US Civics and the Crazies

“I ask that high ideals be demanded in those that represent you; that you insist upon honesty and courage and uprightness and fair dealing in public life; but I ask in your interest and therefore in the interest of the men who represent you that in addition to honesty and clean and upright living you demand in others and exact from yourself the virtue of common sense.”-- Teddy Roosevelt You probably have seen the meme on floating around on Facebook that says "In my family, we don't hide the crazy.. We give it a beer and watch the show." Well, that's what the political scene is like in Missouri. The Missouri GOP doesn’t have the good social graces or the common sense to hide their crazy. In fact, the Missouri GOP turns everything into a messy spectacle that most of us sit and stare in horror at antics the super majority pulls and wonder when it's going to end. One could compare to watching a full-on massacre at the gladiator Colosseum, especially when it comes to inner-party fighting starts spilling out and grabbing the public's attention. But despite the macabre show the GOP puts on--the one thing they all seem to agree on is that the "Constitutional Republic isn't a democracy. I mean you could ask any lawmaker in the supermajority to explain “why we’re not a Democracy and they couldn’t tell you. These folks simply lack the understanding of the most basic functions of our government body. Let alone the Constitution supports the more complex parts like the enumerated rights. These jokers might quote the founding fathers, but they literally can't tell you what the point that quote was getting at. So let's get into the kind of system we are. When our nation was founded, the deeply flawed, but forward-thinking group of men took the best of two ancient systems of democracy to forge our governing system. They took the idea that folks should have a voice in the way they are governed from the Greeks. Then they borrowed the Roman Republic's idea of having a senate and house to create a “Representative” body. This system created both a "Direct" and an "in-direct" (Representative) democracy that set the US apart from the rest of the world. For a refresher on the difference between the two forms of democracies. A "Direct" Democracy means that we would have to go to Capital Hill to vote for everything. Like voting to keep DC’s lights on to massive policy issues that would affect everyday life. Needless to say, as much as the founders wanted civic engagement, they also saw the danger of "Mob Rule" turning into unadulterated tyranny and corruption, much like Ancient Greece’s first attempt at democracy. An "In-Direct" or "Representative" democracy– is the process where we all get to vote for a representative who has the job of addressing issues and votes on them in our best interest, or at least they're supposed to, anyway. That's why folks like Mo Representative Ben Baker over in Mo House District 160 have a seat. Despite the fact, that Mr. Baker likes to pretend that Missouri is a one-party state. But it’s easy to see how one can live in that ugly delusion when the state has no political infrastructure and is gerrymandered to the point that no other political party can run in opposition. But a fun fact, you will never hear a single MAGA acolyte utter about is the ratification of the 17th amendment in 1913. Essentially, that made us even more of a democracy by allowing us to vote for senators. Prior to 1913, our senators were appointed by the state legislative body. Although I would argue that the two seditious clowns that pose as senators (Josh “Pinocchio” Hawley and Eric “Can’t win a court case extraordinaire” Schmitt might as well be appointed–Given Missouri’s current political climate,but I digress. But as deranged as the GOP is about our governing body and its functions, it doesn’t change the fact that we do and are a democracy that is a combination of both “Direct” and “In-direct” with a safety net disguised as a thing known as the “Separation of Powers” between all three branches of government. And that’s where the Constitution and the Judicial branch come into the story. There is no doubt that the founders thought long and hard about writing a document that would enshrine a set of laws and establish rights, but they also understood that it would be a never-ending list of rights that could go on that document. So they created a sensible “loophole” to allow the expansion of already established rights. Which are called “enumerated” rights. Al‌l that fancy word means is that a right can be established for the collective whole through legislation or a court ruling. Providing that right is supported by one (in most cases several) constitutional amendments. A good example of what an “enumerated” right would be abortion. Women gained their right to body autonomy through a court ruling. And it was also stripped away by another court ruling last year. This also means that enumerated rights can be struck down and taken off the books. This brings us to how vital the Judicial branch or legal actually is when it comes to upholding the Constitution. It’s the courts that decide whether it is or isn’t “Constitutional”. It’s meant to be an apolitical branch of government whose sole purpose is to ensure that our Constitution works in the way it was designed and keep wannabe tyrants at bay. But as we learned in recent years-- that's not always the case, or at least according to the news reports. This is the biggest reason that the crazies in the GOP are constantly attacking this branch of government because it is our last line of defense against the crazies. In short, if we can get back to normal, this branch will hold and we’ll be able to move on from this mess of a political climate, and get back to being a semi functional style of government that seemed to keep it together for the past 247 years. But this whole piece also brings up one of the nation’s failings. And that is the lack of stressing just how important civic-mindedness is; Doing our part to make sure that when the system does fail we can hold it accountable. One could argue that part of the reason we're in this huge constitutional crisis is due to the fact, that folks have lost interest in their government. And that to a degree should change or at least get folks more aware of the system that the crazies are hellbent on destroying. Another reason for this is all the political drama and bad acting. Folks are so tired of promises being broken that in their minds, it’s better to let other people with deeper pockets run the show. And this is what really needs to change if we want to keep our 247-year-old system. So, let me encourage you to get involved. You don’t have to know much about the finer points of politics, but rather the importance of the type of government we have. You don’t have to even affiliate yourself with any party if you don’t want to. You simply can start by asking your lawmakers and potential candidates the hard questions. And you can also start by taking a really good, long, and hard look at your neighbors, and ask yourself if “these laws are hurting them?”. ”Or is this really what freedom is supposed to look like?” And if the answer is a big fat "No", then that change you want to see all starts with you getting involved and joining the fight. Because our 247-year-old system that was carefully crafted to withstand most and all things is worth fighting for. Thanks for stopping by my TED Talk on US Civics.

PS. This is also the playbook to fight against "MaRxIsM and CoMmUnIsM". As always be good and be good to another Much love, Jojo