For Democracy to work requires humility

by Rubashov

For Democracy to work requires humility. 
 
But we are not humble.  We are exceptional.  So exceptional that we can legislate away chromosomes, change someone’s sex with a piece of paper.  Just because we say it is so.  This is not humility.  It is playing God. 
 
And so it follows that we cannot accept the mere outcome of an election.  Why would that surprise anyone?
 
To understand how we got here requires more than what it is generally on offer this morning.  You need to go back and read the warnings. 
 
American authors as diverse as George Packer of the New Yorker (The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America) to Charles Murray (Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010) to Chris Hedges (Days of Destruction Days of Revolt and America: The Farewell Tour) have predicted where we are today. 
 
If there is one book to read, we suggest Michael Lind’s newest (2020) book:  The New Class War: Saving Democracy from the Managerial Elite.  Lind is a professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas in Austin.  Lind argues that “Western democracies must incorporate working-class majorities of all races, ethnicities, and creeds into decision-making in politics, the economy, and culture.  Only this class compromise can avert a never-ending cycle of clashes between oligarchs and populists, and save democracy.”
 

In his book, White-Collar Government: The Hidden Role of Class in Economic Policy Making, Duke University's Nick Carnes points out that while upwards of 65 percent of citizens are "working class" and 54 percent are employed in a blue-collar occupation, just 2 percent of the members of Congress and 3 percent of state legislators held blue-collar jobs at the time of their election. Professor Carnes makes a strong argument for class diversity.

Tucker Carlson provided this thoughtful monologue on yesterday’s events…

But the video you must watch is this pointed warning from Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Chris Hedges. Chris is a New Jersey native and active man-of-the-Left. He was recently ordained as a minister in the Presbyterian Church.

This video was made in 2018. We often disagree with Chris Hedges, but his analysis is always worth considering. He sees more clearly than most.

“We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men. If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. In times of universal deceit, telling the truth will be a revolutionary act.”

George Orwell

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