I call upon everyone I know to stand against the Supreme Court’s decision, to flood the election precincts on November 5 and vote the Blue Ticket to turn the tide away from authoritarianism and flowing back toward freedom of individuals to govern by consent only.

See it for what it truly is: the Vote of Our Lives.

American Aspirations

We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community… Our ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sakes and for our own.

Cesar Chavez

From the beginning, our nation stands firmly on the bedrock of equality and a system of governance of, by, and for the people.

Those we elect govern only with our consent.

Seeing through the storm of rhetoric and lies – everyone is depending on us to think and make a wise choice in the 2024 election.

I consider the words of Cesar Chavez as the clear vision of America, its hopes and dreams for our citizens and for people across the world. You can view our history as the struggle to realize our common aspirations. Along the way tyrants, baffoons, and artful dodgers have thrown lies and accusations at good people, like Joe Biden … people who tell the truth while the liers seek to topple him. He and his Cabinet work quietly and compentently on behalf of ALL the American people.

Smokescreen of Lies and Fabrications

Here we have a mob of rich contributors with eyes on how a (T)Rump presidency can line their pockets or achieve their sick dreams of making the public act and do as they see fit. We should all ascribe to one religion and we should all be bound by their notions of family and goodness. This is Unamerican and a path to the end of democracy. We have been warding off these people and forces for the whole of our history. Like ravenous predators, they eye Lady Liberty seeking to topple her.

Age and America

We do not generally revere seniors in this young nation. We still worship youth. So where are the younger candidtes? Have we made our politics so vile and vicious that potential young leaders shy away? I think in part that may be true and who would blame them? However, don’t judge a book by its cover. Joe is getting the job done with a strong Cabinet and his long vision. There are also a host of young Democratic leaders behind him. Consider Bill McKibben’s thoughts about Joe and whether a change could invigorate our leadership.

I’d rather have a Biden leading us in the coming years of crucial climate decisions while providing support and protection for the 90% of Americans dominated by a super wealthy elite. It is those same super rich who invest and skew our electoral system with the onerous Citizen’s United Supreme Court ruling that has made our elections so fraught and uncharacteristic of the good humor and deep debate from local to national politics that existed before corporations could fund candidates. Townhalls, discussion around a community gathering space — informal yet vibrant – I am old enough to remember this and my parents even more so when they were alive.

When I was a child, my parents were Republicans. I had a photo of Ike and Maime Eisenhower in my room. They held a high bar for behavior and respect and good sense. Nothing like the present day Repugs.

One last thing: This is not about God. This is about Reason, Compromise, and Truth.

Your destiny and mine are inextricably linked in a democracy. That is the challenge of this system of governing. We are all in or all out. (T)Rump and the MAGA Repugs want out and they plan to take all of us with them.

Think about it.

Ship of State on Rough Seas

What keeps a ship from toppling over with strong winds and rough seas? The force of gravity pulling down and the force of buoyancy acting upward.

What is the force of gravity that keep the ship of state upright? Answer: the Rule of Law and Dynamic Balance among the Branches of Government: the Lesgislature, the Executive, and the Court.

What keeps a ship from sinking? The force of bouyancy pushes upward against the force of gravity. Bouyant forces of Democracy are citizens, civic groups, local and state houses of governance; churches, educatonal institutions, the freedom of the press, and collective political and social norms conducive to a democratic nation. The ship is safe as long as dynamic balance is maintained through checks and balances and a crew that agrees on basic rules and principals in the conduct of deliberation: personal ethics, collaboration and an ephemeral quality in current culture – character.

A Rising Wave of Dissonance

Eternal vigilance is the price of freedom. Let us never forget this.

A History of Rough Seas and Smooth Sailing

Consider then that our Ship of State is as steady in rougher waters as a dynamic balance between forces: our institutions of governance, the ballast, and the winds and rough seas our collective beliefs and actions in living out our creed.

Any student of American history can chart that course over the 248 years of our voyage. We have come close to toppling the ship of state during the Civil War, and at times when men of poor character or despotic nature rose briefly to Captain the ship. We course corrected and repaired our great vessel once more to sail together toward that perfect union.

Every adult American is responsible for this voyage, but some more than others. 2024 is proving to be another storm with dangerous forces threatening the Ship of State.

