and that government of the people,
by the people, for the people,
shall not perish from the earth.
– Abraham Lincoln
With these words President Lincoln ended the short speech he gave at Gettysburg in 1863.
It’s a brilliant line. Why? Because it makes clear the nature of the American Experiment. He’s talking about ‘government construed as a CO-OP’ !
Our Constitution starts off with the words – “We the people “
What’s the difference between a handful of people getting together and scheming about forming a Food Co-op ~ “Why don’t we create our OWN food store? We could buy grains, legumes, produce, etc. in bulk, sell it to ourselves (and whoever in the neighborhood wants to buy it). We could control the quality, and we could pass along whatever we can save to ourselves and our neighbors.”
Is there a Big Difference between this and imagining that we could do the same thing with regard to governing ourselves?
I don’t think so.
Is this NOT, in fact – the very thing that makes the American Experiment of such interest to people world-wide?
By the time we entered the Revolutionary War, we were already feeling rather burnt toward monarchs. George Washington DECLINED a third term as president (setting a precedent).
And with the ratification of the 22nd Amendment (ratified in 1951) ~ a single person may NOT hold the office of President for more than two terms.
We do not want a president to get too attached to governing. (That’s too much like a King, and we’ve already been down that road.)
With a government like ours, we take it for granted – that the purpose of government is to make life as good as possible for the whole society, for everyone. And any policy which does NOT make our life better we regard as defective.
While we live in the oldest democratic country in the world, historically speaking – the idea that Government is ‘something that WE are doing’ is still a new and radical idea.; and as to whether it WILL perish from the earth – that remains to be seen. (and these days, that prospect is not looking very good)
Worldwide dictatorial governments (the main alternative to democracy) are on the rise.
And this is despite the fact that dictatorships are generally NOT that committed to the welfare of the people they are governing.
I mean – why does someone become a dictator? To serve? I don’t think so. They become a dictator because they want power.
And if that’s the case, then here’s the basic difference between a democracy and a dictatorship: In a democracy, it’s “we the people” who are doing the governing; whereas, in a dictatorship, it’s the autocrat (himself) who’s doing it.
And why?
A democracy governs itself in order to optimize life for everyone. An autocrat has his OWN reasons for governing, and these reasons are probably going to be at odds with the welfare of the governed.
Sarah Paine points out that life has gotten better for the people of the Baltics – since they no longer have to live under Russian rule :
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/qWlMYzjbG_o (NATO / Life is better free from Russian domination)
Putin’s war in Ukraine has impoverished people all over the world. Ukraine used to feed much of this world’s population, and this has been seriously disrupted.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdw5jdFw10o (Russian POWs reveal Putin’s cruelty & ineptitude 16:33)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGlPAvIQJsE (Finland: we Finns know Russia 3:12)
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/9yTA7cctL18 (What’s the purpose of government? | The reality under the Communist Party of China | Sarah Paine)
John Kennedy told us – “The price of Liberty has always been high; but Americans have always paid it.”
Steve Biko says – “It’s better to die for an idea that will live
than to live for an idea that will die.”
Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger have not had to die, but they WERE willing to sacrifice their careers to try to preserve our democracy.
And what will WE do? Will we be intimidated? Or will we fight?
The idea of self government and the responsibilities it lays on the public are fine in principle, but apparently rather difficult to sustain.
There should be an evolving commitment to educating new generations to the nuance benefits of a free society, including people whose priorities are avowedly opposed to democracy and who have used or cleverly will use the distribution of power to the disadvantage of the rest of us.
Probably impossible to do. So we fall back to the words of Winston Churchill in a 1947 speech that followed the defeat of the Nazis in WWII:
“Many forms of government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”
This is such a valuable resource—thank you for taking the time to write such a thorough and well-organized post. Your explanations are clear and concise, and the examples you’ve provided really help bring the information to life. I’ll definitely be coming back to this article whenever I need a refresher on the topic.