My apology.... Persevere, friends

Friends, 

For the third time in my life I have experienced a political loss of faith. And as someone who really does care deeply about the institution of democracy, however flawed, it cuts me to the bone. I am truly devastated. Of course we all knew this could happen. But I guess I was smoking too much Hopium. 

In 2000, I was truly shocked, not by how close it was, but the twin whammies: the realization that the jury-rigged Electoral College system, even though for over a century demographics had been such that the real winner, of the popular vote, did win every time, suddenly we saw that it was a fundamental, even fatal flaw. In every other "democratic" country, who wins the most votes wins. Surely, I thought, we will fix this, even after the Supreme Court, in defiance of all ethical or moral standards, simply decided to make Bush president. Maybe he won Florida anyway. That will be debated forever. But it was never their business to decide elections, and doing so was fundamentally corrupt. 

And then, of course, we didn't fix it. So in 2016, my faith in the electorate was shaken to the core, and maybe especially because there seemed to be so little outrage, so little determination to make it right... that the winner of the most votes... by millions... did not win. The votes of millions of people counted for less than nothing, and we weren't going to... didn't... do anything about it. 

We survived Trump I, barely, and elected someone fair and square who was, on balance, pretty good, at least domestically. But he was too old, and failed to do the right thing and declare he would serve only one term. But that's not what defeated his successor as a candidate. It was the same thing: an undemocratic constitution. Combined with a country, I'm sad to say, which is very nearly one-half made up of people who will elect a demagogue, and a crude and vicious one at that. 

I am sorry. If I led anyone down a garden path of optimism I am sorry. I am sorry for my country. I am heartsick. I'm sorry that I have no answers, and no ability to become an active promoter of resistance. All I can do is try to keep the hope for restoration of real democracy alive. And personally, persevere. Remain faithful to the concepts of democracy, even as we are living through what I honestly believe is the last long sigh of the death of the oldest of the great republics that grew out of the 18th century Enlightenment. That time will never come again, so democracy can only be restored by somehow clawing back those ideas and designs. 

Let me state it succinctly. To be a creditable democratic republic, a nation must elect its leaders by majority vote. It must accord geographic and ideological political equality to its people and regions in determining their representatives. It must have a court system that is free of political suasion and really practices impartiality. And it must have an electorate that by great preponderance actually believes in democracy and practices it, within the realm of human possibility. I am sad to say, and truly know, that our country, as it has come down to the present, has and is none of these things. And the key reason is, of course, deep seated racism and anti-immigrant hatred that drives the toxic brew of right wing ideology. These toxins won't kill us. They have killed our democracy. It is done. 

I am too old, most likely, to live to see whether we can someday throw this over and return to, or perhaps better to say, finally craft a system that actually is, reliably democratic. I don't mean pure democracy, which has never existed; just actual, functional, reasonably fair representative democracy. For the third time in 24 years our system has made our leader not whom the people voted for, but whom the majority did not. Other societies have had collapses into dictatorship, and returned to representative democracy. Maybe often enough that you can say it will probably happen. Someday. But the thing is, it always takes a long time, like a generation or more, and it usually involves great violence. 

I am an old man. I will try to use my voice to encourage reason, enlightenment, and democracy, but real resistance will have to come from those stronger and younger than I. 

I wish I had a message of hope, but I don't. So, rather than "Courage!" I will say only, Persevere. It is demanded of us as human beings. 

I am guessing I will be posting a lot fewer of these messages to farflung correspondents, but please keep in touch with me. 

Peace. And Persevere, my friends, because in the great scheme of history this is a blip. It probably is the end of the idea of America we grew up with, but if life teaches you anything it's that you don't know what will happen, and you can't really judge the future, because it will always surprise you. 

"Emotion, which is suffering, ceases to be suffering as soon as we form a clear and precise picture of it."
― Spinoza (Ethics)