(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . The Heart of the Problem Revealed by this Election [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-11-12 Dear XXX, I can hardly bear to think about politics (since the Election), but I also cannot stop thinking about this catastrophic situation we're in. Here's one idea I thought it might be useful to share with you. Democrats are of course thinking about what went wrong, and what changes should be made to give us a better chance of getting things to go right. It seems to me that most of it misses the heart of the matter. The heart of the matter, I believe, is that some things have gone seriously amiss in the "consciousness" of (a substantial portion of) the American people. And what Democrats should be focused on is understanding how that happened, and asking how it can be repaired (by Democratic politicians, and others). I made a video on this subject, which I posted on Daily Kos. But I don't think that presentation was as clear as it could be. So let me try here to make the case clearly and succinctly: ****** Our Founders -- with their idea of "Republican virtue" -- indicated their understanding that the survival of the demo cratic order they were creating depended on certain qualities of the " Demos ." My formulation of those qualities is this: Democracy requires that (enough of) the people have a good (enough) understanding and good (enough) values so that they can make good (enough) decisions in their role as citizens. This election shows major defects in the American electorate in both the realm of understanding and the realm of values: I. Understanding One quick-and-dirty way of revealing how Fascism succeeded because of poor understanding is to consider this one representative finding: a) the reality is that the Biden Presidency set records for job-creation, but b) 4/5 of the American people believed there had been no job creation at all. (And this is but one aspect of the major divergence between economic reality and the people's mistaken beliefs about it, and the "Economy" was a main motivator for many voters' going for Trump. Clearly, that defect in the consciousness of the people should be a major focus for Democrats: How did that happen? How might such triumphs of falsehoods over truths be prevented in the future? How can a better contact with factual reality be established in the minds of the American majority? II. Values All such "issues" -- the Economy, Immigration, etc. -- should have been entirely secondary in this Election. It could hardly have been clearer that Democracy itself was at stake. Yet a majority of voters opted for the path of Fascism. Clearly, that represents a failure in the people of either the kind of understanding or values -- or a combination of both of those components of "Republican virtue" -- on which the survival of our Democracy depends. (Liz Cheney modeled the required "Republican virtue" -- understanding that the issues were secondary, and placing the proper priority on maintaining Democracy, the Rule of Law, and the other fundamental values of our system.) Clearly, that defect in the consciousness of the people should be a major focus for Democrats. How did that happen? To the extent that people didn't understand what was at stake, how can such understanding be achieved in the people in the future? And to the extent that this majority of voters didn't care about the basic Democratic values underlying the system our Founders bequeathed to us, what can be done to instill that crucial commitment in (enough of the) American people? (Of course, these are not the only questions to be asked, but they seem to me the most important ones.) I hope these thoughts are of some use. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/11/12/2285085/-The-Heart-of-the-Problem-Revealed-by-this-Election?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/