Our upcoming choice of captain and crew is an opportunity to come together to sustain the course as a free, democratic nation. Outside forces seek to overcome us. Autocratic winds blow around the globe seeking our demise.

This election will go down in history. Let’s make sure it doesn’t take the whole ship down with it.

Check out Defending Our Democracy Together.

National Constitution Center: https://constitutioncenter.org/news-debate/podcasts/can-the-constitution-serve-as-a-document-of-national-unity

Will Reason Prevail?

Lincoln is a figure that bulks very large in any thinking that we have about democracy, and especially in times that we live in now, times of anxiety, times of concern, fears of crisis. And at moments like this, we turn back to the figure of Abraham Lincoln, because there was a time of crisis in which he lived. And yet our democracy emerged victorious from that, in large measure because of his leadership and his wisdom. National Constitution Center, We the People podcast with historian Allen Guelzo

Readers of my blog will know that I frequently refer them to the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia for nonpartison perspectives and resources about our founders and founding documents. A key function of the NCC is inviting scholars from varying perspectives for a deep dive into critical issues of our body politic in which listerners and readers are referred back to key events and Americans that have kept us on the path of a living democracy. Our principle of consent by the governed is foundational to preserving democracy in our time.

In this discussion with Allen Guelzo, we return to Lincoln in the Civil War in which a nation based on laws and reason are his guiding stars.

Please share this post with friends or on social media. The discussion with Jeffrey Rosen and Allen Guelzo is relevant to our current political strife.

Common Sense: Revisited

Below is an excerpt from Thomas Paine’s Common Sense which moved British subjects in America to make the final break with the monarchy under which they had lived for centuries, but in the clarity of air on the North American continent, chose to break the tie and create a democracy that inspired the world. See The National Constitution Center, Founding Documents Library.

But there is another and greater distinction for which no truly natural or religious reason can be assigned, and that is the distinction of men into KINGS and SUBJECTS. Male and female are the distinctions of nature, good and bad the distinctions of Heaven; but how a race of men came into the world so exalted above the rest, and distinguished like some new species, is worth inquiring into, and whether they are the means of happiness or of misery to mankind.

As the 2024 march to the Presidential election advances, we are now in the midst of a movement toward kings and subjects if the MAGA Republicans win in 2024. Let the words of our founders – who had lived for generations under a system of monarchy – to ring in our ears and remind us of what is at stake in 2024!

“I Pray Heaven To Bestow The Best Of Blessings On This House And All that shall hereafter Inhabit it. May none but Honest and Wise Men ever rule under This Roof.”

The words are taken from a letter written to Abigail Adams from the President’s House by Adams in 1800.

Character Matters: Let’s Examine the Facts.

The 2020 Election was fair and square.
The former president and hundreds of citizens attempted to overthrow the peaceful transfer of power – an insurrection. Deaths and injury and denegration of the Capitol building were witnessed across the country and the world.
The current MAGA rep for President is morally flawed and unfit to lead America.
President Biden and his Administration have demonstrated a commitment to the welfare of citizens and passed major legislation for the betterment of families, small businesses, and working Americans. Biden is the first among recent Presidents to form and pass comprehensive funding to support a clean energy transition with major goals to combat climate change.
The American economy under the Biden Administration, is booming and by every measure has rebounded after the Pandemic along with American businesses and families. America has the strongest economy and job growth among countries across the world.
Biden’s character is rock solid and proven over decades of leadership in the U.S. federal government. His record stands.
The world is always a very tricky and challenging arena for foreign policy. Under the leadership of Biden and Anthony Blinken, Secretary of State, NATO is robust and added democratic nations after Russia attacked Ukraine.
Our support of Ukraine’s young democracy is vital to democracy across the world and our own democracy. We need to gain back the bravery and national cohesion that the Ukarinian citizens are showing every day of this war.
Finally, America has always been an ally of Israel.
Biden is both honest and wise. Age is little import given what we are up against. Our country is focused on age but would we be better off to invoke John Adam’s blessing that only honest and wise men (and women) inhabit the White House?

Third party candidates and sitting out on your vote will destroy our democracy.

