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Democracy Is Not An Abstract Notion But A Fundamental Pillar Of Our Society That We Must Protect [1]

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Date: 2024-06-14  

I will be forever grateful to David Axelrod, who was one of the architects of the Obama campaign and helped propel him to become the first black President of the United States. Growing up as a young black child in the 1960s, the notion that I would see a black man as President of the most powerful country in the world was as far-fetched as seeing a black Miss America. Thanks to Vanessa L. Williams in 1984 and Barack H. Obama in 2008, improbabilities became a reality. Mr. Axelrod has been a stalwart voice in the Democratic party, and few question his political instincts and savvy. You know what is coming—BUT.

Unlike what Republicans would have you believe, former President Obama was not a flaming liberal set to begin a revolution and change America. He governed as a centrist, and if anything, his populist views were more an issue for liberals than for conservatives. His reputation as “deporter-in-chief” and reluctance to push for accountability for banks too big to fail were gaping holes in his liberal resume. Yet his generational legislation to improve health care, saving the economy from rack and ruin (and therefore the world), has cemented his legacy as one of the great American presidents. Now for the—BUT.

Mr. Axelrod has found it necessary to be the voice of reason when rampant unreasonableness in politics is killing the idea of America. To my chagrin, I heard him tell Manu Raju of CNN on Wednesday that the notion of [saving]democracy was too abstract for families to process. Sacrificing democracy for feelings is a dangerous proposition. I recently saw a brilliant political cartoon published in the Daily Freeman depicting a woman talking to her daughter dressed in a red oppression habit, similar to the TV show The Handmaid’s Tale. The little girl looks up quizzically at her Mom and asks, “ But why didn’t you vote against them, Mom? ‘Why didn’t you try to stop them from taking it all away?”’ From beneath the darkened shadow of her bonnet, she answers, “Well, back then, gas prices were quite high, honey.”

The commentary shook me because the threats from the GOP and their minions extend beyond the right to a woman’s autonomy over her health decisions. The GOP has suggested interference in gender-affirming care for children, overriding the input of parents—the termination of rights to contraception and marrying the adult of your choice. Civil service jobs may be threatened without swearing the proper loyalty to the President and not the country. One Supreme Court Justice is questioning Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, which would return us to a time of separate but equal. Voting rights, freedom of and from religion, and rights to travel freely (in the cases of women and families seeking an abortion) should be worth saving, no matter the cost. Saving a few extra bucks for a gallon of gas or a few more pennies for a dozen eggs is not worth the risk of a repressive autocracy.

Vote Against Guns

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