Amazingly, our democracy works. It works somewhat like the free market. The free market employs the profit interest of human beings to get goods where they want to be. Amazingly, this process is better at getting goods and services where I want them than any central planning could be. It’s messy, competitive, and random, but it works. Democracy works in a similar way.
Democracy is a rough and tumble process that gradually moves nations in a better direction. This progress is not because the side that wins is competent and good. It is because each faction watches the other like a hawk ready to pounce on its prey. This keeps each side on their toes and gradually removes the dross.
People like to hear that we are all in this together and above power politics, but we all know this is not true. Each side loves to claim a purity for themselves, even though they are enmeshed in the fray. Each side sees very clearly the hypocrisy of the assertion of this purity . . . in the other side.
Those who complain about election fraud today were those who defended the sanctity of the process yesterday. Those who act shocked that people would question the election process yesterday claimed that the victor won because of Russian collusion. That’s not to say that foreign interference or election fraud does not occur. Rather, this indicates that each side will use any evidence of misconduct to their advantage rather than weighing the evidence dispassionately.
This is rooted in our own pride. We tend to value our own side and our own interests far out of proportion to their own value in comparison to those of others. People will generally unjustly skew things to their own advantage. We all build narratives that make us pure and our opponents diabolical.
The result is that politics consists of the jostling of various interests. The result is often a tolerable solution that is the result of the balancing of interests. As Reinhold Niebuhr said concerning the American safety net: “We have however reached moderately satisfactory practical solutions of these problems, not by disinterested intelligence but by the balance of interested wisdom” (The Self & the Dramas of History, 200).
The Founding Fathers of the United States set up a system that allowed for these diverse interests to balance each other out: two houses in the legislature, the supreme court, and the presidency. In addition, there is the balance of state governments. The Founding Fathers of the United States did not set up a system of government that would work like a well-oiled machine. They set up a system where the various interests of society would have the opportunity to fight for their interests and balance each other out within the system rather than outside of it or simply through violence.
So, when the house impeaches the president, the system is working. When one party challenges the election results in the courts, the system is working. We may not agree, but this is how the system is supposed to work. It allows various interests to fight it out in a relatively civil way (compared to violent conflict). This is how it has always worked. It is pure illusion to imagine a time in the past with disinterested political struggles. Even the most selfless politicians in American history had to make use of power politics to oppose their opponents.
This conflict within the system is not as bad as it appears. It is rough and grates on the ears, to be sure. But, as Ralph Waldo Emerson put it, “The same energy in the Greek Demos drew the remark, that the evils of popular government appear greater than they are; there is compensation for them in the spirit and energy it awakens” (The Conduct of Life in Emerson: Essays and Lecutres, 975). It is precisely the intensity of struggle within a democracy that brings about its greatest achievements, often after several failures. America argued bitterly about the Vietnam war. The result was a recalibration of the U.S. military that made it even more effective. America arguably did worse than any other country in the spread of the coronavirus, but its technological innovation will save the world from it. This is how democracy tends to work. As Winston Churchill is purported to have quipped, “America will always do the right thing . . . after it has exhausted all other possibilities.”
So, what should a person do in light of this? Give up in despair? No, get involved! Get involved in politics, but do so with greater awareness. In particular, be aware of three things.
1. Politics will be rough. It is a balance of interest against interest and, like the clash of metals, it will produce sparks. Get used to this and thicken your skin to be able to bear it. This same process is true to a smaller extent in family, community, and church life. You can’t escape it.
2. We all use power and skew it in our own favor. In every communal activity, people will have to use power. Don’t act like you are the exception to power politics and stand above it. If we can all recognize our use of power and our tendency to skew it in our own direction, this will reduce some of the intensity of the passions involved in politics.
3. We should engage in, but we should not be consumed by political struggles. You have to engage in the fight, but you also need to be able to see above and beyond it. Recognize that people are more than Democrats and Republicans. They are human beings with like passions and the same need of the grace of God. You may have to fight against them in various contexts, but it is good to be able to stand above these conflicts as well.
So, we should not look at the events of the past year with despair. These are the assertions of power that are normal in a democratic system. They may be right or wrong, but they are also inevitable. No side is immune to them, however much they may say otherwise. The key is to be able to step outside of the system while engaging in it. This is the best way to promote justice and brotherhood in a fallen world.