Do We Wish to Live in a Constitutional Democracy?

In the swirling chaos enveloping our country, there is a basic question being posed to America that may not be clearly understood.

Perhaps We Are Too Tired And Have Chosen To Abandon Democracy...

In order to answer that question, we are required to understand the definition of constitutional democracy as envisioned by our founding fathers. In their writings -- the Constitution, the Federalist Papers, and the notes from one to another -- our forefathers imagined a balanced government with different functions and a constantly active interrelationship.

The Executive Branch would set the course for the nation, specifically responsible for foreign relations, the defense of the country, and such commerce as moved interstate or internationally. Congress would directly represent the people's interests by managing the use of their funds, as accumulated through various taxes and fees. The Senate would preside over the systems of laws and policies, a body of what has become 100 minds deliberating over the tools of governance. The Judiciary would be responsible for the enforcement of the laws as enacted, and at the level of the Supreme Court, for the binding interpretation and application of the Constitution and its additions.

Semi-Autonomous States

The Federal government would work in concert with semi-autonomous states, who would largely have control over the health and well-being of their citizens, with a mandate to distribute funds from internal taxation and federal subsidies as it sees fit. The functions of education, law enforcement, health care, and infrastructure were assumed to be within the state's responsibilities.

The trajectory of America is not in this direction today, but away from virtually all of the components envisioned in our foundation.

As America moves ever closer to a form of autocracy, where the President not only establishes by fiat the country's direction but takes on the authority of executing it, without the consent of Congress or the support of the Senate, the question of who we are, and what we wish to be, becomes less academic and more immediate by the day. It promises to become even more relevant in the coming weeks and months, as America deals with a President who has promised to create programs in health care, in law enforcement, in taxation, and in immigration autonomously and independent of either the remainder of the government or the states.

Perhaps this is what America wants. The process of democracy is messy, contentious, and frustrating to listen to or watch in practice. There is undoubtedly a certain attraction to the simplicity of a single person making the decisions, and putting them into practice without apparent limitations or conflicts. Perhaps in the shadow of the angry rising of partisanship, America is choosing to have a new form of government, one where our leader has unbridled power.

Perhaps we are tired of the work of being a democracy, and we simply want to give up and accept someone to make all the decisions for us.

There is, of course, no history of a successful, lasting democracy. All democracies have failed, while monarchies, emperorships, and non-representational forms of government have fared somewhat better. America has always described itself as an experiment, and perhaps that experiment is failing in front of our eyes.

If that is the situation, events that we are witnessing right now will end up proving the failure. Refused cooperation from the military, President Trump has sent an odd assortment of unmarked federal troops -- from immigration, from detention and from whatever other non-military sectors he can muster -- to impose his own version of peacekeeping into the state of Oregon.

Operation of Oregon's Governor

The arrival of this armed and apparently empowered group into the state was without agreement or cooperation of Oregon's governor, mayor, police and congressional duly elected representatives, and the evidence of their actions suggest that they are less than compelled by the constitutional protections of protestors as well since they have operated to collect and question several with limited regards to their individual rights.

As the state has complained, and Congress has demanded a cessation, the President has announced his personal plans to intervene in the internal affairs of multiple other states, ones that he has specified will exclusively be controlled by the opposing political party's members. Having been rebuffed previously by the courts, the President has announced that he interprets their judicial pronouncements as giving him total authority in all matters, an interpretation that few outsides of his own office agree with.

And so, the question is posed to America. Is this blatant conversion of our form of government, an almost instantaneous transition from constitutional democracy to authoritarian regime acceptable? It is possible that we as a country have given up on the idea of democracy, of a government by and for the people, because it is simpler to abdicate that heavy work of participation and allow it to fall on the shoulders of the current President and his cadre of personally installed acolytes.

Defend The Constitution

On the other hand, if we intend to keep this republic and defend our constitution, when will we make that known? When will we stand up and declare our intention to recapture our country, and to refute the relatively bloodless coup that has occurred in front of us in broad daylight, and persists apace?

We have rightfully taken to the street to demand redress for racial injustices, but that demand is toothless if its reforms are up to a singular authority that has demonstrated no interest in the topic. We have worked with state and local authorities to reform the institutions of law enforcement, but that was a waste of time if those authorities are overruled and dismissed. We have accumulated a majority that agrees with the constructive transformation of our institutions, but how does that matter if majority rule is no longer the law of the land?

It is up to the country to make a decision, and waiting for the coming election -- if it is even permitted to occur without internal and foreign interference and corruption -- may make that decision not ours anymore.

Perhaps, just perhaps, the time is right now.