The GOP Threat to Democracy

A democracy functions best when it supports a diverse range of ideas and independent actors within the political system. Our Founding Fathers certainly seemed to acknowledge that thought when they institutionalized the "free marketplace of ideas" through such principles as the separation of church and state and the system of checks and balances between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government.

Such a basic premise of our democratic system, however, is now under dire attack due to to the irresponsible behavior of prominent members of the Republican party and their fellow travelers in the conservative media.

In recent years, the forces on the Right have successfully sowed popular distrust of the media, the so-called "Fourth Estate" (after the three branches of government mentioned above). As a result, the popular press, now dismissed as a liberal shill by its critics, regularly practices self-censorship and avoids hard-hitting investigative journalism in favor of safer, sensationalist pap. How else to explain the recent coverage of the Terri Shiavo case, wherein the news so breathlessly reports on the private lives and personalities of the main actors, and yet has devoted so little space to an analysis of the long history of court cases and the legal issues involved? But the greater concern for us as Americans should be the fact that fewer and fewer people seem willing to even trust the news outlets to which they have regular, free access. If we no longer trust the commercial news media, then where will people turn for their information and opinions? Talk radio?!

Our public education system, too, has been much ridiculed of late. Schools from the high school level on down have generally been portrayed as "failed" experiments, eschewing basic education for multicultural cheerleading and self-esteem promotion; our colleges, meanwhile, are depicted as close-minded hotbeds of anti-American, liberal indoctrination.

Coupled with their insidious assault on the popular press and public education, the GOP has launched a third assault on the last true independent bastion of responsible dissent: the federal courts. Suddenly, and despite any empirical proof to support their sweeping contention, the media is flooded with shrill cries of a "runaway judiciary" and "activist judges subverting the will of the people!" There is even a move afoot in conservative circles to call on the Republican-controlled Congress to exercise its Constitutional authority and simply do away with the entire federal judiciary below the level of the Supreme Court; supporters claim that this is the only way to teach an "obstructionist" judiciary a well-deserved lesson. Our very own lunatic-on-the-Right Congressman Steve King supports stepping in aggressvely to impose limits (whatever these might be) on what he has arbitrarily branded a "supremist judicial deity."

[As an aside, I suspect not a few judges among the "supremist judicial deity" troubling the Republicans are themselves staunch conservatives nominated by Republican presidents in years past. Fortunately for them, Republicans like Steve King seem untroubled by their logical fallacies and inconsistencies of fact.]

Thinking people of the world unite! We must work harder to protect and promote those venues -- the popular press, the public schools, the courts, etc. -- wherein competing voices and viewpoints can still be heard. We must help people better understand that disagreement is a sign of a healthy democratic polity, not of a society allegedly spinning out of control. Above all, we need to point out that sincerity of belief is not necessarily the equal of carefulness of thought.

The recent, failed Right-wing witch-hunt against a Sioux City judge demonstrates that the tide has not yet turned completely against us. There is still time to do your part. If nothing else, take a lesson from Max Spain and Virginia Hood: get involved, be strong, and always make your convictions heard!

Peace!
Historian