Every vote for the Democratic ticket is needed now to prevent an autocracy and Christian Nationalist government from forning in our Republic. We must come together on that blue ticket as never before; many of you are lifetime Republicans, many of you are inflamed over the murder and injury to innocent Gazans (as we should be). Together we must get past this real threat from MAGA which is clearly and openly telling us they intend to destroy the democracy we have maintained together for nearly 250 years. They tell us openly they intend to install a Christian Nationalist government. Women are one of their targets. After losing the right to choose, families now face the real threat that contraceptives will be imperiled making family planning impossible. I still cannot believe this is happening in the America I know and love.

Think about what’s at stake. See what you can do.

Riding on this election?

Nothing less than our survival.

Aldo Leopold Shack and Restored Prairie. Photo by Susan Feathers

The rights of individuals as written in the U.S. Constitution and a system of secular governance and freedom of religion are the principles at the heart of the American Republic.

Our European ancestors and writers of the Constitution had all lived under the tyranny of kings and queens and the Church, often in cahoots with an authoritarian government.

The Constitution was written to free individuals from those bonds to determine their own lives within a system of laws and justice. Protestant or Catholic, Jew or Muslim, atheist or agnostic, Calvanist or Puritan, Amish or Mennonite, and so on… each with the freedom to pursue their religious lives. The Bill of Rights freed citizens to determine for themselves how to live their lives. As long as a citizen’s choices did not infringe on another’s, they were free to pursue ideas and courses of action to develop happiness and meaning. Actions, property, social norms were subject to laws that protect individuals’ freedoms.

This is what is unique about American governance: at its core is the belief that all persons are created equal.

At the heart of the MAGA Republican movement is the rejection of this principle. All men are not equal and, America should be a Christian country.

UNDERSTAND THAT THE INTENT OF THE MAGA REPUBLICANS IS TO END THE FORM OF GOVERNANCE ESTABLISHED IN THE CONSTITUTION.

What are the actions promised by the candidate they support:

End all restrictions on oil and gas development;
Slash and Burn the institutions of the Republic and replace them with an authoriarian governing system;
Further suppress women’s reproductive rights including birth control;
Rid the government of environmental and climate change experts, departments and regulations associated with them. We are free to kill ourselves, our families, fellow human, plant and animal lives on planet Earth.
Support authoritarian leaders and governments. Putin and Russia, Kim Jong Un and North Korea; Viktor Orbán and Hungary; Xi Jingping and China. All enemies of democracy.

ARE YOU PAYING ATTENTION? THIS IS NOT A NORMAL ELECTION. THIS IS ABOUT THE LOSS OF OUR DEMOCRACY AND OUR WAY OF LIFE!

Listen to historian Heather Cox Richardson and historian Jeffrey Rosen interviewed by Ken Burns. Richardson published Democracy Awakening and Jeff Rosen, The Pursuit of Happiness this year. They remind us what democracy is and how we always agreed about these principles among our political parties. We debated how those principles should be carried out and protected, generation after generation. This was the American Project. Now, one party intends to destroy these governing principle for an autocracy.

New Orleans Book Festival

Do Not Be Distracted

“I see a safe journey, I see a safe return.” ~ Kundun, 1997, about the 14th Dalai Lama. A Martin Scorsese film.

“Do not be distracted,” a Buddhist master says to the young Dalai Lama as he comes into the enlightenment. Well, friends and neighbors, I say this to the American public when discernment of the truth is critical among America’s voting public. We ARE the ones standing and acting at a dangerous turning point where how we vote, who we vote for will determine whether America holds together, as it was intended to be – a country of mutually crafted laws and norms, the rule of law and freedom to participate in governance and a free exchange of ideas.

Gnawing at the gates of Freedom are wolves, artful dodgers, hoodwinkers, and cowards. Don’t let them in!

“If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, its probably is a duck.”

National Consitution Center in Philadelphia is a treasure trove of discussions that can help us stay clear on what our Founders established and how we strive to perfect and interpret it through each generation of Americans. Check it out!

Left, Right and Center podcast.

Think for yourself.

Readers: what other sources of balanced, fact based sources do you recommend? Leave the link to them in the comment function. Thanks!

Independent Bookstores

Each independent bookstore is an important cog in democracies. Diverse voices, original works as they emerge, community engagement through book clubs and public programs, and a platform for emerging writers are all important aspects of locally owned, independent bookstores. I consider them the seat of what we once knew as town halls where people gathered to discusss our democracy.

