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Watching Television Can Save Our Democracy

Updated: Apr 10, 2023

Two of my proudest moments as an American were during the presidential contest between John McCain and Barack Obama, because we had two candidates for our highest office who displayed honor and integrity when it counted most.


McCain’s demonstration of honor and integrity occurred when a woman at a meeting of voters expressed to McCain her dismay that Obama was a Muslim and not a real American. McCain replied that he wasn’t a Muslim. He was a loyal American with ideas about how to improve our country that McCain considered incorrect. That’s the reason to oppose Obama’s election. What McCain refused to do on that occasion was benefit from a belief that he knew was false.


Obama refused to benefit from an attack on a family member of the opposition. A teenage daughter of McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin, became pregnant, and some Obama partisans started to use this information for electoral advantage. Obama shut it down immediately, saying we don’t attack a candidate’s family, especially children. (At that time, independent groups didn’t ignore a candidate’s wishes about attack ads.)


This kind of honor and integrity is needed for voters to gain the knowledge they need without irrelevant distractions. James Madison wrote: “A people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.” Politicians who are so intent on getting elected that they would distract, confuse, or mislead voters lack integrity and honor and, if Madison was right, undermine democracy itself.


Consider the issue of transgender women in women’s sports. I favor respect for members of the LGBTQ community. But I object when progressives who promote science regarding climate change and Covid-19 ignore scientific evidence that elevated testosterone levels in boys over the age of 12 give most trans women significant advantages over other women in many sports.


New research may find that in some sports or events trans women can compete fairly with other women. But this doesn’t excuse progressives who immediately condemned the International Rugby League and the International Swimming Federation for banning most trans women from international women’s competition. Failure to assimilate available and relevant information deprives our discourse of “the power which knowledge gives.” Honor and integrity, as well as democracy, require that we use available knowledge even when it runs against our preferences.


I equally fault Republicans for what they are saying about the economy. Americans blame inflation, especially the rise in the prices of food and fuel on President Biden, even though informed Republicans know that inflation related to these items is just as great in Europe as in the United States because the underlying causes stem from the pandemic.


Businesses relied on supply chains disrupted by the pandemic. China reduced its output, creating shortages of computer chips and many other items. Many businesses laid off workers to save money and now lack trained workers to do many tasks. None of this has anything to do with Biden or Democrats. Republicans see electoral advantage in fooling people. This is dishonorable and also damages the honest discourse that democracy requires.


If politicians are at fault for fooling people, the American public is at fault for being fooled. If you think you want to live in a country where the people rule, you have to pay attention so that you can identify rubbish when it’s presented to you. That was James Madison’s message.


Honor, integrity, and truth foster confidence and lead to respect. The heroes of the 2020 election and its aftermath as revealed by the House committee investigating the insurrection are almost all conservative Republicans. Republican appointed judges, many election judges, former President Trump’s cabinet members and advisors, and secretaries of state who voted for Trump and applaud his programs have been key to saving our democracy. They put knowledge and truth ahead of personal and partisan advantage. They displayed honor and integrity.


Now that I know that they are true patriots, I realize that I should take their views about what is good for our country more seriously than I have in the past. I now believe them when they say that they truly believe their program to be what our country needs. Whether they are right or wrong, they certainly deserve my attention, because they’ve earned my respect. Honesty and integrity among politicians and the public can heal our divisions.


So what can you do to save our democracy as Madison envisioned it? Watch the House hearings on the insurrection. Much more than gun control, inflation, and global warming, the insurrection must be understood by the American public if our experiment in democracy is to survive. Many people gave their lives to protect our country. The rest of us can at least devote 15 or 20 hours to watching recordings of the hearings so denial of reality doesn’t ruin our country.


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