American democracy is facing an unprecedented challenge.
The rising threat of political violence, disinformation campaigns designed to undermine trust in government and politicians openly refusing to accept verified election results are all symptoms of an existential crisis in our democracy.
How we respond to this crisis will determine whether our democracy endures.
Voting is one of the most important ways to push back against efforts to subvert the will of the people. Extremists work to erode trust in elections to suppress turnout. We have to work harder to encourage voting, to ensure unfettered access to the ballot and to protect the integrity of votes cast.
Lawmakers should strengthen federal and state laws to prohibit interference with voting and tampering with election equipment. They should also take steps to protect election workers from harm while providing adequate funding for modernizing and securing election infrastructure. Those are the basics of ensuring the free and fair elections that are the heart of a functional democracy.
But voting is not enough. Every one of us who believes in the American experiment should use our voices to defend and protect it. Political violence and undermining elections shouldn’t be normalized. We must be vigilant in recognizing these threats and calling them out. We must confront the dishonest and divisive rhetoric that tears at our societal fabric. Let’s stand up and stand together to ensure that our democracy remains strong.
Ellen S. Alberding, president, The Joyce Foundation.
Is American democracy in crisis? Sadly, the answer is a resounding yes. Two of the most salient reasons for this are the attacks on voting rights and the unequal application of the law.
For me, universal suffrage is the very lifeblood of democracy. Every American citizen should have the right to vote their conscience, free from attempts to thwart, disrupt or destroy this constitutional right. An electorate that is weighted and biased in favor of a particular voting bloc is not conducive to a healthy democracy. Unfortunately, like the enemies of Reconstruction, today’s Republican strategists are seeking to obstruct the right to vote by any means necessary.
The enemies of universal suffrage aren’t afraid to use violence to intimidate voters because they feel the nation’s leaders are either on their side or too cowardly to bring them to justice. They are, consequently, emboldened to direct their ire not only on potential voters but toward other groups they have an animus against. Like their revered leader, Donald Trump, they feel they are above the law. They, like him, are benefactors of the unequal application of the law.
Samuel C Small, Roseland
In a democracy, a man living on Lower Wacker Drive must be given the same weight as the mayor, the police chief and Apple’s CEO. And we should wish the same for other countries.
Our crisis seems to arise from our fear of people who don’t think as we do and who are persuaded by lies. We have excellent historians who could broadcast compulsory American history classes in all elementary and high schools. The other Chicago newspaper says pickleball is the answer. The New York Times thinks kids should be in debate classes. Let’s try everything we can to fix the problem.
Peggy Fasano, Glenview
A few months ago, I wrote an essay in the Sun-Times urging mandatory voting, non-partisan elections and national service as a three-prong strategy to revitalize democracy.
I wrote the essay because some people in America have lost sight of why democracy matters. They have made us less safe, less free and less democratic by spreading hatred and lies in order to hold on to power.
They insist America will be “great again” if we ban books like Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and To Kill a Mockingbird and topics like slavery and the slaughter of Native Americans. They tell us we will be safer if we all carry a gun. They insist the 2020 presidential election was stolen. They want to make it harder for people who disagree with them to vote. And they are denying reproductive freedom to women.
Democracy gives us the tools to fight back and demand our freedoms, by voting and by speaking out on public platforms, at public gatherings and through a free press. It includes the right to read and learn about once-forbidden topics like sexual orientation. It includes legal protections against a criminal justice system that too often lacks fairness.
We can’t take democracy for granted. We can’t squander it. We have to nurture it, strengthen it and renew it for every new generation of Americans. The children are watching. Don’t let them down.
Arne Duncan, former U.S. secretary of education, founder of Chicago CRED
I am a first-generation American, born to immigrant parents who are Holocaust survivors. They instilled in me from an early age the wondrous anomaly of a representative democracy. Democracy is always in a fragile state of flux, striving to become the ideal it ascribes to in the preamble to the Constitution.
Stephen Melamed
Democracy is more than merely everyone being involved. It includes the belief that everyone should be involved. It is the acceptance that the other person has the right to a point of view and each person must accept the situation when they are out-voted. It is understanding the dangers of single-mindedness and blindly following any leader. It is not perfect because the majority can be wrong. But it is still the best system available.
Laurence Siegel, Manteno
The theme of a sermon I heard years ago focused on how “the ends never justify the means.” Many Americans’ acceptance of the opposite is what has put democracy at risk. Whether that is voting for a flawed candidate merely to keep the opposition from winning, lawmakers ignoring issues to avoid strengthening the other side or undermining elections to overturn the count, our government becomes less representative of what’s best for our nation as a result.
Our country would be much stronger if the best candidates and policies won out, which in a democracy is decided by the number of supporters. Undermining your opponent is putting the ends ahead of the means and only leads to more strife and worse governance.
Jonathan Berman, Elmhurst
At this pivotal moment in the journey of our nation, it is wise and necessary to ask whether our democracy is in genuine peril. Sadly, I believe the answer may be yes, but the outcome will be determined by each and every one of us.
