Democracy as difficult as ever

KEN WINKES

Guest Columnist

I don’t know when I first thought democracy might be a good idea.

As a kid, I didn’t experience much of it. Father and mother ruled, and their children (mostly) did what we were told.

Sure, we occasionally objected to our parents’ dictates, but out of habit, respect and, yes, fear, we complied.

As we grew older, there were the usual bumps on the road to adulthood.

Some argument and anger flavored those years, as did an emerging sense that our father and mother were not co-equal rulers of their realm.

We learned that they did not always agree about everything, and when there were differences, my father called most of the shots.

Yet while democracy was not for home consumption, it did matter to our parents.

As elections rolled around, they talked politics and voted.

My mother volunteered as an election observer, driving the 28 miles from Arlington to Darrington to do her civic duty.

The place democracy had in our home just didn’t apply to their kids.

Thinking about it now, I see our household arrangement mirrored the uneasy relationship the nation has always had with democracy.

Our history offers countless examples of democracy for me but not for thee.

Initially only white men of property could vote in the new United States.

Blacks couldn’t vote even in theory until 1870, and with the advent of Jim Crow in the late 1800s, it was not until the mid-1960s that Black votes again began to count.

Imitating Jim Crow, Juan Crow laws cropped up in states with heavy Latine populations (wikipedia.org).

Women did not receive the franchise until 1920, and the voting age was not lowered to 18 until 1971.

The Declaration of Independence’s foundational pledge that “all men are created equal” has always had its doubters, even among the nation’s founders.

In addition to the many historical restrictions on voting, our Constitution also expressed that doubt with an Electoral College that erected a barrier between the popular vote and a president’s election.

U.S. Senators were chosen indirectly by state legislators until the 17th Amendment adopted in 1913 placed Senate elections directly into the hands of voters.

Even now some Republicans, still fearful of direct democracy, would like to return the power to choose Senators to state legislatures (military.com).

The Electoral College, which elected presidents who lost the popular vote five times in our history — and twice within the past 25 years — is still with us (wikipedia. org).

In addition to our historic hesitancy to embrace direct democracy, the democracy we have today has other grave problems.

Apathy is one of them.

Though 154 million voted in the 2024 national election, approximately 80 million who could have voted did not (census. gov).

Other problems stem from our country’s sheer size. 154 million times the number of choices on a typical ballot is a lot of data for the approximately 3,100 counties in the United States to record, count, file and keep.

Since most of that counting and record-keeping takes place far from voters, that vast distance provides an opening for those so inclined (never the winners) to claim falsely and repeatedly that election fraud is rife (brookings.edu).

Besides, doing democracy isn’t easy. Even in small, like-minded groups, consensus is hard to come by.

To arrive at decisions, large groups often rely on organizational bylaws and Roberts Rules of Order to guide discussion and voting.

At the city, county, state and national levels we vote to elect our representatives and determine public policy.

Since unanimity is rare, it is only through elections that we make our many voices speak as one.

That’s why, regardless of the issues before us, democracy always leads the ballot.

When the losers don’t accept defeat, they vote against democracy itself.

Instead of conceding defeat, some losers lie, saying their opponents cheated, that the system is rigged against them.

With no evidence, they sow distrust in all elections by saying other countries — Venezuela (before we kidnapped their president and took their oil), Iran and China among them — control our voting machines (apnews.com).

If they lose, they claim election workers threw out their ballots or that masses of undocumented immigrants voted.

They threaten and perpetrate violence (Has anyone forgotten Jan. 6, 2021?).

Anticipating potential losses, they redistrict their states, eliminating districts they might lose. They close their opponents’ polling places, making it harder for them to vote (nbcnews.com).

Democracy’s enemies are America’s sorest losers.

Though I didn’t always like it at the time, I think my parents might have had a point. Democracy is not for kids.

Democracy is potent, occasionally disruptive and often threatening to those in power.

Only thoughtful, mature adults can handle the responsibilities that come with it.

Ken Winkes is a retired teacher and high school principal, who grew up in Arlington, attended college in California during the 1960s and for the last four decades has lived near the mouth of the Skagit River.