Pictured above is Osita Nwanevu, as he is being interviewed by Ross Douthat, a "conservative" columnist for The New York Times. Nwanevu is the author of The Right of the People: Democracy and the Case for a New American Founding. He is a contributing editor at The New Republic and is the Democratic Institutions fellow at the Roosevelt Institute.
The exchange between Nwanevu and Douthat is lengthy - and I think it is very much worthwhile. If you would like to read what Nwanevu has to say, the next link should get you there, and it should get you there "paywall free," besides. The Douthat column is titled, "Abolish the Senate. End the Electoral College. Pack the Court. Why the left can’t win without a new Constitution." I was most taken by Nwanevu's definition of "Democracy."
As those who read my blog postings with any regularity will probably remember, I don't much like to advertise "Democracy" as the kind of government we need. I strongly prefer the term, "Self-Government." The term "Democracy," as I understand it, focuses mainly on voting, with the majority vote deciding what happens. While it's my view that voting is critically important, I don't think that voting is nearly as important as our personal participation in politics. Examine the quoted material below, and you will see why I am recommending that you read the entirety of Nwanevu's conversation with Douthat.
Incidentally, you can "listen" to the discussion, if you'd prefer to do that, instead of reading what Douthat and Nwanevu have to say. There is a link to an audio discussion, right near the beginning. It is titled, "Is Trump a Test or Triumph for Democracy?" Reading or listening, I like what Nwanevu has to say about "Democracy" [Emphasis added]:
Douthat:
In your description, I think you can see two potential takeaways that people trying to reformulate ideas for the Democratic Party could draw from the election. The idea that voters were asked to choose between abstractions and kitchen table issues, you get the argument that, basically, what the Democratic Party needs to do is just focus on those kitchen table issues, have policy debates, argue about specific issues — health care, education, the environment, and so on — and not get caught up in larger theories of how democracy works.
But you do have a larger theory of how democracy doesn’t work in America right now, and how it should work. So, give me your definition of democracy. What is a democracy?
Nwanevu:
A democracy is a system in which the governed govern. You can read a lot of political theory, you can read the classics — I don’t think you get a definition that is more succinct than that. Another formulation is Lincoln’s government “of, by, and for the people.”
And so, in a democracy, the people themselves are the people who govern. It’s not entrusted as a responsibility to some alien authority, some external power, some other hierarchy. People take on the responsibility and burden and promise of governing themselves. That’s the core idea.
In the kind of "Democracy" that Nwanevu is talking about, we do not have a government in which we elect the people, who hire the people, who run our lives for us.
If we are discouraged and despairing about the future of our government (and I'm thinking that most of us are), it's because we have set up a system in which others are doing the governing. That doesn't work. That's not the kind of "Democracy" we expect. The kind of "Democracy" that works is a system in which the "governed" govern.
Have you been "governing," today?
If not, it's no wonder that you are discouraged and despairing. But there's only one solution if you are.
We can't have "self-government," we can't have the kind of "Democracy" that Nwanevu is talking about, unless we are, lots of us, personally engaged in politics and government.
If we're not (and we're not) a significant time reallocation is required!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for your comment!