In a particularly telling tweet after the U.S. vice presidential debate on Wednesday, Republican Sen. Mike Lee wrote: “Democracy isn’t the objective; liberty, peace, and prospefity are.” (He meant prosperity.) Democracy should be the principle that ties the United States together, but as we see more and more evidence that elected officials at the highest levels are not interested in defending it, maybe it is time for Americans to remind themselves why they chose democracy—and why they should keep fighting for it.
Democracy has become so obligatory that Americans may have forgotten why it’s good. In the public discourse, the word practically comes with triumphant chords and maybe an echo effect, much like freedom! But the concept has been diluted with casual assumptions of unquestioned good to the point of largely losing its meaning.
