It’s Always About Choices
During his Memorial Day 2021 address to the nation President Joe Biden warned that U.S. democracy is in danger of failing: “The mission falls to each of us, each and every day. Democracy itself is in peril, here at home and around the world. What we do now, how we honor the memory of the fallen, will determine whether democracy will long endure”.
The President’s warning is spot on. Our democracy is in trouble. Our form of governance is in trouble. Our very basic system of how we elect our government is in trouble. Our present and future is at stake.
But United States democracy has been “in trouble” since it’s beginning. The War of 1812 came close to ensuring it’s demise. Certainly the Civil War 1861/65 came close. The spread of Fascism and Nazi ideology during the 1930’s came close, and its danger continues to this day, as does the dark, oppressive weight of the Soviet Union’s 1922/91 Hammer and Sickle.
For an overview (with aid of historic blueprints in mind) of how current U.S. democracy has marched itself to the edge of the abyss, we just have to look back to a few-months period in the second half of 2018:
Remember When We Thought It Couldn’t Happen Here
Chaos, Crisis and The Collapse of Democracy
Chaos, Crisis and The Collapse of Democracy: Part Deux
