“We observe today not a victory of party but a celebration of freedom—symbolizing an end as well as a beginning—signifying renewal as well as change… Let the word go forth from this time and place to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans.”
— John F. Kennedy, January 20, 1961, Inauguration Day, Washington, D.C.
This past year we have lost several pioneers for Democracy. For example, Harry M. Reid, the Democrat who made the journey from poverty in rural Nevada to the steps of the Capitol in Washington, passed away last Tuesday at the age of 82. He steered the Affordable Care Act to the passage as Senate majority leader during the Obama administration.
Elijah E. Cummings, the Democratic congressman from Maryland passed away on October 17, 2021. He gained notoriety for his principled stands on everything from voting rights to abortion rights, as well as his outspoken opposition to the authoritarian presidency of Donald Trump.
John Lewis also passed last year. One of the “Big Six” leaders of the civil rights movement, he continued to fight for equal rights since first elected to Congress in 1987. Other Democratic leaders such as Senators Adlai Stevenson and Walter Mondale passed in recent months as well. I do not want to leave out long-time Republican leaders such as John McCain and Bob Dole. These two men were notable in their bipartisan work with Democrats and Republicans alike, and I do miss their dedication to preserving our Democracy.
And let’s not forget Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, legendary firebrand for gender equality and justice. Her fighting spirit and voice of reason on the bench are sorely missed these days.
How will we as Americans honor the legacy of these individuals and their life-long commitment to serve our citizenry?
Democracy in the US is at a fragile turning point. The Republican Party has embraced an attack on voting rights and has crafted an agenda that tips the scales in their favor. Their agenda has nothing to do with Democracy. Last summer the GOP closed ranks and blocked an inquiry into the January 6 attack on the Capitol. It has embraced the “Big Lie,” and shrugs off the fact that 59 GOP members signed their names to forged elector certification documents declaring the “former guy” the winner in 2020.
We have witnessed the erosion of Democracy in several other countries around the globe. It typically starts with one party stacking the deck in its favor. However, this doesn’t happen overnight, it occurs over several years: A slow erosion of human rights. The shift is often so subtle, so insidious that the populous doesn’t notice that their freedoms are eroding until it’s too late. We’ve seen it in Turkey, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Brazil, and Venezuela.
As Americans, we need to understand what’s happening, and we need to throw off the veil of denial and realize the gravity of the situation in which we have found ourselves. We are suffering from the same malady that has brought democracy to its knees in other parts of the world. The GOP has become a hydra, a party that has decided it is no longer concerned with Democracy and makes its own rules. Never before have Republicans and Democrats been so divided: Bi-partisanship is a thing of the past. Right-wing propaganda, the spread of conspiracy theories, and hate speech have insinuated themselves into the mainstream GOP, which has morphed into a party that would prefer authoritarian rule rather than share power with the dreaded Democrats.
We have seen this vehement shift in the blocking of Merrick Garland as a Supreme Court Judge during Obama’s tenure, where Senate majority leader at the time Mitch McConnell stated that appointing a Supreme Court Judge in an election year was impossible. Yet, the rules changed under Trump with the swift appointment of an underqualified, conservative candidate right before the election of 2020.
The Republican Party has begun chipping away at Democracy for years, using the cracks in our political system to dig in. They already have skewed structural advantages in the form of the Electoral College. The Electoral College has created battleground states, like Pennsylvania, which are much redder than the rest of the nation. The Senate is also so biased against urban states that under half of Americans control 82% of Senate seats. This combination of anti-urban bias and gerrymandering means that the GOP has had an advantage in House elections since 1968.
So how do we carry on the work of such icons as John Lewis, RBG, and Elijah Cummings? How are we to carry the torch when the deck is stacked against us?
One word: Resistance
History has shown us that unarmed civilians using strikes, petitions, boycotts, and other nonviolent methods have successfully slowed and even halted the emergence of authoritarianism. Civil resistance in the spirit of Gandhi and MLK is twice as effective as armed struggle.
In the words of John Lewis, “Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime. Never, ever be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble, necessary trouble.”
This is how we honor their legacies and carry the torch.