I do not dwell on democracy versus authoritarianism.
It Should be obvious.
Much the same way I do not dwell on who won or lost last night's Cubs loss to Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh won the game because they had the hits and the fielding. They played fairly, and the umpires made good calls. There were no challenges.
Nobody argued or stormed the concession stands. Nobody said, "Stop The Steal!" Nobody called the game "Fake Sports!"
Nobody got in their car and drove to Pittsburgh to try to tear down PNC field because they won. Nobody went that far.
Democracy means your "side" loses from time to time, but we all get to see progress. We all win at the end of the day.
We all get to push back against the fat cats a little and we get to keep our clumsy, inefficient, slow-moving way of doing things.
No one is giving Craig Counsell special treatment or kid gloves handling because the Cubbies lost and he's supposedly "The Greatest" manager of all time. They lost. Move on. Play another.
Politics isn't about "winning!"
It is about carefully working to find the best compromises, not getting everything done that we wanted, keeping a semblance of order for roughly 330 million people, and not blowing up every time there’s a bad call on the way things are working. There’s no settling old grievances. People have to learn to carry their grudges or simply find ways to let them go.
It should be obvious, but it really isn’t.
It isn't about being a high school sophomore who cannot get his math homework done on time, cannot get his history report finished, cannot keep from overspending his allowance on video gaming and weed, cannot get his act together and behave himself, and then insisting that everyone protect him or special-treatment-process him.
He cannot do the work. He needs to be held back and given other forms of schooling until or even if he catches up. Sadly, sometimes, that never happens.
It isn’t about trying to put someone in power who is grossly underqualified for the job, does things through overt acts, pushes everyone around like a class bully, talks tough, surrounds himself with violent-leaning, uncontrolled, heavy-handed thugs who enjoy causing others physical and emotional pain. When threatened, same person hides behind lawyers, ducks and runs for cover, can’t stand and deliver, can only throw paper towels to people who need heavy machinery and substantial necessities to get their country moving after a disaster strikes.
Politics is about basic governance. But more than a few folks think it is about getting power to do whatever the hell they want all the time. To them I offer, b.s.
Nine men go out on a baseball field, practice their game, play together, succeed as a team or fail. They don't conquer the world. They play for as many years as their talent lets them, and when it's over, it's over. Take that lesson home today.
It should be painfully, completely obvious why we want democracy and not either a theocracy or an autocracy. In a democracy, you get to live freely in your local community. You get to establish a way of living, worshiping, working and doing business that stays in keeping with not going into other communities and pressing your way of doing things. Theocracy doesn’t work for countries that have chosen to let the church rule. Autocracy only works if the ethnicity is such close bloodlines that everyone is probably related to one another; if the leadership of an autocratic nation is a cruel and mean-spirited person, that translates throughout the nation and oppression is often rendered on the stranger in their midst and the person who does not look just like you.
Theocracy, autocracy and fascism are not political “systems.” But those are big words, and if you don't understand those big words, then perhaps we need to hold you back a few grades until you begin to figure them out.They are in reality barges of oppression and ways to inflict cruelty on someone else, someone to belittle or treat as a lesser person. Considering them as a way of perfecting a national shape and form is like the failing teenager I previously described, who overspends, has too much screen time, lives in a “Nice Dreams” fog most days, and keeps asking the Bank of Mom n’ Dad to bail him out of his troubles.
We don’t want to be governed by teenagers, but under an authoritarian system, that’s exactly who will be doing the governing. Theocracy is an example of an authoritarian system, with one person telling you how to feel and how to think. Fascism is that too, but with the additional feature of fervent military ardor.
It should be obvious. But it isn't. How'd that come to be the case?