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According to a new poll commissioned by former President George W. Bush and former Vice President Joe Biden, 50% of Americans believe America is in “real danger of becoming a nondemocratic, authoritarian country” and 8 out of 10 Americans either is “very concerned” or “somewhat concerned” about the condition of U.S. democracy, meaning majority of the Americans believe that our democracy is in decline. In the video below, Donny Deutsch, Chairman and Former CEO of Deutsch Inc., points out why American people should be paying attention and stand up to what is to come. In the name of national security, the current president may make any decision he wants, regardless what the founding principles of America, regardless the check and balance system, regardless the importance of free press. Deutsch is saddened but not surprised by the poll result. Former FBI Assistant Director For Counterintelligence Frank Figliuzzi is also very concerned with President Trump’s assertion that “we may not need judges in courts to handle the disposition of cases at the border.” and the fact that Sarah Huckabee Sanders was saying that “there is different kinds of due process and you don’t need to necessarily go through the court system for due process” from her podium. This reflects that we’re on the slippery slope being away from our democracy such that some people are not getting to the court system. America is a nation of laws and it is all about the court system where objective hearings take place. The Time magazine columnist Elise Jordan commented that Trump has been given sufficient chance and now is realizing people’s worst fears:  sliding toward authoritarianism, rampant corruptions, nepotism with his own family, and Russian investigation swirling.

Finally, comments from Former Vice President Joe Biden, in italics, “European leaders reeling from Trump’s hostile behavior….there’s overwhelming anxiety and it’s been punctuated with very specific concerns. That has a profound impact on what our European friends think he thinks about them….The consequence is disastrous for our national security and economic interests.”

Former Republican Strategist Steve Schmidt also believes that (in italics), “This is a time in history when liberal democracy around the world is rolling back. In Hungary and Poland, there is the  rise of far right  Ethno-Nationalist Parties in Germany, in Austria. He also commented that fascism did not rise in the 30’s because it was strong.  It rose because democracy was weak. Vladimir Putin‘s greatest  strategic aim is to break up the western alliance and to cause a crisis of faith in democracy. The lubricant of a democratic society are: trust, faith, and belief.  Every day, Donald Trump attacks trust, faith, and belief in our institution with his assaults on rule of law. What creates a democratic society is rule of law where minorities are protected from the majority. When Donald Trump is attacking freedom of the press, the First Amendment, institution of fairness, and judicial system. This is cause to worry….”

So, allow me to share some thoughts and speeches by two former U.S. Presidents, below:

Former President George W. Bush‘s ardent speech on democracy, in italics, below: “In recent decades, public confidence in our institutions has declined. Our governing class has often been paralyzed in the face of obvious and pressing needs. The American dream of upward mobility seems out of reach for some who feel left behind in a changing economy. Discontent deepened and sharpened partisan conflicts. Bigotry seems emboldened. Our politics seems more vulnerable to conspiracy theories and outright fabrication. We’ve seen nationalism distorted into nativism, forgetting the dynamism that immigration has always brought to America. We see a fading confidence in the value of free markets and international trade, forgetting that conflicts, instability, and poverty follow in the wake of protectionism. We’ve seen the return of isolationism sentiments, forgetting that American security is directly threatened by the chaos and despair of distant places where threats such as terrorism, infectious disease, criminal gangs, and drug trafficking tend to emerge. In all these ways we  need to recall and recover our own identity.  Our identity as a nation, unlike many other nations, is not determined by geography or ethnicity, by soil or blood. Being an American involves embracing high ideals and civic responsibility. We become the heirs of Thomas Jefferson by accepting the ideal of human dignity found in the Declaration of Independence. We become the heirs of James Madison by understanding the genius and values of the U.S. Constitution. We become the heirs of Martin Luther King Jr. by recognizing one another not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. This means that people of every race, religion, ethnicity can be fully and equally American. It means that bigotry or white supremacy in any form is blasphemy against the American creed.”

