Above, I have presented you with a picture of United States Senator Chris Murphy. I captured this image from an online interview of Murphy by David Remnick, the Editor of The New Yorker. The interview was titled, "We Are Sleepwalking Into Autocracy."
If you are a subscriber to The New Yorker, that link, right above, should take you to the interview. If you are not a subscriber, you may well face a paywall problem. It is a good interview, and I hope you can find a way to read it.
Murphy tells Remnick that he is genuinely afraid that we may not have a fair election in 2026. We shouldn't count on "politics as normal," in other words. Nothing is normal right now.
I, personally, think that Murphy is right to worry, and I think we need to take very seriously this statement, made by Murphy right near the end of The New Yorker interview:
I think we are at risk of sleepwalking through this transition. We desperately want to believe that we can play politics as normal because it’s uncomfortable—really uncomfortable—to play politics as not normal. It involves taking really big risks. And, of course, you just want to wake up and believe that you live in a country where people wouldn’t make a conscious choice to move away from democratic norms. But while some people are being hoodwinked into being along for that ride, others are making the conscious choice because our democracy has been so broken for so long.So, yes, I believe that there is a chance that we miss this moment. We just wake up one day and we are no longer in a democracy, which is why I think we have to start acting more urgently right now.
According to Murphy, it is a time to "wake up," and to take extraordinary action. Again, I agree.
I doubt, though, that enough people are going to get mobilized because of their generalized support for "democracy." I think more specific demands may be more motivating. We can, of course (and must), agitate and demonstrate, and show ourselves opposed to the kind of outrageous actions that the president and his acolytes are taking. Cutting off humanitarian aid, on the president's whim, with no debate or Congressional action, is a good example. Letting unelected people (like Elon Musk and his "muskrats") get access to our sensitive amd private information, is another. But maybe we need to start organizing around positive demands. Maybe that would be more powerful.
How about a simple, easily-understood demand that the minimum wage be raised, immediately, by no less than $10.00/hour? How about a demand that that we significantly raise taxes for all those earning over $300,000/year, and particularly for the billionaires? How about a demand that we have Medi-Care for all?
Murphy suggested the first of those suggestions. I have added on. You (and others) can certainly add onto a list of demands that make sense and that would benefit almost every American. What "self-government" really means (what most people call "democracy") is that the government does what the majority of the people want, and what will benefit them, with the government taking action because "we, the people," make it take such action.
If we are "sleepwalking" our politics (and I think too many of us are), we may well wake up to find out, as Murphy warns us, that we don't have any real politics, anymore!
Foundation of Freedom
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