"...that have been tried."
Churchill's view of democracy revisited.
“Politics ain’t bean bag.” Quoting Mr. Dooley, a colloquial spokesman from the sidelines of politics past. Today we would say: “The political process is not cornhole.”
We seem to want it both ways, however. Hardball and Softball. We acknowledge that democratic political life involves street fighting and corruption, while on the other hand, we bemoan the “loss” of honor and dignity in Washington (or many State capitals). And we ask the age-old question: “Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?” “Who will guard the guards themselves?” (Attributed to first century Roman satirist and poet Juvenal.) I.e. who will rule the rulers? The people, good democrats will say. But who keeps them in line?
All this leads to much handwringing. There is hypocrisy. Public figures are cowards. Sensible people stay arms-distance from politics. The wealthy use their wealth for political leverage. We watch fools and knaves cavort on our beachheads like Shakespeare’s ship-wrecked sailors in “The Tempest.”
But this is only the surface of a much deeper question.
Is the free-for-all of democratic process still a viable form of government, in a world of vast inequality, higher militarized States, and looming crises such as environmental changes? Are we being nostalgic, as we repeat the Churchillian aphorism: “democracy is the worst form of government – except for all the others that have been tried.”
Note, however, that he qualified this statement, “that have been tried.”
