Sharon Kennedy: Was democracy only an experiment?
Most of us aren’t aware that democracy was probably only an experiment, not a set-in-cement system expected to last forever. Moses wasn’t involved in the process. In 1776, there was no burning bush and no tablets of stone. There might have been lively discussions among the Founding Fathers, but history records no evidence of supernatural intervention.
Democracy for the new nation came about like this: During the third session of the Second Continental Congress, the men looked around and decided to give the green light to a democratic form of government. With help from his associates, Jefferson hammered out the Declaration of Independence. You might not have known that parts of the former smack of the Mecklenburg, North Carolina, Declaration of Independence written a year earlier. I suppose some Mecklenburg descendants are still saying Jefferson was a plagiarizer, but that’s an issue best left to the historians.
The Articles of Confederation were adopted five years after the Declaration. I never read those Articles or the entire Declaration until a week ago when I pulled a book from my home library entitled “American Historical Documents.” It was part of my Harvard Classics collection I bought at least 57 years ago. Like many of the other “classics” I own, I didn’t even bother to look at the first few pages. In the old days, I took our democracy for granted. I wasn’t interested in reading stuff that seemed about as exciting to my palate as last night’s Italian wedding soup would be for breakfast. Boy, was I wrong.
We all know the first sentence to the Declaration, but how many of us know the first paragraph? It’s juicy reading and too long to quote in its entirety, but here’s a sample. “When in the course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another … they should declare the causes which impel them to separate.” Considering current political events and the possibility of Donald Trump being carted off to a jailhouse, the overthrow and dissolution of U.S. democracy and the secession of some states seems imminent if Trump’s followers demand his release. Will they storm whatever penal institution is holding him much as French revolutionary insurgents stormed the Bastille and freed seven prisoners?
If our democracy dies like so many other democracies throughout the world, what will replace it? Are Rex and Tyrannus the only choices for the future? Unless we’re students of classical languages, the words Rex (king) and Tyrannus (tyrant) mean nothing to us. When our democratic republic collapses from intense MAGA pressure, will we chose between a king who rules by Divine Right or a tyrant whose will and power are absolute, and will the king and tyrant be the same person?
Most Americans follow the laws of the land whether we like them or not. Trouble arises when a groundswell of rage bubbles to the surface. As discontent continues to grow, stoked by a man who appears to have lost his grasp of reality, we can expect anything. Under Trump’s guidance, law-abiding citizens will revolt.
Politicians and philosophers of the past predicted democracy could not last. Will ours be viewed as an experiment that went awry, or will it survive the rule of law that states, “… all men are created equal”? Is a former president above the law? Is he greater than the least among us? If so, we’re no longer a democratic nation. I keep banging this drum because the stakes are too high to ignore.
— To contact Sharon Kennedy, send her an email at sharonkennedy1947@gmail.com. Kennedy's new book, "View from the SideRoad: A Collection of Upper Peninsula Stories," is available from her or Amazon.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Sharon Kennedy: Was democracy only an experiment?
