The greatest speech, The Gettysburg Address, by America’s greatest president, Abraham Lincoln, begins with the words

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Lincoln speaks these words in 1863 when America’s Civil War has turned favorably to the North. “Four score and seven years” ago points to the Declaration of Independence (1776) and its words about equality and not the Constitution (1789) and its acceptance of slavery, as America’s key founding document.

It is Lincoln’s way of saying the “We” in the first words of America’s Constitution, “We the people”, is to be expanded to include former slaves. One way to see the history of American politics is to see it as a continuous struggle over the question “who are we?” Today, more groups than ever are part of this struggle to determine the identity of the country.

That’s one major reason for the intensity of America’s current polarization and was on my mind as I walked yesterday through Timisoara’s Piata Victoriei or Victory Square. The Romanian Revolution of 1989 (one.five score one year ago) began in Timisoara and in Victoriei Square on December 20, 1989 Timisoara was proclaimed the first independent city in Romania. Below is what will become Piata Victoriei that day.

Victory Square looks like this today.

The Wikipedia entry on the Romanian Revolution is very good and thorough. Read that entry and then give a look at a nine minute video clip of the last European Communist leader to leave office, Nicolae Ceausescu. General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party Ceausescu is giving what we know is his last speech on December 21, 1989, from the balcony of the Communist Party Headquarters in Bucharest. Below is a comment by one of the clip’s viewers.

This moment right here has fascinated me for years! We all hear and read about how the different regimes of the era came to an end but to see it play out before your eyes is chilling!! This guy was literally “the man” for 24 years and within a matter of seconds it’s all over! To see the look of fear and confusion on his face when he realizes his gig is up is so haunting! It’s just so unique and amazing to watch this unfold right before our eyes and his! Definitely one of the most interesting parts of history during that time!

Every time I see this video clip I respond in the same way as this reviewer. Ceausescu had cut short a visit to Iran when the revolution started in Timisoara several days earlier and spread quickly across the county. Ironically, it started in Timisoara over the regime’s treatment of a Hungarian priest who had criticized the government and was being evicted from his house. Not only was Ceausescu confused as he looks out over Bucharest’ own Victory Square, he tries to buy-off the people, offering increases in wages, pensions and children’s allowances. He is standing on the balcony with his wife Elena who is Deputy Prime Minister, and other Communist Party functionaries and all are trying to quiet the crowd, to no avail.

Romania is now 30 years or one generation into its development as a modern democracy. On this Fulbright adventure, I am tasked with helping Romanians understand the development of America’s own modern democracy. Below are the students in my two classes at West University in Timisoara. All are working toward MA’s in American Studies. Most of them work at least part time and are taking six courses per term. In Romania the undergraduate degree is done in three years. The MA program will take two more.

I asked the students why they were interested in the American Studies program. One young woman gave a very interesting answer that relates in a way to both America and Romania. She said America offers us an opportunity to learn the good and the bad, of what works and what does not. What an intelligent answer! These students do not want a sanitized version of America.

In 1989 democracy and capitalism won the day over communism and socialism, in Romania and elsewhere in Eastern Europe. However, neither politics nor economics is working very well for too many in America and I suspect in Romania as well.

I think a close and honest look at American democracy or really any democracy can suggest that once the “we” includes all equally, governing gets harder and not easier. There is no end point to democracy, no finish line. When functioning well enough, it allows communities of people, even very large communities like America and Romania, to live together peacefully, with their differences protected and intact.

1776 in America and 1989 in Romania were the starting points and not the end points. Neither was easy, both were bloody. America’s longer history at democracy ought to suggest humility and not arrogance. This is what we have learned. Perhaps you can learn something from our struggles and apply it to the specific circumstances of your country. Perhaps we can learn from you.

Humility is not possible for the Ceausescu’s of the world. It contradicts the logic of the systems in which they operate. Democracy, on the other hand, as my favorite American political scientist E.E. Schattschneider said, is for those who are not sure they are right.