Democracy: The Right Path, The Wrong Terminology?

The question is not whether Democracy is the right path. The question is whether Democracy is the message that will shake people out of complacency.

It’s a troubling age. History is repeating itself, global autocracy is on the rise and malignant policy is taking hold.

As an Australian, it’s bewildering to me that there’s a perceivably legitimate media force behind the current governor of Florida. That this person conceivably has a chance at the highest office in America is stupefying — unless of course you ignore 2016.

As the leading global economy, the influence of the US is more pervasive than its economic superiority alone. America (intentionally or otherwise) advances acceptable cultural norms well beyond its shores and within selected media and political frames, promotes a type of conduct that more enlightened folks collectively deem as disturbing for our nation.

I’m heartened by so many voices rallying under the banner of Democracy, but I wonder if it is the optimal message.

We need to save Democracy.

The question is, as a call to arms, are people hearing it? Do they understand it? Is it the right message to inspire people?

Democracy is Complicated.

For the sake of brevity, I need to put aside all the complexities that make voting in the US extremely challenging for large swathes of the community. These reports are largely distributed and as an Australian whose experience of voting is without friction, it’s demoralising.

To my earlier point, prior to the recent national election, our recently dethroned government started peacocking about who should and shouldn’t be able to vote. In a country where it’s mandatory for all citizens over 18, it’s clear that conditional democracy is on the agenda for a party that doesn’t hold the support of the people. That party’s current leader intimates that importing American styled culture wars is the way forward. A December 2022 poll saw said individual at 19% favourability. Maybe he hasn’t received the email yet.

Back to This Idea of Democracy as the Message.

Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it — Winston Churchill

There’s a reason that education in oppressive environments is viewed as a threat. It’s harder to correlate a looming menace with knowledge of a like historical disruption if you don’t have a baseline for comparison.

People Need to Feel that the Erosion of Democracy is Something that is Happening to them.

Not that it’s happening to someone else, somewhere else.

The erosion of democracy will affect you, your family, irrespective of which side of the political spectrum you’ve adopted, no one is immune.

This is why I question the Saving Democracy message.

I should qualify this by saying it’s not redundant. There are of course citizens who understand the implication as is; this idea is around communicating to those who don’t.

People seem to think it’ll happen to someone else, yet the erosion of personal freedoms affects everyone. The freedom to decide who to love, what and when you can learn, what to read, to watch or listen to. I feel we’re in far murkier waters than that which the Reagan era PMRC accomplished. Books are being banned. The extremism that typically takes place over there isn’t holding too much of its agenda back on the domestic front. Does it affect people on a personal level to a degree where they see their own communities mirrored in that of the extremists from abroad?

All people become subject to the leader’s impulses. It’d be nice if people didn’t need to undergo life in an oppressive regime to appreciate egalitarian freedom. But addressing how it might affect them, that might be a useful approach.

But Democracy isn’t Without its Shortcomings.

Democratic institutions are flawed, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t worth trying to preserve.

It’s easier to vote for authentic leaders who are committed to genuine change.

Instead of accepting the power of lobbyists, of the ability to get elected being predicated by those who can generate enough revenue to succeed, the quest for transformation starts with leaders who are committed to better.

The alternative: try to overthrow a tyrant. The timeline and commitment is significantly longer; the damage, slow to repair. Think decades.

It’s easy to say that all politicians are bastards, it gives them cover. Each day, these people are emboldened, and as stated, the agenda is on full display — erosion now transformed to a sand blast.

Solutions.

Democracy is worth fighting for. It affords us all the best possible pathways to experience and societal improvement. And maybe Democracy isn’t the final destination.

But until that time, we have the opportunity to perpetuate a cycle where the children of each consecutive generation experiences a life better than that of our own. Finding improved messaging that helps the democratically disinclined better understand what’s at stake for them when their support is gifted to politicians with an appetite for destruction is one step towards that goal.