Saving Democracy, Two Ways

If you truly want to make a difference, here's how

Mr. Hines was one of those fantastic, immersive high school teachers that you never forget. He taught History in the IB program at Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, MD. He was a Civil War reenactor and when he covered that war, he came to class in full Union Army regalia. When we studied the Far East, he taught a class on Buddhism and Aikido (a martial art focused strictly on defending oneself from attack without injuring the attacker) as he was a black belt in the peaceful fighting system (talk about yin and yang!). As we turned to studying the Napoleonic Wars of the early 19th century, he played Tchaikovsky’s “The Year 1812, Solemn Overture, Op. 49,” while documenting the action along with the music on the chalkboard, without speaking. I haven’t seen him since High School, but I will remember his teaching forever.

Regular readers of this column will recognize my homage to his tutelage in my regular emphasis of the Greek word Demokratia, which he drilled into our head during his review of Ancient Greece - the rule of the common people:

in order to have rule of the common people, the strongest bulwarks of democracy must include freedom of speech and of the press. In order for the common people to have ultimate authority, they must have nearly unlimited power to investigate their representatives in government. When inevitable maladministration, crimes or corruption are discovered (our elected and appointed leaders are human, after all), the people must likewise have nearly unlimited power to say so publicly, seek a redress with the bad actors and hold their representatives accountable.

This week, Julian Assange’s lawyers are engaged in their final hearing in the United Kingdom to determine if he will be extradited to the United States. At odds are the Press Freedoms every American should wholeheartedly support if they truly love freedom and democracy, against the want of our government’s representatives to tell us lies and keep their worst actions secret from our ears and eyes. Mr. Assange is charged with assisting Chelsea Manning with a password to unlock some of the classified information Ms. Manning shared with Mr. Assange for publication. In reading the indictment, it is shocking to learn that it depends on an Executive Order (EO #13526) to establish the law-breaking; Executive Orders are not law, have not passed Congress, and can be rescinded at any time by the sitting President.

Importantly, The Supreme Court has already ruled that news organizations have the right to publish classified materials (New York Times Co. v. United States) so the US prosection’s case rests solely on the password issue. As the Intercept put it at the time of Assange's indictment, “…the indictment seeks to criminalize what journalists are not only permitted but ethically required to do: take steps to help their sources maintain their anonymity.”

Likewise, longtime Assange lawyer Barry Pollack tweeted: “The factual allegations … boil down to encouraging a source to provide him information and taking efforts to protect the identity of that source. Journalists around the world should be deeply troubled by these unprecedented criminal charges.”

The time is now, and the day is here. If Assange is allowed to be extradited by British courts, “American patriots should adopt this principle: No presidential candidate is viable until they commit to a pardon,”as Bret Weinstein laid out this morning. We must elect a President who will end this fascist attempts to keep secret and to lie to the American people about the awful things their government does on their behalf, and to silence any critics of same. If this prosecution is allowed, we may as well give up the game - there is no democracy that can survive such totalitarianism.

“Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one.”

Second, Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, fresh off his brutal, one-state shellacking by President Trump in the current Presidential primary campaign, went straight back to work the day after he announced his campaign was over. Today, he is appearing in South Carolina to stump not for any candidate in the current election cycle, but for term limits, saying, “We will never turn our country around if we don’t change the incentives in DC. Term limits are supported by huge majorities of Americans—it’s time to make it happen.”

Term limits have been an issue discussed at the federal government level since before there was a federal government. The Articles of Confederation (our predecessor to the Constitution) mandated that, ““no person shall be capable of being a delegate for more than three years in any term of six years.” The Virginia Plan at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 originally included term limits, but was ultimately rejected by the panel, perhaps rightfully so.

But since the 1990s, an effort to enact term limits has been gaining traction. As the great conservative commentator George Will wrote in his book “Restoration” in 1992:

After prolonged immersion in Washington’s culture of ruling, there is not a dime’s worth of difference between Democrans and Republicrats. That is why there are appropriations bills funding a study of the handling of manure, a Stuggart, Arkansas fish farm, a recycling facility in Susquehanna, the Institute of Peace, Houston’s “Better-Bus” system, a study of Afognak Island in Arkansas, and thousands of other projects. Any or all of these projects may be Jim-dandy…[but]

Does the federal government have enough money to fund all good ideas? And is the federal government supposed to acknowledge some limits to its reach, some restraints on its activism?

No Founder of our nation had any concept nor aim to see what has happened in the 237 years since the Constitutional Convention - a federal government so large, so domineering, and so professed to be the solution to precisely every problem of society, without care of the ability of said government to solve said problem nor the exorbitant cost it invariably extracts while failing to solve same.

Which of these has our illustrious Congress solved? The War on Drugs? The War on Poverty? The War on Terror? Healthcare Costs? Inflation Reduction? Global Peace and Prosperity? Deficit and Debt Crisis?

The lifelong creatures of Washington DC are the largest roadblock to fundamental change to serve the American people.

Consider just recently the terrible Ukraine funding package that passed the Senate. Fox News reported, "‘Nearly every Republican Senator under the age of 55 voted NO on this America Last bill,’ 48-year-old Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., observed on X. ‘15 out of 17 elected since 2018 voted NO. Things are changing just not fast enough.’”

People like Chuck Grassley (49 years in Congress), Ed Markey (47 years), Nancy Pelosi (36 years), Chuck Schumer (43 years), Mitch McConnell (39 years), Ron Widen (43 years) and Steny Hoyer (42 years) need to go. It is important for our Representatives to be of the common people, who serve for a limited time for the people and have to return to live under the laws they have forged - by the people. These professional representatives do not serve our interest, and the time has come to limit their terms, as we do with Presidents, Governors and many state offices. Our modern democracy needs an old and tested reform.

Go to the US Term Limits site to find out more.