Democracy

This #thankyouthursday, I am grateful for democracy.

I had a whole other #thankyouthursday post planned, even partially written, but then some rioters—terrorists, technically—tried to derail the proceedings of democracy yesterday.

I remember how sick I felt in January of 2017. My country had (barely) elected a flagrantly white supremacist misogynist to the highest office in the nation, and he was about to be inaugurated.

So I did what any devoted American would do: I falsely claimed the election had been stolen, and I went to Washington and stormed the Capitol.

Oh wait. That’s something a terrorist would do. But I really did go to Washington. I showed up to the Women’s March. I wore a hand-decorated scarf that displayed the same message as the poster board I held high: Love > fear.

There was a lot of anger present at the Women’s March. I could feel the outrage everywhere—and actually the outrage was okay, even justified. It was the hatred that made me cringe, had me considering if I should even be there. I only wanted to represent Love > fear.

Because hatred does no good, from any angle, and I regret to observe that for years, our soon-to-be-former national “leader” has used hatred to incite his supporters. Yesterday his decision to yet again repeat lies and encourage violence put even more people in danger—though, oddly,* few of the terrorists were apprehended.

But the will of the people prevailed. Not the will of the person (the president!?!) who committed sedition, not the will of the people who enacted terrorism, but the will of the millions and millions of people who lawfully cast their votes in November.

Democracy prevailed yesterday, and I am grateful.

But. Democracy has very much been challenged, in large part due to a horrifying—and ongoing—deluge of misinformation and a depressing absence of critical thinking.

And democracy is not guaranteed. In fact, the way America’s laws are currently written, our democracy comes awfully close to hinging on the morality of the people we elect.**

So let’s be careful to elect people who believe in democracy.

Love > fear,
Christina

*It’s actually not odd at all; it’s white supremacy.

**On the plus side, we have recently elected some promisingly moral people!