The Struggle for Democracy: Preserving Freedom and Equality in Today’s America

by Cindy Miller - Benton Harbor

It’s very difficult to be an American at this point in history. After all the dedicated sacrifice of decades of my family for a land of freedom and equality, to see each hard won success destroyed by the flick of a pen from an autocrat is the very antithesis of what a democracy deserves.

Shamefully, hatred seems to be the disheartening drug of choice for too many today.

None of us can do much alone against the corporate power that has taken over our economy for nearly eighty years, leaving young people unable to afford healthcare, education, child care, or housing.

I valued the ideals of Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt as the types of presidents democracy needed each at their own critical time of history.

Abraham Lincoln tried to appease the slave owners but had the courage to stand against their power to actually follow the moral high ground for a young country.

Fireside chats were not full of condemnation, but rather filled with hope, with support for the common good, and an understanding that corporations owe a debt to the very people who have supported their growth, not the other way around.

The “common good” we refer to today is our message to one another. It allows people to feel a sense of belonging and pride in our country, to support and improve it as our bond to the land, to each other, and then to the world as that “shining beacon on the hill.”

I would suggest that to rebuild this allegiance to our country, our democracy, and our fealty to each other, we must elect politicians, who not only put their wealth into a blind trust, but relinquish any control over said monies until their service has been completed. At the end of said service all campaign monies should be returned to the governments and people at the particular level at which they served. They would further be denied any financial dealings in real estate, the stock market, cryptocurrencies, bitcoins, etc., until said service had been completed.

We pay our elected officials a decent salary and a generous retirement after fairly short service. Their benefit packages are excellent. Their simple public service with its assurance of some financial protection with no possibility of self-dealing, would provide a greater sense of purpose, greater respect from their communities, and no obligations to a particular medical group, corporation, religious, or party affiliation.

Representatives might once again be proud to walk among their constituents, to talk to us, to truly represent our peace of mind and well-being in exchange for the work we give to our country year after year, decade after decade, until we are no more.