So what do we do now? If you have gotten here, hopefully you have decided that our form of government is worth protecting. Unfortunately, if you have gotten here, you have probably also decided our form of government is in need of protection. We need to do something about the President. We need to do something about the Congress. We need to do something about the Supreme Court. But what, and how?
The Buddhists have a saying that the only thing you can change is yourself. I know for some of us that sounds defeatist. But I think it points out an extremely important truth. I am going to go with "The FIRST thing you need to change is yourself". Why? Because we have to get back to the Common Good.
If we go with "knee jerk" philosophy, we could say that the Mantra of Democracy is "Live and let Live!" As a people, we are committed to the idea that as long as we respect the rights of others, we should be left in peace to enjoy our own rights. We all know that in real life there are always those who want us to respect their rights but refuse to respect ours. We call them sociopaths and the success of civil society depends on them never being more than a small percentage of the total.
So live and let live is as good a place to start as any. That said, since we are talking about big words like democracy and society, I think we need to realize that the horizon for live and let live, is way to short to take in the big picture. For the big picture, we need to go back to the Declaration of Independence. We need to go back to the statements that all people are created equal, and all people are given by their creator the rights to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. It is easy to imagine Live and let Live, without ANY expectation of either Liberty or Pursuit of Happiness.
First REALLY big question: are we willing to Live and let Live, without ANY expectation of either Liberty or Pursuit of Happiness? If our answer is Yes, then we don't really need democracy at all. If the answer is No, then we need to remember that without Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness, Democracy is not a sellable product.