The neat rows of simple white crosses stretch much too far in American military cemeteries across Europe — marking the graves of young and brave American soldiers. There are few who can walk among those graves without tears flowing freely. They gave their lives for our country and died much too young. As Colin Powell stated, we have sent our young soldiers abroad, and “all we ever asked for in return was enough room to bury our dead.” Those soldiers never came home to their families.
President Woodrow Wilson knew the horrible cost of war and struggled to stay out of World War I. But he ultimately realized that we had to fight to defend what America stood for. He told the American public we were going to enter the war in Europe in order to “make the world safe for democracy.” And 116,000 young soldiers gave their lives to keep the idea and the sanctity of democracy alive in the world.
America has aspired to be, as Ronald Reagan observed, “a shining city upon a hill” — a city that is a beacon of democracy, a beacon of people being able to determine their government in free and fair elections. Over the course of American history, access to those elections has expanded, making them always fairer and more representative of the true will of the people.
We decided, if you can fight to defend democracy, you ought to be allowed to vote, and the voting age was moved from 21 to 18. We agreed that if you are a woman, you ought to be allowed to vote, and if you are African-American, you ought to be allowed to vote. We also decided that anything hindering the right to vote — like the poll taxes — interfered with the success of our government.
Any current politicians, who push laws to suppress the vote or control election outcomes in any way, are unquestionably sitting on the wrong side of history. They desecrate the lives of those 116,000 soldiers and those white crosses that shine in the sun 100 years later.
Democracy is a messy form of government. It moves and fits and starts. As Winston Churchill is said to have observed, “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the rest!”
I come from a family whose history goes back to the very first Republican convention in 1856, and nobody attending that convention would recognize the Republican Party of today. Too many Republican leaders today have decided they are so certain of their policies and positions, that the power to control election outcomes, through voter suppression or gerrymandering, is more important than democracy itself.
Many have commented that Democrats seem to debate aggressively among themselves, as though that is a weakness. In fact, it is vibrant democracy at work.
Whenever a political party forces all members to vote as a block and works to punish any outliers who disobey, while at the same time pardoning inexcusable behavior, that party has abandoned democracy and has embraced authoritarian, minority rule.
It breaks my heart that too many local, state and national Republican Party leaders (though certainly not all Republicans) are pushing voter suppression, endorsing the big 2020 election lie, and moving inexorably away from democracy and into the arms of an authoritarian future.
There is no question that we are at a crossroads in our history as a democracy, and, reflecting on those who gave their lives to save ours, it’s hard not to think of the words of Lincoln at Gettysburg. We will find out in the years to come whether “that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.” The future of our nation may well depend on thoughtful, reflective Republicans who arrive at their voting booth, put their country first and choose democracy.
