(Why) Yesterday Was a Very Good Day for America’s Democracy

When the Sleeping Giant of a Democracy Finally Begins to Wake Up — Watch Out

Image Credit: Andrew Kelly

Yesterday was that rarest of thing in recent times: a very good day for America. For American democracy. Which, like it or not, sets the tone for the world’s. First, there was the arraignment of Donald Trump — replete with perp walk, live and in Technicolor. Then, in Wisconsin, a crucial seat on the state Supreme Court was won by a sane woman, and lost by a Trumpist election denying fanatic. And in Chicago, a fierce progressive won the crucial mayor’s race.

Cause for celebration? A resounding yes. Because there’s more to to all this than there might seem to the eye. Especially the jaded eye of cable news pundits and newspaper columnists. Let me tell you the story my way.

American democracy’s still in grave peril. That same day, some pretty frightening things happened, too. In Tennessee, the House moved to expel…three Democratic members…for…calling for gun control. To cries of fascism. With shoves and physical violence. This comes just after, of course, yet another massacre at a school. Meanwhile, in Florida, DeSantis continues his assault on democracy — about to ban abortions at six weeks, which is before, of course, many women know they’re pregnant. It’s in this context of peril that yesterday matters.

How do you arrest the slide of a democracy into authoritarianism, theocracy, fascism? It’s not easy. It’s a subtle and complex thing. And most of all, it goes like this: the sleeping giant of a democracy wakes up.

Waking up the sleeping giant of a democracy is difficult, and even hard to notice, sometimes. Because while the fanatics who want to undo democracy attack it in a blitzkrieg fashion — lightning speed, unrelenting assault, like DeSantis, Trump, or textbook figures like Mussolini and Stalin — a democracy wakes up slowly. Like a person in a deep, deep sleep, a democracy is roused in fits and starts. But when, finally, it awakes, there is nothing more dangerous to the fanatics and lunatics who want to undo it.

Is that what began to happen yesterday? Like I said, let me tell you the story my way. There I was, standing at the little cafe, in my little town, just sipping my coffee, and sneaking a cigarette. A man in a wheelchair wheeled towards me. “Could you give me a light?” he asked. Sure, I said amiably. We began talking. He began talking. About how happy he felt that Trump was being arraigned. How he’d just watched it. A couple of old ladies joined us. Broad, fierce smiles on their faces. Then a dad and his kid did. Suddenly, I realized, we were having something like…a little street party…celebrating the indictment of Donald Trump.

Now, that’s not normal. In my little town? If you talk to people, it’s about three things. The weather, dogs, and traffic, in that order. Politics? Never. It’s just not done. So for a group of random strangers to get together…and celebrate…is remarkable. Unusual, to say the least. For them all to feel the same thing?

What does it feel like when a slumbering democracy begins to wake up? A certain electricity flows through society. It’s rare — incredibly rare — to feel this in America. In other places, you feel it all the time. Take France, where protests about as common as a good coffee, which is to say, ubiquitous. The electricity never stops flowing, and sometimes, often, it’s tiring. But in America, it’s become rarer and rarer over the years to feel that electricity. That excitement.

Fighting the decay of a democracy isn’t just about lawsuits and procedures, though those are important. What’s more important — and this will be a controversial point — is feelings. But give me a second to teach you why.

What do I mean, precisely, by electricity? Well, at that little cafe, social bonds were formed. A sense of confidence was had. Trust between people flowed again. Smiles and laugher and happiness were had. All these, between different kinds of people — me, the brown dude, the guy in the wheelchair, the old ladies, the dad and the kid. It was a portrait of democracy.

Now consider what fascists do — and why they do it. They intimidate. They terrorize. They threaten — just like Trump’s minions immediately, foolishly, shared pictures of the judge’s daughter. You can see that intimidation literally everywhere now. Marjorie Taylor Greene is invited on 60 Minutes and smears everyone the lunatics don’t like, teachers, parents, gay people, as “pedophiles.” DeSantis bullies, LOL, kids. Parents. Families.

The fundamental tactic of fascism is intimidation. Think about how Trump is basically never-ending reel of threats, gaslighting, playing the victim, and revenge fantasies. Think of how the strategy that his movement uses is to cow people into submission and silence.