Throughout most of my 75 years, I have been an active participant in the democratic process, including the privilege of serving two U.S. presidents and first ladies. Certainly, that process included rough and tumble campaigns, with strong feelings and tough words.
But once the campaigns were over, there was generally a bipartisan effort to find some measure of common ground, at least on vital domestic issues as well as our interests abroad.
Now, however, there seems to be only misinformation and disinformation; frustration, grievance and hostility; and demonization instead of compromise.
Yes, there are many sincere efforts out there to build bridges by bringing people together for civil discourse. That’s important but not nearly enough, because as we’re seeing, public trust in government, institutions, the political process, and even science and education has eroded to a frightening level.
So, how do we prevent a collapse of our democracy?
First, more politicians from across the divide need to stand tall and begin to demonstrate real leadership, including openness, collaboration and civility.
Second, there must be more emphasis on grassroots strategies that bring people together for a common cause.
But, most importantly, all of us fortunate enough to be living in this great nation need to understand the fate of our great democracy rests completely in our hands — and can only be taken away from us if we allow it to happen.
Rick Jasculca, Chicago
To me, democracy means that all citizens are valued and elected officials represent all their constituents, not just those who voted for them. Governing means leading, not bullying, despite differing opinions.
Elected officials should be worthy of our respect. If they’re not, they shouldn’t expect to have the privilege of representing us. It means acknowledging there is such a thing as a public good and that sacrificing our individuality to some extent is necessary. It means knowing you will not get everything you want and your needs are equal, not superior, to others’ needs. The Golden Rule applies.
We must understand freedom is a responsibility that has to be preserved. If one of us is not free, then all our freedom is in danger. No regime lasts forever, and if you are in power now, you’ll be out of power soon enough, on the receiving end of whatever restrictions and hardships you imposed on others.
Americans have always assumed that our government is strong, but in fact it is fragile and requires that we all abide by norms that demonstrate respect for each other. Our government is easy to destroy and difficult to build. We should right the ship before it’s too late.
JoAnn Brown
More letters can be found online at https://chicago.suntimes.com/letters-to-the-editor
I fear that to most Americans, the word democracy simply means majority rule. By that definition, democracy is indeed in crisis, as it has been since the time that our slave-owning, misogynistic founding fathers wrote the Declaration of Independence.
In 1835, French political scientist Alexis de Tocqueville wrote the American democracy he observed was most threatened by the “tyranny of the majority.” De Tocqueville believed the most important component of that threat to democracy was the lack of “equality” in America, including equality of educational opportunity, as then experienced by Native Americans, African Americans and women.
De Tocqueville also believed the next greatest threat to our democracy was the preoccupation of Americans with material goods. What has changed in the past 200 years? Public education on the West and South sides is of low quality, and the youth deprived of that most basic component of a true democracy are killing each other over Air Jordans.
Meanwhile, those youth lucky enough to have been born on the other side of America’s apartheid wall want for none of the material goods offered up incessantly by Apple and Amazon.
The seeds of the tyranny De Tocqueville identified are still omnipresent in American “democracy,” given that our legislatures, executives, police, juries and judges are not a protection from the tyranny of the majority but rather products of that same uninformed majority.
James L. Bowers, Austin
We need our voices heard and reflected in our representatives’ actions. Given the state of technology, we should have a vetted, transparent way for voters to voice their individual opinions on all upcoming legislation. Elected officials should then vote on legislation in a manner reflected directly by their constituents.
Clifton McReynolds, Evanston
Yes, I consider our democracy to be threatened due to all the awful polarization going on. I respect other peoples opinions that are different than mine. That is what I think is missing. Yes, I live in a blue state surrounded by red states. Why can’t we mix the two and be united in purple? I wish I could buy all the Republicans a beer and listen to their ideas thoughtfully. Maybe they might listen to mine with the same thoughtfulness.
Laura Zorn
I grew up believing American democracy was the best. Oh, I knew that it wasn’t technically a democracy but a republic. I thought the Electoral College would be eliminated before the loser of the popular vote would be named president. I thought most people wanted to perfect our constitutional system.
Our melting pot was fired by antipathy to minorities, so I thought more protections of minorities were needed. There has been halting progress, but I never imagined our democracy would be most threatened by minority control over the majority.
The groundwork for federal minority rule was laid in the 18th century in the compromises required for the slave states to ratify the Constitution: two senators per state regardless of population; Senate approval of presidential cabinet and judicial (including Supreme Court) nominations; state legislative control of congressional districts; requirement that two-thirds of the House and Senate and three-fourths of the states approve and ratify a constitutional amendment; and use of the Electoral College, which favors small states. The small states can’t be expected to yield their power.
The most surprising threat to majority rule takes us back to the Electoral College. Popular votes matter little. The presidential election depends on just a few battleground states. Zillions of corporate and special interest dollars are spent to sway a few votes and determine the president.
Bob Jenkins, Evanston
