I attended two community meetings that were held to bring people together to talk about national issues and concerns around the direction of the current administration under the leadership of President Donald Trump.
It was not entirely clear to me who was sponsoring the meeting. However, since they were meeting to discuss Trump et al issues, it is safe to assume the meetings were held and attended by Democrat leaning folks.
Those who organized the meetings were openly astonished at the number of people who attended.
“We expected 20 at the most,” the speaker commented as she surveyed a group of around 200 people who attended the first meeting.
Most of the meetings were spent talking about concerns around no less than the imminent — as in as soon as 60 days, according to one participant — dissolution of our democracy.
Attendees warned that people who supported policies that centralized power in the hands of the few, mostly the wealthy, were being put in leadership positions that would form the policies that would govern us,
Indeed, since those meetings, Elon Musk, reported to be the wealthiest person in the world, rose and continues to be the most visible wealthy “influencer.”
Trump has given Musk the authority to take teams and go into government agencies to “reform” them.
Musk has assumed a key operational role in “downsizing the government.”
Initially Trump was somewhat evasive in answer to the question of Musk’s role posed by reporters. My guess is Trump was being careful in case Musk messed up.
Since then, he has voiced strong support for Musk and his “chainsaw” activities in cutting government “waste,” a term that, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.
Second meeting
Our community organizers held the second meeting at the Boys and Girls Club in anticipation of a large crowd.
They were not disappointed. The room was packed. People who arrived late had to go to the stack of chairs for a chair and then find a space to put it.
The second meeting continued where the first left off with the addition of a compelling statement by what seemed an informed person that the loss of our democracy is a very real possibility.
I later heard the same person say that it could be soon — as in weeks, not months or years.
Most of us felt more of an existential risk, an undefined yet known threat to our way of life or, in some cases, lives.
Democracy at risk
America’s democracy holds the record for longest running democracy in known history.
I can imagine there were those in the audience like me who could not imagine that the institutional democracy we have had for over 200 years and all our lifetimes so far was at risk.
How could that be?
Who would want our democracy to fail?
I can easily imagine as some of you can that dictators, wannabe dictators and all the people who wish for someone to just take charge and tell businesses, organizations and people what they can or cannot do want a democracy to fail.
Authoritarian governing is efficient and can be effective, depending on what is defined as effective.
Democracy can be messy. The term democracy, which means “rule by the people,” as we practice it begins in the voting booth where we elect people to represent us.
Rulers and priorities can change as often as every two to four years depending on the elected office. Presidents are limited by law to two four-year terms.
Our current president thinks aloud about whether he can be elected a third time or even needs to be elected. I do not know what he meant but I know what that means to you and me.
Makes me nervous.
In our system, we run the risk that our candidate loses and those elected do not represent our view or our priorities. In so-called majority rules, we are expected to live with and abide by the electorate system.
But what if we have a system that is easily manipulated? Our current president criticized and chided our voting system when he lost the election for a consecutive second term. Not so when he won.
So much around voting and governing has been accepted and not questioned or tested until then and now.
Everyone who attended the meetings and those that wanted to and could not know at a gut level that this is a crucial time for our democracy.
Something is afoot. I wish I knew what it was. Perhaps nothing; however, we must continue to be watchful and informed through many sources not just our favorite biased news source.
As much as we hope our pundits, wise observers and our guts are wrong, we cannot let hope be our strategy.
As all who attended those meetings know, this many unrelated “guts” cannot all be wrong.
They also know it is our work as citizens that we participate in framing and insuring the health and well-being of our democracy.
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Bertha Cooper, an award-winning featured columnist with the Sequim Gazette spent her career years in health care and is the author of the award-winning “Women, We’re Only Old Once.” Cooper and her husband lived in Sequim for 26 years. Now widowed, Cooper continues to live in the area she has grown to love. Reach her at columnists@sequimgazette.com.