In Former President Barack Obama‘s farewell address, he stated that, in italics, below:

“It’s good to be home.  My fellow Americans, Michelle and I have been so touched by all the well-wishes we’ve received over the past few weeks.  But tonight it’s my turn to say thanks.  Whether we’ve seen eye-to-eye or rarely agreed at all, my conversations with you, the American people – in living rooms and schools; at farms and on factory floors; at diners and on distant outposts – are what have kept me honest, kept me inspired, and kept me going.  Every day, I learned from you.  You made me a better president, and you made me a better man. I first came to Chicago when I was in my early 20’s, still trying to figure out who I was; still searching for a purpose to my life.  It was in neighborhoods not far from here where I began working with church groups in the shadows of closed steel mills.  It was on these streets where I witnessed the power of faith, and the quiet dignity of working people in the face of struggle and loss.  This is where I learned that change only happens when ordinary people get involved, get engaged, and come together to demand it.

After eight years as your President, I still believe that. And it’s not just my belief. It’s the beating heart of our American idea, our bold experiment in self-government. It’s the conviction that we are all created equal, endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable rights, among them, life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. It’s the insistence that these rights, while self-evident, have never been self-executed. That we, the people, through the instrument of our democracy, can form a more perfect union. What a radical idea! The great gift, that our founders gave to us. The freedom to chase our individual dreams through our  sweat and toil and imagination and the imperative to strive together as well, to achieve a common greater good. For two hundred forty years, our nation calls to citizenship, has given work and purpose to each new generation.  It’s what led patriots to organize. choose republic over tyranny, pioneers to track West, slaves to brave that makeshift railroad to freedom. It’s what pulled immigrants and refugees across oceans and the Rio Grande. It’s what pushed women to reach for the ballot. It’s what powered workers to organize. It’s why GI’s gave their lives on Omaha Beach and Iwo Jima., Iraq and Afghanistan. And why men and women from Selma to Stonewall  were prepared to give theirs as well. So, that’s what we mean when we say America is exceptional. Not that our nation has been flawless from the start, but that we have shown the capacity to change and make lives better for those who follow. Yes, our progress has been uneven.  The work of democracy has always been hard. It’s always been contentious. Sometimes it’s been bloody. For every two steps forward, it often feels we’ve taken one step back.But the long sweep of America has been defined by forward motion, a constant widening of our founding creed to embrace all, and not just some. If I told you eight years ago that America would reverse a great recession, reboot our auto industry,  and unleash the longest stretch of job creations in our history, if I had told you we would open up a new chapter with Cuban people, shut down Iran’s nuclear weapons program without firing a shot, take out the master mind of 9/11…if I had told you that we would win the marriage equality and secure the right to health insurance for another twenty millions of our fellow citizens. If I told you all of that, you might have said that our sights were set a little too high. But that’s what we did. That’s what you did. You were the change. You answered people’s hopes. And because of you, by almost every measure, America is a better, stronger place than it was when we started. In ten days, the world will witness the hallmark of our democracy, the peaceful transfer of power from one freely elected president to the next. I’m committed to President-Elect Trump that my administration would ensure the smoothest possible transition, just as President Bush did for me.  Because it is up to all of us to make sure that our government can help us to meet the many challenges that we still face. We have what we need to do so. We have everything we need to meet those challenges. After all,  we remain the wealthiest, most powerful, and most respected nation on earth. Our youth, our drive, our diversity, our openness, our boundless capacity for risk and reinventions means that the future should be ours. But that potential will only be realized if our democracy works. Only if our politics better reflects the decency of our people. Only if all of us, regardless of party affiliation or particular interests help restore the sense of common purpose that we so badly need right now. That’s what I want to focus on tonight, the state of our democracy. Understand that democracy does not require uniformity. Our Founders, they argued and quarreled. Eventually they compromised. They expected us to do the same. But they knew that democracy does require a basic sense of solidarity. The idea that for all of our outward differences, we’re all in this together. We will rise and fall as one.  There had been moments throughout our history that threatened that solidarity. In the beginning of this century has been one of those times, a shrinking world, growing inequality, demographic change, and specter of terrorists.  These forces hasn’t just tested our security and prosperity, but are testing our democracy as well.  And how we meet these challenges toward our democracy will determine our ability to educate our kids and  create good jobs and protect our homeland. In other words, it will determine our future. To begin with, our democracy won’t work without a sense that every one has  economic opportunity. And the good news is: today the economy is growing again. Wages, incomes, home values, and retirement accounts are all rising again.  Poverty is falling again. The wealthy are paying their fairer share of taxes even as the stock market shatters records.  The unemployment rate is near a 10-year low.  The uninsured rate has never, ever been lower.  Healthcare costs are rising at the slowest rate in 50 years.  And if anyone can put together a plan that is demonstrably better than the improvements we’ve made to our healthcare system – that covers as many people at less cost – I will publicly support it. That, after all, is why we serve – to make people’s lives better, not worse. But for all the real progress we’ve made, we know it’s not enough.  Our economy doesn’t work as well or grow as fast when a few prosper at the expense of a growing middle class.  But stark inequality is also corrosive to our democratic principles.  While the top 1% has amassed a bigger share of wealth and income, too many families, in inner cities and rural counties, have been left behind – the laid-off factory worker; the waitress and healthcare worker who struggle to pay the bills – convinced that the game is fixed against them, that their government only serves the interests of the powerful – a recipe for more cynicism and polarization in our politics. There are no quick fixes to this long-term trend.  I agree that our trade should be fair and not just free.  But the next wave of economic dislocation won’t come from overseas.  It will come from the relentless pace of automation that makes many good, middle-class jobs obsolete. And so we must forge a new social compact – to guarantee all our kids the education they need; to give workers the power to unionize for better wages; to update the social safety net to reflect the way we live now and make more reforms to the tax code so corporations and individuals who reap the most from the new economy don’t avoid their obligations to the country that’s made their success possible.  We can argue about how to best achieve these goals.  But we can’t be complacent about the goals themselves.  For if we don’t create opportunity for all people, the disaffection and division that has stalled our progress will only sharpen in years to come. There’s a second threat to our democracy – one as old as our nation itself.  After my election, there was talk of a post-racial America.  Such a vision, however well-intended, was never realistic.  For race remains a potent and often divisive force in our society.  I’ve lived long enough to know that race relations are better than they were 10, or 20, or 30 years ago – you can see it not just in statistics, but in the attitudes of young Americans across the political spectrum.

