You may be familiar with the Winston Churchill quote about democracy being the worst form of government except for all the others. But there’s another, often-overlooked, quote by Churchill about democracy, “The best argument against Democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”
In a class on governance or political practice I think you could easily win the argument that in theory, given all the possibilities, you’re better off living in a democracy, though you would have to address what two profoundly serious Greek gentlemen who were there at the inception, Plato and Aristotle had to say about democracy. However, in the real world in which we live, that theory of democracy, put into practice, can leave a whole lot to be desired.
The thing to remember is Jim Crow wasn’t about custom, culture, or habit. Jim Crow, with its Black Codes, was a function of law and public policy that reflected the consensus will of the American people, exercised through their elected representatives at the state and federal level.
Both quotes and the notion of the divergence of theory from practice came to mind as I checked in on the four-day fiasco that was the election for Speaker of the House and saw the replay of President Biden’s remarks at the January 6 Presidential Citizens Medal Ceremony commemorating the assault on the US Capital. Though I must admit my first thought, when I was looking at the Republicans, was how did they get that many clowns in one car.
I’ll start with President Biden’s remarks at the medal ceremony. Like all establishment American politicians he talks about democracy like it’s a thing, something that has a concrete physical existence, along with an effusive homage to the character, courage and steadfastness of the American people.
The rhetorical references about democracy rest on a fallacious assumption. Democracy is not a concrete thing. It’s a process, an amoral process at that. And like market capitalism, it has no inherent ability or predisposition to produce moral outcomes or a just society. His praise of the American character is sophistry.
How would or should the Indigenous People, enslaved Black Americans or their descendants, Asian or Eastern European immigrants, Japanese American citizens, opine on the moral character of the American people. In a democratic society the moral standards of the government are a direct reflection of the moral character, or lack thereof, of most people who voted for it. Case in point.
If you posed the question, what was the evilest government of the 20th century, the consensus winner would be Nazi Germany. Nazi Germany was a creature of democracy, Adolf Hitler was appointed Chancellor of the German Weimar Republic by Parliament in 1932, he became the most powerful man in Germany because the democratically elected parliament passed the Enabling Act in 1933, granting him the power to act without parliamentary consent and without constitutional limitations.
Nazi totalitarianism was a function of German democracy. That democratic will of the German people led to the genocide of 6 million of their fellow citizens and at least 27 million casualties, civilian and military, in the European Theater during World War II.
Let’s talk about Democracy in the United States. The United States of America was formed in 1789 as a federal constitutional republic with a democratically elected government, albeit without universal suffrage (a lot like Ancient Athens). The Constitution called for an elected President, with a bicameral legislature, the House of Representatives elected directly by the people, the Senate appointed by the directly elected state legislatures.
The powers of the newly formed government were defined by the Constitution that made We the People sovereign, not a king, not God, but the people. All US governments for the last 234 years are an extension of the people of the United States, and they act in their name and with their consent.
So, what has the democratic will of the American people historically meant if you happen to be Black within the jurisdiction of the United States. First it made the enslavement of Black people legal and constitutional. It made the escape from slavery a violation of the law and created a legal obligation for all white citizens to participate in your recapture, the Fugitive Slave Act.
The Supreme Court of this democratic republic ruled that your existence was not recognized by its constitution, and you had no rights that its government or citizens were required to honor. This was the democratic will of the people of the United States in the first half of the 19th century.
In the second half of the 19th century slavery was abolished, but from 1877 to1965 the United States democratically elected state and federal governments created a new racial order to replace slavery, Jim Crow- American apartheid. The thing to remember is Jim Crow wasn’t about custom, culture, or habit. Jim Crow, with its Black Codes, was a function of law and public policy that reflected the consensus will of the American people, exercised through their elected representatives at the state and federal level. And keep in mind that the American people continued to legitimize these governments and their policies every 2-4 years.
That was then, where are we now?
On January 6, 2021, 147 Republicans, including eight senators, voted against certifying the election of Joe Biden. All eight of those senators remain in office. Of the 139 Republican House members that voted against certifying Biden’s victory, 124 ran for re-election, and of those, 118 won. What that means is over half of the 222 members of the Republican Caucus of the 117th Congress voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election. The American Democracy (We the People) that Joe Biden is so effusive about not only re-elected the election-denying insurrectionist enablers but voted to give them control of the House of Representatives.
What you witnessed over the four-day travail that was Kevin McCarthy’s election to Speaker of House is what it looks like when the inmates take control of the asylum. The question you should be concerned with is not who are these people that got elected, but who are the people that elected them. You will always know when American political leaders are historically obtuse or just plain lying, whenever they say, “this is not who we are.”
