You’ve Been Warned
“Democracy, Mr. Obama said, requires government workers, judges and lawyers at the Justice Department to uphold the Constitution and follow the law. ‘It requires them to take that oath seriously, and when that isn’t happening we start drifting into something that is not consistent with American democracy, It is consistent with autocracies. It is consistent with Hungary under Orban … We’re not there yet completely, but I think that we are dangerously close to normalizing behavior like that. And we need people both outside government and inside government saying, ‘Let’s not go over that cliff because it’s hard to recover.'” NYT (Gift Article): Obama, Back in Public Eye, Offers a Careful Warning of a Democratic Slide. Some will be relieved that Obama is speaking about this issue. Others will be disappointed that he’s doing so in such measured tones. Here’s my take. We were warned for years about what another Trump term would mean for democracy. And while many of those issuing the warnings were written off as being too hysterical, it’s only taken a few months to realize they were actually being too understated. At this point, with basically every warning light flashing and millions of people taking to the streets, I think we get it. We’ve been warned. Yes, I want commentators, artists, comedians, late night talk-show hosts, journalists, and brain-addled newsletter writers to keep reminding us of the danger to our democracy. But, when it comes to politicians, I think we’re ready (maybe even desperate) for something more. Maybe the warnings are the job of yesterday’s leaders. The job of tomorrow’s leader is to tell us that we’re going to get us out of this mess and lead us on that path—someone needs to emerge to take a thousands protests and turn them into one grand movement. We’ve been told how close we are to going over “that cliff.” It’s time for someone to tell us where to go instead.
+ If American democracy is on the edge of the cliff, then American decency is a red splat inside of a chalk outline on the rocks below. As I wrote yesterday, today’s version of Joseph Welch wouldn’t even bother asking, “At long last, have you left no sense of decency?” He’d already know the answer: On Mike Lee and the descent of decency. Indecent Exposure.
