Freedom Shall Endure
Whatever the results of the midterm elections, opportunities will remain to save American democracy, because freedom will remain an enduring part of the American heritage and the human condition.
Photo of the woman arguing with Soviet soldiers during the Prague Spring in 1968.
The wolves are standing outside the doors of American democracy. And whether Republicans win big or Democrats hold the line, it will remain under siege. We are a nation on the brink of authoritarianism. We are in danger of becoming the next Turkey or Poland, Hungary or Venezuela—and there is no telling when the wolves will go home. In fact, by the time you read this article, they may be preparing to shred our institutions and tear at our hearts. All of us are now familiar with the scenarios, so there is no need to rehash the details.
And yet, whatever happens in the days and weeks and months ahead, freedom shall endure. Freedom shall endure as an ideal of how people might join together and govern themselves as free and equal citizens. For democracies have always existed side by side with autocracies, notes David Stasavage in his epic global history, The Decline and Rise of Democracy. In fact, democracies have existed in every major region of the world, and they have been far more common than most of us think. So, the inspiration that is needed to overcome authoritarian regimes can always be sought in human nature itself—however much the devil of authoritarianism also lies within.
American democracy is also at an advantage—whatever happens in the days and weeks and months ahead. Freedom shall endure as a memory of a calmer and less anxious time when democratic institutions held sway. Freedom shall endure as a cultural disposition to consult with others and collaborate on shared projects. Freedom shall endure as a set of institutions whose remnants can be revived and renewed. And it shall appear as a default to fall back on when current political trends abate. A deeper freedom might also be called on in the years ahead.
Freedom will not die because it lives in our hearts and has its seat in an awareness that is untouched by the works of humanity. In this sense, it is like the freedom of which the charioteer and spiritual guide Arjuna spoke in the Hindu Bhagavad Gita, when he counseled the great warrior Arjuna to fight in a terrible civil war. Arjuna was protecting his kingdom against his power mad cousins bent on destroying it in order to seize power. And as Arjuna shrank before the horror of the battle that was to come, and the degeneration of family and culture that would come through such infighting, Krishna counseled him to fight and leave the fruits of his actions to God (an admonition that Gandhi interpreted nonviolently). In short, the warrior Arjuna was to find his freedom through an awareness beyond the reach of human works. What mattered most was to do what’s right.
The existentialist philosopher Jean Paul Sartre wrote of a similar freedom as the Nazis occupied his French homeland. He wrote that while we might not have freedom over the conditions of the world, we could always choose how we reacted to them. Perhaps that might mean savoring the fight or finding a place of peace inside ourselves amid the din of battle. But in the end, much as the Ancient Roman Stoics argued, we could always choose to take our own lives, or give them to a higher cause, if life became unbearable. But nobody in the United States is contemplating that sort of tyranny at this time.
Perhaps the greatest worry lies in swing state Republicans placing their electors in the hands of their legislatures. This would allow the legislatures of swing states like Wisconsin or Arizona to choose which presidential candidate to award their state’s electoral votes to—regardless of who actually wins the the presidential election in their state. This would give Republicans a dramatic built in advantage in presidential elections. But the citizens of states where they try this might rebel and vote them out of office. The fear of such a rebellion may keep Republican state legislatures from going ahead with such a plan. Citizens in some of these states can pass ballot initiatives to stop them from going through with it. The courts might block such blatant power grabs. And the threat of it might lead to the passage of a bi-partisan congressional voter protection bill. If all that fails, voters may still punish Republicans for trying to steal our state in 2024, or they might simply punish them at the polls for their madness.
There is always hope for change in even the most brutal totalitarian regimes, and there is all the more hope in a long standing and developed democracy. What is important for each of us is that, as the Bhagavad Gita counsels, we find “stillness in action and action in stillness.” In short, we need to act from a deeper place inside ourselves that will remain unmoved by the outcomes of our actions—because there are no guarantees when the wolves are standing outside your door. And we need to recognize that fighting for freedom is a perennial condition of humanity. In taking it upon ourselves, we might find more of our humanity while bonding with the rest of humanity, who have often been burdened with enduring greater oppression.
In this way, fighting for freedom might free us on the inside while binding us together in solidarity without. In the meantime, the future is ours for the taking, and we can make of it what we will, so long as we possess the will to bring it into being.
~ Theo Horesh, author of The Fascism This Time: And the Global Future of Democracy
Freedom Shall Endure
Shared this to FB Theo!! 😉🇺🇸💙