A folk music guide to democracy
My mom often told this story about my dad. “We were riding around Davenport one Saturday morning soon after we were married and we saw a sign that read ‘Garage Sale.’ Dad turned to me and said, ‘why would anyone want to sell a garage?’ She always followed this up by saying “he was serious and not joking.” My no-nonsense, engineer dad had an unaffected, direct style. This naivety stuck around until he died at 71.
I got my dad’s naivety-gene. For example, I love the simple, direct and idealistic style of folk music. After I arrive in the next world, maybe the groups and artists listed in this flier will do a reunion concert. But folk truths are rarely good guides to understanding politics. Consider the wonderful folk song in the blog and flier title: There’s a meeting here tonight. This song is not about democracy but to my idealist self it captures what should be the essence of democracy. The people meet and decide the rules they will live under.
In What does it mean to love my country, I wrote that democracy is built upon a belief in the equal value of each human being. Authoritarian governments value leaders more than their citizens. Everything is viewed from the top down. Democracies are the opposite. Everything starts with the people. But how do 330 million Americans govern themselves?
GOVERNMENT BY THE PEOPLE
“That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.” This was Abraham Lincoln’s answer to how people govern, from the Gettysburg Address. It gets the essence of democracy right, everything starts with the people. But if I take it to be be the final word on democracy, it sets me up to be disappointed because how, really, can millions of people govern?
Imagine a town meeting of 330 million Americans. Or the 209 million adults. Or the 158 million that voted last November. Give each person five minutes to speak. You see the problem. Modern democracies have too many people for Lincoln’s moral definition to be a practical guide to how the people might might rule. I want the people to decide but they can’t, without help.
GOVERNMENT BY THE CONSENT OF THE PEOPLE
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” These words form the second paragraph of America’s Declaration of Independence. The people rule through giving their formal consent to a smaller group who then make the rules for our common life.
Modern democracies have worked out a variety of tools their citizens use to govern. Limited term elections for representatives is one such tool. When you and I vote, we give our consent, knowing we will have another vote on another day.
THE JANUARY 6 ATTACK AGAINST AMERICAN DEMOCRACY
America’s democracy includes a moral core, the dignity of each person, and a practical guide, the consent of the governed. The mob that stormed America’s Capital Building attacked both elements of American democracy. With the confederate flag and other white nationalist symbols, it attacked the moral foundation of the equal dignity of each person. With its violence against America’s Consent of the Governed Building and the people inside, and with its refusal to accept the election and the peaceful transfer of power, it attacked America’s system of representation.
THERE’S A MEETING HERE TONIGHT
“There’s a meetin’ here tonight, great God; I’m glad you came along; hope all the brothers and sisters here; will help me sing this song.” I need the idealistic vision of folk music and Lincoln’s demand that democracy be “of, by, and for the people.” The WE in “We the people” can’t literally meet here tonight. But we can imagine welcoming all and asking all to join in the practical realities of governing this great nation.
That’s what unity means to me.
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*I got the idea for this blog from a terrific little book, Two hundred Million Americans in search of a Government, by the late political scientist E.E. Schattschneider.
