In the fairytale, “Snow White,” the egotistic, evil Queen, having received the word from her Magic Mirror that Snow White is more beautiful than she, takes steps to eliminate her from society. In an esoteric way, we see the age-old tale as having notable utilitarian reference, in the context of politics, to a democratic government such as the United States. More specifically, the symbolic dynamics of such a venerable (magic) mirror have an analogous resonance with our Nation’s Presidential campaign.
Our chosen analogy specifically relates to the empirical property of mirrors to reflect the true, albeit, a reversed, image of reality. It is our view that it is the (voting) public, as reflected therein, that dynamically determines the future nature of the Nation, rather than, as represented in the (reversely) stereotypical campaign, the chosen candidate, In short, the Nation, ultimately, selects a candidate, reflective of the temporal state of the Nation rather than the winning candidate.
The fundamental aspiration for a true democracy, as intended by our (then) radically philosophical Founders, clearly enunciated by them in the Federalist Papers, and inscribed in our Constitution, was for a Nation, ” By and for the People.” It was the dynamics of the will of the Nation, freely, intentionally, and dynamically expressed by the vote of the people that is the governing North Star of democratic governance. This foundational principle is diametrically opposite to autocratic governance, where the will of the tyrant, arbitrary or otherwise, is the sole determinant. In this context, it may be observed that the political philosopher Rousseau, although in a different context, observed, “Always the governed are more powerful than the governors.” Relative to the principle that in a democratic polity, it is the expressed, composite will of the people that is determinative of the nature and style of governance. Thus, Thomas Jefferson famously admonished, “For a democracy to endure, what is needed is an educated and informed society.” Benjamin Franklin described the Founders” newly created Nation, as “A Republic, if you can keep it.” The thoughtful combination of the two admonitions endures and notably relates to the extant state of our Republic, in which the character of so many of its citizens invites cautious circumspection.
In contrast to a republican-democratic “rule, by and for the people,” there has been a toxic, historical reprise on the part of a sizeable segment of the American voting population, marching in lock-step, to the autocratic, atavistic, and pervasive drumbeat of a felonious criminal who has declared his intention to be dictator,” under the grossly distorted, banner of “Make America Great Again “(“MAGA”). The contemporaneous enemies of democracy, it is observed, now loyally sport red Trump baseball caps, instead of the more historically, identifiable (Nazi) black shirts, reprise
It has been in the context of the existential quality of our participant democracy, as articulated by Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, that we have eternally emphasized as the theme of this blog space: the promotion of education, personal, and societal advancement, and intellectual growth through liberal education, and participation in the arts and sciences, the enduring pillars of our Republican Democracy. The program of “alternative facts ” promotion of divisiveness, bigotry, disrespect for the rule of law, and social immorality, signify the atavistic evil of Trump-style, “Dark Ages, ” governance. Human enlightenment and advancement are, by contrast, the enduring ingredients of personal responsibility, moral self-image, mature perspective, and proper valuation of justice and humanistic empathy.
The Presidential election next November will predictably be the litmus paper test of the existential nature and quality of our Nation. We are greatly encouraged by the positive reception accorded to the new Democratic ticket of Harris and Walz (see # M.106, “THE KAMALA WALZ”) nevertheless, it will be the determinative quality of our voters that will be reflected in the resultant mirror; not so much the candidates, however acceptable.
-p.
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