Democracy: Principles, Beliefs, and Walls

I have spoken on many occasions about being the youngest in my family who love to debate. Most of my life I sat there listening as I watched the adults and my older cousins provide evidence, commentary, questions and grapple with complex issues. I watched and took it in as I saw some people get frustrated and others enjoy the frustration they were causing. I also saw how even as the political conversation got heated it was quickly reconciled and no one, at least, seemed to take it all that personally. No one doubted the intentions and good will of the other despite having contrasting views on complex political issues.

As I grew more confident I brought my own opinions to the table. Especially after 9/11 and the beginnings of the Iraq War. It impacted my generation and there were people I knew who were talking about joining the military. I became obsessed, because I was worried. I scoured sources and did research as I tried to figure out my own political identity. I found that I was socially liberal and embraced a humanistic approach to most things, but I also had a strong pragmatic side that made many of my liberal friends crazy. I trusted our institutions, I desired balance, and I feared total control. I never want the Democrats to run all branches of government. I never want the Republicans to run all branches of government. If the liberals took control over everything how would my Grandma feel or my Uncle feel?  If the conservatives took control over everything how would the LGBTQ community feel or my parents feel? I wanted the world to be like my family. Balanced, impassioned, compromising, and at the end of the day after the cameras were off drink a glass of wine while playing a bad game of pool with dead bumpers. 

Our federal constitutional republic of a democracy was designed with balance in mind. Solutions would be slow. Change would be slow. Debate would be encouraged. Power would be shared. The people would be the power source, but the institutions would function to tame the tide of public opinion which can, at times, be volatile. This system of government would become something that I idolized not because it was perfect, but because if used well and guarded with care it could correct itself when it has lost its way. It would be as perfect or as imperfect as we are. In a democratic system, we truly do get the government we deserve, and with lower citizen participation we truly do get the government we deserve. Despite the issues and the abuses of our current time I do still believe in our institutions, it’s us, the people, who have lost our way and have allowed for our world to become so polarized. We forgot to offer that glass of wine and we forgot to accept that game of pool with dead bumpers, because we have confused our beliefs with our principles. 

The Democratic and Republican parties represent political ideologies and theories of how the government should work. These organizations provide a pattern of solutions for societal problems that align with a certain way of thinking. Most of us if we look at the nuts and bolts of these parties will find that we agree and disagree with both parties on many social issues. Most of us are moderates, no matter what the media seems to show, because most of our cultures have a mix of both conservative ideals and classical liberal ideals. Even the major demographics that make up the ‘base voters’ of each political party do not fit in perfectly. Midwestern white voters might respond to conservative fiscal policies, might appeal to protestant sensibilities, but value organized unions to protect workers from abuse. Those are both conservative and liberal ideas working together. Many latino voters might appreciate the liberal fiscal policies, but might strongly disagree with some liberal social issues especially issues revolving around abortion. Again, both conservative and liberal ideas working together. This is why politics is a messy business, because even with time you might find that your political leanings change. The beliefs you held when you were younger might not be the ones you hold when you are sixty, because of life experiences and your position in life might have changed, therefore, your political interests might have changed. Beliefs are deeply held ideas that you think might help society get better, but with new evidence and experience those beliefs should be updated. Much like a hypothesis proven wrong in a science experiment…it is not meant to be static. 

Principles though are meant to be static. These are deeply held values that tell you what is wrong and what is right. The boundaries that you set for yourself and others to tell you that this is a line that is never meant to be crossed. The thing that made my family work was that I might disagree with some of my family members on their political beliefs, but I have never questioned that we differed on our principles. My family is hardworking, neighborly, loyal, generous, and we embrace the eccentric both within ourselves and the adopted families we choose for ourselves. I know this to be true and it is what stays constant as I express my beliefs and try to understand theirs. 

The issue, I find myself in, and that many people find themselves in with this administration is that when it comes to Trump it is not my political beliefs that he insults it is my principles he violates. Mainly, because he seems to be void of having any. The principles he violates are actually the ones that have been ingrained in me by my family, some of whom support Donald Trump. It is this cognitive dissonance that I have a hard time marrying and trying to understand. It is this fact that makes political discussions in its current context so hard, because I am wondering if many people have forgotten their principles in the face of political theater and partisan petulant politics.

I understand having differing political beliefs, but how could those beliefs be more important than protecting our principles. I could be wrong about my political beliefs. Ten years from now I might shake my head at myself for being so naive in 2020. My principles though are paramount to who I am as a person. To ignore those are to ignore myself and my worldview. This is why if President Obama, Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Franklin D. Roosevelt, or any other leader that I admired did what Donald Trump did I would say without hesitation it was wrong. It was wrong and they are unfit to run this country. It does not matter how many political beliefs I share with them or the amount of good I thought they achieved before the wrong-doing. Once you lose sight of what is most important you no longer can nor should be in a position of power. Richard Nixon, a president who did wrong, understood that and stepped down. The president should not represent a faction. The president should protect our democracy, protect the integrity of our elections, protect our reputation, and honor our constitution and our country above everything else. 

The reason this came to mind was while watching the State of the Union it dawned on me. There is no room for me in Donald Trump’s vision of America. I listened and I got the message. The wall never had to be physically built, because the wall exists already, it was being built for decades. Donald Trump, completed his campaign promise, and now it stands impenetrable. The speech has been ripped, the handshake has been snubbed, a right-wing talk-show host has been awarded the highest honor, and the house has never been more divided since the lead up to the Civil War. A few conservatives have recognized this wall and have stood up to Trump in bursts, because the voice of their principles broke through the circus, for a fleeting moment. I appreciate them and wish it would happen on both sides more often, because we do need more profiles of courage, to remind us all of what matters most rather than what sounds good. 

I am not sure how we as a country can move forward after Donald Trump, who is a symptom, not a the reason for our current political strife. Not sure if that wall can come down or if we will stay a house divided. I love our institutions, but they only function if we the people participate and inform ourselves to make the right moves to create change. Hard to do when you can literally inform yourself by only staying in your comfort zone and reinforce your own political beliefs over and over again until not only do we have two political parties, but two different realities. 

As a broken hearted American institutional lover. I feel, I must admit, a bit hopeless. I write this not to blame anyone, but to illuminate the wall, and hope that maybe I can see my fiscal conservative, conservative, liberal, socialist democrats, or libertarian brothers and sisters on the same side of the wall. The side who understands that the principles of democracy should always outweigh political beliefs. The side who understands that regardless of how we think we can get there we all want the same great things for the United States and the world. The side that fights for power to the people not power for some people or power for people with money. The side who understands the value in balance and the value in deliberation not only with one another, but with the world. Maybe this is all naive and I am still that little girl at the dining room table trying to keep up with my political diverse family, but I really want to drink some wine and play pool with dead bumpers. But the wall runs through the table.