Our Democracy Is at Stake

As numerous columnists and pundits have opined, the current federal government shutdown has been brought about by extreme elements in the Republican Party who in effect seek to over throw America's form of government.  The Affordable Health Care Act was passed by Congress, upheld by the United States Supreme Court and Republicans failed to win either the White House or control of Congress in 2012.  They lost and the system put in place by the Founding Fathers worked.  But that's not good enough for the poisonous elements in the GOP.  They seek to nullify elections, court rulings and Congressional action in their quest to inflict their views and beliefs on all Americans.  Indeed, one could argue that the recalcitrant Republicans have broken their oath of office and given their attempts to undermine the government are guilty of treason.  A piece in the New York Times looks at the threat these extremists pose to America's democracy.  Here are excerpts:

This time is different. What is at stake in this government shutdown forced by a radical Tea Party minority is nothing less than the principle upon which our democracy is based: majority rule. President Obama must not give in to this hostage taking — not just because Obamacare is at stake, but because the future of how we govern ourselves is at stake. 

What we’re seeing here is how three structural changes that have been building in American politics have now, together, reached a tipping point — creating a world in which a small minority in Congress can not only hold up their own party but the whole government. And this is the really scary part: The lawmakers doing this can do so with high confidence that they personally will not be politically punished, and may, in fact, be rewarded. When extremists feel that insulated from playing by the traditional rules of our system, if we do not defend those rules — namely majority rule and the fact that if you don’t like a policy passed by Congress, signed by the president and affirmed by the Supreme Court then you have to go out and win an election to overturn it; you can’t just put a fiscal gun to the country’s head — then our democracy is imperiled. 

How did we get here? First, by taking gerrymandering to a new level. The political analyst Charlie Cook, writing in The National Journal on March 16, noted that the 2010 election gave Republican state legislatures around the country unprecedented power to redraw political boundaries, which they used to create even more “safe, lily-white” Republican strongholds that are, in effect, an “alternative universe” to the country’s diverse reality. . . . . In other words, while the country continues to grow more racially diverse, the average Republican district continues to get even whiter.” 

According to Cook, the number of strongly Democratic districts decreased from 144 before redistricting to 136 afterward. The number of strongly Republican districts increased from 175 to 183. “When one party starts out with 47 more very strong districts than the other,” said Cook, “the numbers suggest that the fix is in for any election featuring a fairly neutral environment. 

[Second] Meanwhile, the Supreme Court’s inane Citizens United decision allowed a single donor, Sheldon Adelson, to create his own alternative universe.

Finally, the rise of a separate G.O.P. (and a liberal) media universe — from talk-radio hosts, to Web sites to Fox News — has created another gravity-free zone, where there is no punishment for extreme behavior, but there’s 1,000 lashes on Twitter if you deviate from the hard-line and great coverage to those who are most extreme. When politicians only operate inside these bubbles, they lose the habit of persuasion and opt only for coercion. After all, they must be right. Rush Limbaugh told them so. 

These “legal” structural changes in money, media and redistricting are not going away. They are superempowering small political movements to act in extreme ways without consequences and thereby stymie majority rule. If democracy means anything, it means that, if you are outvoted, you accept the results and prepare for the next election. Republicans are refusing to do that. It shows contempt for the democratic process. 

President Obama is not defending health care. He’s defending the health of our democracy. Every American who cherishes that should stand with him. 

The cloumn is right.  Much more is at stake than just Obamacare.  The GOP MUST be defeated for the sake of our democracy.