Ideal Democracy and Puke Politics

I wrote the first draft of this note two days ago. Yesterday I trashed it, which isn't unusual. Actually, if a note gets to the editor, it continues through a dozen revisions or so until I get busy with something else.* 

The note I trashed wasn't good enough. Originally I called it "Puke Politics" because it was about the sickening decline of political discourse in many aspiring democracies. Where that essay failed was in not redirecting our attention to the ideal. Therefore this note makes a point of the ideal to remind us of where we have fallen short.

Here's where we are headed, Puke Politics:
control and exploitation of the people,  
by whomever speaks the biggest lies, most damning insults, and catchiest slogans, **
winner take all.

Ideal Democracy is hard to pin down but Abraham Lincoln made a good try:
government of the people,
by the people,
for the people.

Making that ideal happen isn't so easy, and it seems to be slipping away. We are going to lose it unless we make the effort to be the change we want to see in the world, (according to Ghandi). At a minimum we need to
-pay attention,
-seek the truth,
-understand the duties of belonging to a free society,
-balance self interest with mutual respect and restraint and fairness and generous compassion,
-honour the rights of others including minorities,
-do the hard work to make things better. ***

******************

* Yours truly is the editor of these notes. All my fault.

** NYC Trump Rally: Associated Press, Oct 27 2024
Obscene antiTrudeau slogans: Front Burner, April 2024
Downgrading of India's Democracy: Soutik Biswas, BBC, March 2021

*** 236 words so far. More words about ideal Democracy in this week's Beyond the Walls worship at the Canada East Mission legislative conference of Community of Christ.