Both Republican and Democrat Presidents, on the same page, urging the American public to protect our democracy, reaffirming our identity, in 3 videos from Oct., 2017,  below:

 

Note:  Former Barack Obama’s comment, “Instead of our politics reflecting our values, we’ve got politics infecting our communities…. If you have to win a campaign by dividing people, you’re not going  to be able to govern them. You won’t be able to unite them later, if that’s how you start.”

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Excerpt on the topic of democracy, from wikipedia, in italics, below:

Democracy (Greek: δημοκρατία dēmokraa thetía, literally “rule by people”), in modern usage, has three senses all for a system of government where the citizens exercise power by voting. In a direct democracy, the citizens as a whole form a governing body, and vote directly on each issue, e.g. on the passage of a particular tax law. In a representative democracy the citizens elect representatives from among themselves. These representative meet to form a governing body, such as a legislature. In a constitutional democracy the powers of the majority are exercised within the fremework of a representative democracy, but the constitution limits the majority and protects the minority, usually through the enjoyment by all of certain individual rights, e.g. freedom of speech, or freedom of association. Democracy is sometimes referred to as “rule of the majority”. Democracy is a system of processing conflicts in which outcomes depend on what participants do, but no single force controls what occurs and its outcomes.

The uncertainty of outcomes is inherent in democracy, which makes all forces struggle repeatedly for the realization of their interests, being the devolution of power from a group of people to a set of rules. Western democracy, as distinct from that which existed in pre-modern societies, is generally considered to have originated in city-states such as Classical Athens and the Roman Republic, where various schemes and degrees of enfranchisement of the free male population were observed before the form disappeared in the West at the beginning of late antiquity. The English word dates to the 16th century, from the older Middle French and Middle Latin equivalents.

According to American political scientist Larry Diamond, democracy consists of four key elements: a political system for choosing and replacing the government through free and fair elections; the active participation of the people, as citizens, in politics and civic life; protection of the human rights of all citizens; a rule of law, in which the laws and procedures apply equally to all citizens.

