Saving Our Democracy – How It’s Done

Protests, “They Ain’t What They Used to Be”

“Change, it had to come

We knew it all along

We were liberated from the fold, that’s all:”

The Who, 1971, “Won’t Get Fooled Again”

Democracy is voters expressing their distaste or approval through the ballot box. People choosing who gets power based on what they think of the policies, practices, and culture of those running the show. It’s direct, measurable, and built into the system.

So, to be empowered and affect change, one could press a political team – their team or another – to change their policies, practices, and culture. A team gets power and implements its vision, and if the voters don’t like the results, they show it at the ballot box. That’s the mechanism working as intended, messy as it can be. No system’s perfect, but it’s hard to argue that it’s not the people’s voice kicking in.

Protests, held on a Saturday afternoon so it’s easy to sleep in and make an early dinner, do not a democracy make. Generously, such dramas are part of the conversation—free speech and all—but they’re not the mechanism of democracy itself. It’s just noise unless they sway votes or shift policy through pressure. And since the era of fiery but mostly peaceful is hopefully over, as long as it stays non-violent, your democracy gives you the right to attend and the right to protest. While the same democracy permits others to criticize the spectacle.

Suppose a political party wants to win the votes of working Americans. Suppose that political party is losing those votes. If a party is losing that base, it’s usually a sign the message isn’t landing, or the policies aren’t delivering what folks need. Jobs, wages, and the cost of living tend to weigh heavier than speeches. History is littered with examples of parties misreading the room and paying for it at the ballot box.

We need both our major parties to be competing for our votes with policies, practices and culture that most Americans want. Right now, they are competing against each other to be the least of the evils. Voters are experiencing life-threatening levels of eye roll when witnessing the latest antics, drama and staged demonstrations. Does any person reading this column know a single person in their lives who thinks Tim Walz is a rock star? Does any person reading this column think Kid Rock is a political beacon? Conversely, how many people do readers know who are concerned about their cost of healthcare, housing, food, transportation, and education along with having an emergency fund set aside?

Now, consider the amount of intellect and emotion devoted to forming an opinion on the rallies with the governor prancing onto a stage to the sound of rock music or the president dancing to YMCA versus the intellect and emotion focused on core issues of costs of healthcare, housing, food, etc.? How much media attention goes to each of these? Are we, the people, being distracted or served?

In the 1960’s and 1970’s there were protests about the policy of the United States Government, i.e., the war in Vietnam. The protest demands were specific, i.e., stop the war and bring the troops home. Begging the president to use the powers of the office and the mechanisms of government to change the policy. It worked. In 2025, the protest is about the results of the 2024 democratic election and Donald Trump using the powers of the office and the mechanisms of government to implement the policies he campaigned on. The election is over. Only a hyper-partisan amnesiac would think 2024’s winner would be weakened by a side-by-side comparison with the preceding administration’s exercise of presidential powers and use of mechanisms of government.

America had a chance to choose, democratically, between a reckless real estate developer getting us into a trade war and the surrogate for a dementia-stricken man sniffing the scalps of children. So here we are. Either save your time and energy for substance that will affect our lives or make your case for one of the two choices our political system served up. Whining about the winner winning is just further fueling that victor.

The cast of professionals and community players take their roles, the stage is the local park, and the same tired script is acted out. Just count the number of causes du jour that featured the same impotent slogan-shouting that brought no change and only caused observers to laugh or pity the participants.

The democracy is fine.

The problem is that it is delivering us the government we deserve.

Let’s do better.

Onward