Elbert County Democratic Party

TO MY FELLOW CITIZENS:

I have been quite upset and depressed with what has been happening in our country. In order to vent and not upset those around me even more, I decided to vent on paper. I share these thoughts with those of you willing to read my tirade and call to action.

The United States of America is quickly becoming unrecognizable. This country, which for almost 250 years has lived by a Constitution that protects individual freedoms, the rights of minorities, freedom of speech, association, and religion seems to be fading away. The country that was the leader of the free world, a leader in scientific and medical knowledge, the protector of the poor and weak around the world no longer seems to exist.

How did this happen in a few short months or was this a long time in the making?

A few months ago we had a thriving economy. The stock market was at an all time high, unemployment at an all time low and major infrastructure and technology bills were ready to bring the United States to the next level of prosperity. What happened?

Donald Trump was elected by a slim margin, by an uninformed electorate that believed the lies he disseminated via social media sites such as Fox, and other right wing websites, interested more in the entertainment of the masses, than providing the electorate with the truth.

The Founding Fathers when authoring the Constitution wanted to assure that there would be multiple checks and balances in the American form of government. They wanted a country that would never again be subjected to the whims of an individual, such as the king, against whom they had just rebelled.

They decided that there should be three equal branches forming the government. No one branch should have more power than the other.

They formed the Legislature, which would be made of of the common man, elected members from different parts of the country, with different experiences and points of view. They would debate issues and arrive at a consensus, albeit not what everyone wanted, but what was acceptable to the majority.

The Senate would be made up of more learned individuals, perhaps older and more experienced, from different walks of life and from different parts of the country, who would review and discuss legislation brought before them and decide what was acceptable to be enacted and what was not.

The President or executive was the individual who would enact the proposed laws. He would sign the proposed legislation if he agreed, or veto it if he disagreed. This was not done arbitrarily, but rather based on how strongly the Legislature and Senate felt about an issue, a reflection of how the electorate felt and how it squared with the parameters set forth in the Constitution.

The third branch of government, established to assure that a balance of power was maintained, was the Judiciary. The top level of the judiciary is the Supreme Court who ultimately determines what is the law. The Supreme Court made up of nine justices appointed for life ( and therefore not beholden to anyone) assured that the actions of our government were consistent with the dictates of the Constitution. They were the arbiters of right and wrong in our nation.

There is another entity in our nation, while not official, often referred to as the “Fourth Estate”, that has a vital role in assuring good governance. It is “The Free Press.” For centuries a free press has been seen as essential to good governance, for how else was the common man able to know or understand what his/her leaders were doing on his/her behalf if there was no neutral body in existence to report and tell the truth. The free press also served to report fraudulent or political manipulations that were contrary to Constitutional directives.

These four entities exist today. The Legislature ( House and Senate), the President (the Executive), the Judiciary ( the courts) and the Press ( newspapers, social media, TV).

So why has our government gone amuck? What happened to the balance of power? How has our country once the beacon of hope, the pilar of democracy, the land of opportunity, become a pariah among our most stalwart democratic allies.

There is a word “norms”, that is little used but has a great deal of meaning. Norms is the word used to describe how one behaves. Norms are something a child is taught at a very early age and continues to learn throughout life. It is what causes us to act appropriately in a given situation, to speak appropriately with others and basically do the normal or socially acceptable right thing.

What has happened today, in our government, is that there is no longer respect for norms. And now, those in political power and some of the electorate have gotten on the “no norms” band wagon. This I think partially explains what has happened to our government and our country.

Candidates for public office, often do not run for their house seats because they are committed to representing the needs for the people in their districts, but rather as a stepping stone to a more prestigious and better paying job.