19 January 2022

Note from Norm: We Are The Solution Not The Problem

From  April 12, 1861, through April 9, 1865, the United States of America waged a terrible, bloody, and costly Civil War.  With 620,000 American dead, countless hundreds of thousands more injured, the United States convulsed and nearly ended its young experiment with democracy.

It wasn’t a casual event that stemmed from minor disagreements and personal slights, or even arguments over laws and interpretations of them.

It was an event that emanated from deeply rooted disagreements that had grown for decades that, at its core, demanded we decide whether America would live up to the Constitution’s existential promise that “all men are created equal.”

Today, America faces a host of challenges.  None of which approach anything of the gravitas or nature of the issue that created a battleline that forced America to choose sides in a war that would determine whether some human beings were less equal than others because of the color of their skin.

Yet, there is emerging in America, primarily from the political left and its allies in the One-Party Media (OPM), a growing chorus of voices insisting that America is on the verge of another Civil War.  Not surprisingly their hysteria isn’t focused on the existential issue that almost split America apart forever.  It’s focused on their ideological view of an America that is in conflict with what most Americans believe democracy represents now and in the future.

Liberals and the OPM believe that repealing Roe V. Wade is a prelude to a Civil War.  That efforts to pass laws to strengthen the integrity of our elections is tantamount to an insurrection.  Americans who enjoy the protection of the 2nddAmendment are little more than the shock troops of an imaginary Civil War in the eyes of Liberals and the OPM.

A little more than a  year ago, the nation saw an unforgivable attack on our Nation’s Capital by protestors -and some who became rioters,  who became criminals.  The summer before the nation saw  unforgivable attacks  in major cities by protestors- some  who became rioters, who became criminals.

Yet, when the latter occurred, there wasn’t a Liberal or OPM representative who declared that America was on the verge of a Civil War as criminals burned our cities.

Yet, when the former occurred the nation has been subjected to a year of handwringing by Liberals and the OPM that an angry mob that didn’t get the election results they wanted are the front-line soldiers for a Civil War.

And, a year to the day that it happened the same Liberals and their allies used every platform at their disposal to announce democracy’s end if their political ideology isn’t enacted from one end of the country to the other.

The irony to all this sackcloth and ashes from Liberals and the OPM is that the threat to Democracy isn’t from Americans concerned  about the integrity of their elections, exercising their Constitutional Rights, or seeking to overturn laws that they believe are contrary to their values.

On the contrary, those Americans represent everything that is fundamentally right about America.

The real assault to the pillars of American Democracy is those who dismiss the legitimate concerns Americans have about who is voting in our elections, ensuring the protection of their Constitutional Rights, and enforcing the laws that keep our communities safe.

My concern about American Democracy isn’t that we are on the verge of a Civil War.  Putting the liberal hysteria aside, no matter how divided we might think America is today over our politics we are not dealing with an existential threat to Democracy.

We are, however, dealing with and America that is under siege and attack from the political left and their allies who have so devalued aspects of our Democracy that it weakens us domestically, and undermines our national interests abroad.

Is requiring voter identification a greater threat to election integrity and security?  Or is allowing 800,000 noncitizens the right to vote in an election in New York City?

Or the eleven municipalities in Maryland, two in Vermont and San Francisco that allow noncitizens to vote in local elections?

Should America fix the holes and weaknesses in our Electoral count laws, or should we defer to Democrat’s demands that we pass an election law that weakens protections that ensure voter integrity at a local level but strengthens federal interference in elections?

Over the next few weeks my “Notes from Norm” posts are going to focus on what I believe the real threats are to American Democracy – not the notion that America is on the precipice of a Civil War.

The real threats to American Democracy result from undermining respect for the Rule of Law – weakening laws that require proof of eligibility to vote – loosening eligibility requirements to vote – and refusing to fix loopholes in the Electoral Count Act of 1887.

The real threat to Democracy comes from the efforts of Democrats today to  federalize election laws and  destroy the checks  and balances of rules in the U.S. Senate that have been central to it being a place where  a slim majority cannot reshape the institution to make itself a permanent majority

We, the People, have a choice in furthering the future of American Democracy.

Liberals and the OPM see us as the problem.

The Constitution of the United States saw us as the solution.