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In each of these cases, people believed that the destruction of democracy was impossible. They believed that Law and Voting would right things, that only a small minority held extreme views and that it was only the rabble who were moved to give up the responsibilities along with the rights of citizenship. That educated, reasonable people would always win their defense of the electoral system that was the bedrock of the State. And in these cases (and others as well) the educated, reasonable people found out far too late that they were wrong, that their democracy had died while they believed themselves to be unassailable.
Maybe, maybe this time we can yell out BEFORE it is too late--This has happened before. And every time it has ended in disaster for those who believe in freedom, in the Rights of Man (sorry, but the resonance with the documents of that name takes precedence over gender-neutral language,) in the notion of rational thought and responsible government.
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The day of all socio-economic classes and most if not all students having a decent education available to them no longer exists (if it ever did. I think it did but that is another issue.)
The day of the Social Contract is GONE. OVER. Decried by the Right-Wing as being "Liberal" (and we all know what a DIRTY word that has become,) it died a death at the hands of unenlightened self-interest. Sadly, that self-interest doesn't understand how deadly it is, only how good it feels RIGHT NOW. Like a diabetic gorging on sugar, the middle class in America is gorging on the resources we should be carefully and responsibly maintaining, like the
Bush-erated surplus.
I think when future historians document the decline and fall of the American Democracy, a la Gibbon and the Roman Empire, a large issue or turning point will be seen as the public's willingness to see the 2000 election decided by the Supreme Court. Regardless of whether any individual agrees with either the Court's decision or the way they came to have the ability to make that decision, the fact that it happened that way AND that it was accepted by the public with NO backlash whatsoever, will be seen as a large indicator of the fall yet to come. And future readers will say "Why didn't they see and understand that?"
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