Parnassus Books in Nashville was founded by two women, a beloved author, Ann Patchett, and Karen Hayes, a career professional in publishing and business partner, are good friends and savvy business women. Sign up for their weekly review of new titles and enjoy the kitchen/hearth warmth of women who love books. Join a book guild! Attend an author interview.

Birchbark Books in Minneapolis, founded by Louise Erdrich and partners, is a literary vortex for Indigenous writers and artists. Compared to William Faulker, Erdrich has published dozens of books and poetry that have received the National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize among others. She promotes emerging writers in fiction, poetry, and nonfiction works. Louise was raised by an Ojibwe mother and German father who nutured her writing with stories from these streams of cultural influence. I live by the release of each new work by Louise. She just announced the latest novel: The Mighty Red.

The Lynx, a bookstore founded by Lauren Groff and her husband in Gainesville, Florida, is purposed to protect diverse voices (banned books in Florida and the nation). They open tomorrow – April 28, 2024. Expect it to be a vulcrum for diverse voices and excellent books in all genres. Lauren’s books have received national recognition and numerous awards. She illustrates the essential role writers play in freedom of thought and deeper examination of the values that underly our personal and political lives. The Vaster Wilds is her most recent novel. I read both print and audio. I recommend you read it in that order. It contains a profound message to Western culture regarding our future on Earth.

What are your favorite independent bookstores? Please comment on this post and give readers a link if you can. Also, tell us what you like about the local independent bookstore and why you think they are important in our culture.

A Good Book — Books I read that informed Threshold.

Stand Together for Democracy

We must recognize the danger and come together as an electorate.

U.S. Capitol Building photo by Susan Feathers

The Nature of This Election

There is an important misunderstanding among many of us about the nature of this Presidential election. Normally, the debates bring to the voter’s attention the policies of their respective political party which form a Presidential platform of ideas and legislation for voters to consider and then vote.

Instead, the Far Right is proposing a new form of Govenment.

This so-called Republican party openly endorses Putin and Ormand as examples of leadership they admire. The Far Right plans to end democracy and replace it with an autocracy. HELLO?

In any other time, the American public would be appalled and alarmed. But today a large segment of the American voting public has become desensitized to violent rhetoric, racist comments, and threats to change our government. Fear is the undelying force among supporters of the Far Right, which is against many things but not for what most American’s want.

Our public is asleep and/or hoodwinked by manipulative leaders and media.

Our common reality is that we have a clear and present danger in Donald Trump and the so-called Republicans. THEY MUST NOT GET INTO OFFICE

It will take all of us who love democracy and wish our country to continue as it has been for nearly 250 years (under both Democrats and Republicans) to assure Donald Trump and an authoritarian, nationalist political movement will not destroy our Republic.

We will have to show heretofore devotion to democracy as our form of government by voting for a ticket you might not normally endorse.

However, if you look closely, with a non-partisan eye, it might not be too far from your own views and hopes for the future. President Biden’s policies are focused on the best interests of all voters with programs to strengthen the middle class worker. Our economy rebounded from the Pandemic under Biden’s leadership and is top in the world in growth and low inflation. Business is booming and job creation at record levels.

Biden’s administration has made major investments in familes, industry and small business, and in the safety of our population and the world through climate change investments in business, science, and health and wellbeing.

The next five months before the election we must gather together and determine that our country’s democratic way of life will be sustained by electing a leader who has proven to be a guardian of democracy.

Eligible voters must vote. Support candidates for democracy in other states. Volunteer with a legitimate party organization.
Volunteer at election precincts to assure fair voting.
Correct misinformation wherever you hear it or from anyone you know.
Anti-Trump Republicans and undecided or Independent voters must vote for the Democratic ticket eventhough you may favor Republican policies or other forms of democratic governance.
After the election, if we somehow make the curve and preserve democracy, a new party of conservative values, or whatever is determined as its policies will need to be formed to assure a well-functioning government where a healthy debate about policies can be reestablished.
We can then all work together to secure a future for our children and coming generations in an increasingly warming world.
We must keep working with the world community on climate mitigation, peace and justice, and the health of democracies across the planet. You can do this effectively as a Democrat, Republican or Independent when you live in a vibrant democracy. Recognize that the Far Right is masquerading as Republians but they are not; they are autocrats.

Here are some resources to consult:

National Constitution Center

Left, Right, and Center

Freedom Forum

League of Women Voters