Burgess column: For “Peace on Earth” We Might Try Real Democracy
From the beginning of our nation, Americans struggled over the concept of democracy--majority rule. We call our country a democracy, but we’ve never had majority rule. Fact is, some of our founders didn’t want it. And some today don’t.
When Europeans came to North America around 1600, they landed first in Florida, then Virginia, then Massachusetts. There were people already living there, but the Spanish in Florida, and the English in Virginia and Massachusetts didn’t intend to include “Indians” in the government. The Iroquois of New England had a confederation of villages run semi-democratically, with village women selecting the chiefs to represent them at the council. The new white settlements had a combination of church and a monarch ruling pretty much everything.
As the colonies developed and fought their way apart from England, the white men running things decided not to have a king, but to elect their leaders. The U.S.A. was to be a “republic,” as Ben Franklin said. In other words, leaders chosen by those empowered to choose, but no hereditary ruler, such as a king or queen.
Women, though, were mostly left out of the plan, as were African-Americans and Native Americans. So if we define “democracy” as government by a majority of people, we’ve never had it. Jefferson thought working-class white men should have a say in things, but Hamilton warned him, “Your ‘people’ is a great beast.” Abigail Adams warned her husband, John, “Don’t forget the women.”
When the Constitution was written, it divided powers into three branches, with a president, a two-house congress, and a supreme court. The senate was made up of two men from each state, no matter how small. And for the first 114 years the state legislatures, not the voters, chose the senators. Plus, in Ohio and several other states, until the 1960s, our state senate had one representative per county, giving much greater representation to citizens of rural counties compared to urban ones. The U.S Supreme Court struck that down, saying “one person, one vote.”
So, while there was a lot of voting, mostly by white men, until the civil rights movement of the ‘60’s we had a republic, but nothing close to majority rule.
Meanwhile, our population continues to change, so that white, Christian men find themselves diminishing as a percentage of the population. White men still hold over 60 percent of the elected offices, despite being just 30 percent of the population. And a lot of them are very nervous as more immigrants come from Mexico, the Middle East, and other lands with a variety of languages, religions, music, and skin color.
This is driving a lot of our “conservative” politics. It used to be that the Democratic Party was the party of segregation, especially in the South. But that shifted in 1948 when the Dixiecrats of the old Confederacy kept President Truman’s name off the ballot in several states, partly because he’d integrated the armed forces and supported non-biased hiring practices for America’s jobs. Those Dixiecrats became Republicans, and Nixon and Reagan, especially, ran on a “Southern strategy,” playing to people’s racial fears and prejudices. In our time, Mr. Trump has taken up that mantel and stokes those deep, old fears anew. The Republican Party in our time has favored policies mainly good for wealthy white men. They can’t win by saying that, so they try stirring up folks by race, gender, religion, or whatever. They double down on gerrymandering. Many hoped the election of Obama would bring us toward a “post-racial” society, but instead it seems to have unleashed the worst fears of lots of frightened, conservative whites.
I was lucky to grow up in a community where I got to play and go to school with girls and boys of different religions, races, and ethnic groups. I loved it. Later I got to teach kids of various backgrounds in Columbus and Chillicothe. It was great. I can’t imagine it any other way.
Anyway, this is a good time of the year to say—and mean it—“Peace on earth. Good will to ALL!” Try it. You’ll like it.
Jack Burgess is a retired teacher of American & Global Studies.
This article originally appeared on Chillicothe Gazette: Burgess column: For “Peace on Earth” We Might Try Real Democracy
