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August 19, 2015
O PINION
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Our Democracy is Increasingly Unhealthy
Where there are
signs of hope
T OM H. H ASTINGS
In our wonderful
land of America we
have ongoing debates,
discussions, and prin-
cipled differences. To
the extent those are
happening by citizens focused
on the issues and not on char-
acter assassination or violent
threat, those robust modes of
discourse are the heart of a
healthy democracy.
Our democracy is increas-
ingly unhealthy. And we are
degrading the image and de-
sirability of democracy around
the world as a result. This is a
reversal of a century-long trend
around the world of more de-
mocracy that peaked in the
1990s.
Autocrats are not only mak-
ing a comeback, they are doing
so with more populist support.
From the racist frontrunner can-
BY
didacy of Donald Trump to the
atavistic emergence of a caliph-
ate in the Middle East, we see a
rollback of engaged, respectful,
vigorous
citizen partici-
vi
pants
pa in politics.
Where there is a resur-
gence of focus on civil
ge
society
participation,
so
however, we see signs
ho
of hope, such as pockets
of socia
social activism in West Af-
rica that focus on the lessons
from Martin Luther King and
the US civil rights movement,
or a consortium of Palestinians
struggling to transform their
liberation struggle to democra-
cy-friendly nonviolence.
Rightwing politicos declaim
on American exceptionalism;
they name the USA as the one
nation that offers the best hope
for humankind. Sadly, they
then practice the “might makes
right” model of imposed de-
mocracy—an
oxymoronic
enterprise indeed. Democra-
cy cannot be installed at gun-
point any more than love can,
or empathy, or altruism—all
of which drive more and bet-
ter democracy, while guns and
bombs—Francis Scott Key
notwithstanding—erode
it.
Metrics of democracy—citi-
zen participation, inclusion,
minority rights, transparency,
nonviolent transition of pow-
er—are all best promoted and
practiced without death threats.
Citizen engagement is at
the heart of the free press—
the very paper you hold or
are reading online is the pulse
of a democracy worthy of the
name. When you engage—
read it, write a letter, share it
with others—and do so in a
way that maintains healthy re-
spect alongside healthy debate,
you are bolstering our democ-
racy and showing the rest of
the world a better model that
they will emulate.
The true “arsenal of democ-
racy” is not a nuclear navy nor
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from the sky. It is you, seek-
ing information, sharing your
thoughts, caring for the hearts
and minds of your neighbors,
even the ones with whom you
disagree—especially the ones
who anger you with an opinion
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I teach several courses that
revolve around these concepts
and I love watching students
evolve from apathy and fa-
talism to outrage and violent
ideation to care, capacity, and
human agency.
True, some never move off
the cynical dime, some get
stuck on pugnacity and demo-
nization, but those who pass
into the stages of engagement
and rational, careful analysis
and discourse are the ones I am
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for democracy in our land, and,
by extension of this evolving
American experiment, the rest
of the world.
Dr. Tom H. Hastings is core
IDFXOW\LQWKH&RQÀLFW5HVROX-
tion Department at Portland
State University and is found-
ing director of PeaceVoice.