The term appeared in the 5th century BC to denote the political systems then existing in Greek city-states, notably Athens, to mean “rule of the people”, in contrast to aristocracy (ἀριστοκρατία, aristokratía), meaning “rule of an elite”. While theoretically these definitions are in opposition, in practice the distinction has been blurred historically. The political system of Classical Athens, for example, granted democratic citizenship to free men and excluded slaves and women from political participation. In virtually all democratic governments throughout ancient and modern history, democratic citizenship consisted of an elite class, until full enfranchisement was won for all adult citizens in most modern democracies through the suffrage movements of the 19th and 20th centuries.

Democracy contrasts with forms of government where power is either held by an individual, as in an absolute monarchy, or where power is held by a small number of individuals, as in an oligarchy. Nevertheless, these oppositions, inherited from Greek philosophy, are now ambiguous because contemporary governments have mixed democratic, oligarchic and monarchic elements. Karl Popper defined democracy in contrast to dictatorship or tyranny, thus focusing on opportunities for the people to control their leaders and to oust them without the need for a revolution

The oldest known existence of a democratic kingdom (Ganarajya) where king was chosen by people’s votes can be traced way back in 599 BC at Vajji, Vaishali in ancient India. It was the birthplace of 24th and last Tirthankara in Jainism, named Mahavira.The term “democracy” first appeared in ancient Greek political and philosophical thought in the city-state of Athens during classical antiquity.  The word comes from demos, “common people” and kratos, strength. Led by Cleisthenes, Athenians established what is generally held as the first democracy in 508–507 BC. Cleisthenes is referred to as “the father of Athenian democracy.”

Athenian democracy took the form of a direct democracy, and it had two distinguishing features: the random selection of ordinary citizens to fill the few existing government administrative and judicial offices, and a legislative assembly consisting of all Athenian citizens. All eligible citizens were allowed to speak and vote in the assembly, which set the laws of the city state. However, Athenian citizenship excluded women, slaves, foreigners (μέτοικοι / métoikoi), non-landowners, and men under 20 years of age. The exclusion of large parts of the population from the citizen body is closely related to the ancient understanding of citizenship. In most of antiquity the benefit of citizenship was tied to the obligation to fight war campaigns.

Athenian democracy was not only direct in the sense that decisions were made by the assembled people, but also the most direct in the sense that the people through the assembly, boule and courts of law controlled the entire political process and a large proportion of citizens were involved constantly in the public business. Even though the rights of the individual were not secured by the Athenian constitution in the modern sense (the ancient Greeks had no word for “rights”), the Athenians enjoyed their liberties not in opposition to the government but by living in a city that was not subject to another power and by not being subjects themselves to the rule of another person.

Range voting appeared in Sparta as early as 700 BC. The Apella was an assembly of the people, held once a month, in which every male citizen of at least 30 years of age could participate. In the Apella, Spartans elected leaders and cast votes by range voting and shouting. Aristotle called this “childish”, as compared with the stone voting ballots used by the Athenians. Sparta adopted it because of its simplicity, and to prevent any bias voting, buying, or cheating that was predominant in the early democratic elections.

Even though the Roman Republic contributed significantly to many aspects of democracy, only a minority of Romans were citizens with votes in elections for representatives. The votes of the powerful were given more weight through a system of gerrymandering, so most high officials, including members of the Senate, came from a few wealthy and noble families. In addition, the Roman Republic was the first government in the western world to have a Republic as a nation-state, although it didn’t have much of a democracy. The Romans invented the concept of classics and many works from Ancient Greece were preserved. Additionally, the Roman model of governance inspired many political thinkers over the centuries, and today’s modern representative democracies imitate more the Roman than the Greek models because it was a state in which supreme power was held by the people and their elected representatives, and which had an elected or nominated leader. Other cultures, such as the Iroquois Nation in the Americas between around 1450 and 1600 AD also developed a form of democratic society before they came in contact with the Europeans. This indicates that forms of democracy may have been invented in other societies around the world.

Gathered, written, and posted by Windermere Sun-Susan Sun Nunamaker
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