A refined and shortened version of the original posting was submitted to the newspaper for publication.
It was published in the Sky Hi News June 26-27, 2018;
https://www.skyhinews.com/news/opinion/muftic-ignorance-is-the-greatest-danger-to-democracy/
Steve Schmidt's reasons for quitting the Republican Party is the clearest and closest to my own beliefs.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/steve-schmidt-mccains-campaign-chief-quits-indecent-and-immoral-gop
Poll: 55% US thinks democracy getting weaker; fear authoritarianism.
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A majority of Americans, 55 percent, now labels American democracy as “weak,” and 50 percent said the nation is in “real danger of becoming a nondemocratic, authoritarian country.”
It follows:
We have become a nation of slogans, but not of knowledge. Most Americans believe there is a "deep state" calling the shots in Washington, per recent polls. It is a slogan, but it is not reality. Even one cabinet member Donald Trump appointed is in a special position to know. Mike Pompeo, Secretary of State and former CIA director, said there is no such thing. Even Paul Ryan, House Majorit Leader agrees. Constantly we hear slogans repeating that news that puts Trump in a bad light is "made up" or "fake", is not to be believed. Sadly, opinion polls show such slogans are working. How is that happening? Ignorance is the reason and it is becoming the greatest danger to democracy in the Trump era.
Much of voters' vulnerability to believing current slogans are the gospel truth is because of ignorance of the fundamentals of how our government functions or the Constitutional protections from demagogues ruling by slogans, a technique used masterfully by Donald Trump. The term "rule of law",instead of a rule by one person who sees himself above the law, is a difficult concept to grasp. Nonetheless, "strong" leader appeals to many who want any change they want to be effective, no matter whose rights are trampled or what Constitutional provisions are undermined or laws are ignored or meanings twisted. That yearning for a powerful leader to enact one group's agenda is the opposite of the essence of democracy that protects us from one man rule and dictatorships.
For Trump opponents to make the argument that Trump is the antithesis of democracy and a danger to it is not very effective when most Americans cannot name the three branches of government or the responsiblity and ability of each branch to restrict abuses of delegated powers by the other two.. Most cannot name their rights protecting them from unfair governmental abuse of power contained in the First Amendment, including freedom of the press. How can they be alarmed that such a fundamental right is under attack by Trump, who charges all negative press is "fake", a slogan that has caught fire in his base of support?
There is plenty of evidence that most Americans are ignorant about democratic fundamentals. If they do not now know about them, how can they care about any urgency to protect them? The Annenberg Foundation survey in 2017 found that
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- More than a third of those surveyed (37 percent) can’t name any of the rights guaranteed under the First Amendment;
- Only a quarter of Americans (26 percent) can name all three branches of government.
“Protecting the rights guaranteed by the Constitution presupposes that we know what they are. The fact that many don’t is worrisome,” said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania. “These results emphasize the need for high-quality civics education in the schools and for press reporting that underscores the existence of constitutional protections.”
We are seeing the power of slogans being played out in the investigation of the Mueller probe into Russian interference in the 2016 elections. That any findings of the probe that put Trump in a bad light revealed to the public in the future are not to believed is because a few FBI agents had expressed a personal animosity toward Trump. I wonder how many know that the independent investigation by the Inspector General found that the personal bias of a few did not shape the actions or findings of the FBI investigation into the Russian matter or into Clinton's emails? They may not realize that most of government's "deep state' are civil servants who were hired on merit and cannot be fired for lack of party loyalty and many have held jobs throughout Democratic and GOP administrations. Most Americans do not even know the Mueller probe has already gotten indictments, pleas, and convictions related to Russian interference in the 2016 elections and believe it is indeed a politically motivated" witch hunt", a slogan term in itself.
While so many Americans have forgotten their civics lessons they probably slept through anyway as boring , media focus is likewise to blame. It has gotten itself lost in the weeds of sensational news and repeating slogans themselves. They have not used their powerful pulpit to remind the public of long forgotten civics lessons and why our democracy has suceeded as it has for so long. This is a result of what happens when either one half of Americans get all of their news from one TV station that only reports good news about Donald Trump and respins his spins about bad news and the other half dwells on only the bad news that is one sensational revelation of a scandal after another. This country is in sore need of a good civics lesson.
https://www.factcheck.org/2018/06/trump-misleads-on-ig-report/
We have become a nation of slogans, but not of knowledge. Most Americans believe there is a "deep state" calling the shots in Washington, per recent poll. However, even one cabinet member Donald Trump appointed in the position to know, Mike Pompeo, Secretary of State and former CIA director, said there is not such thing. He believes the rank and file of government workers do try to conform to the policies of the elected. Why do so many believe such slogans so easily? Much is because of the ignorance of many. M
ost Americans cannot name the three branches of government or the contents of the Bill of Rights protecting their freedoms from a tyrant. Checks and balances have no meaning. How can they be alarmed democracy is under attack by Trump, a wannabe autocrat? They may not realize that most of government's "deep state' are civil servants who were hired on merit and cannot be fired for lack of party loyalty. They are not term limited, unlike the President. Most Americans do not even know the Mueller probe has gotten indictments, pleas, and convictions related to Russian interference in the 2016 elections and believe it is indeed a politically motivated witch hunt.
Cries from historians and political scientists that Donald Trump is trampling the framework of the Constitution, freedom of the press, and civil rights fall on deaf ears because most Americans have had a very poor education about these matters. If they do not know the basics of our form of government and why it was established to protect them from what, no wonder those warnings have no meaning to them. The Annenberg Foundation survey in 2017 found that
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- More than a third of those surveyed (37 percent) can’t name any of the rights guaranteed under the First Amendment;
- Only a quarter of Americans (26 percent) can name all three branches of government.
“Protecting the rights guaranteed by the Constitution presupposes that we know what they are. The fact that many don’t is worrisome,” said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania. “These results emphasize the need for high-quality civics education in the schools and for press reporting that underscores the existence of constitutional protections.”
Our founders knew way before the advent of TV, radio and the internet that the public was prone to be uninformed and that public opinion was a very fickle thing. They believed that ignorance was a threat to a democracy. They made this a republic, not a direct democracy, with elected representatives who did have the charge to be informed and educated. We do not have a government run by polls of popular opinions but by those we elect, some every two years (House of Representatives which is sensitive to more recent voter opinions), one third of the senate up for re-election every two years with 6 year terms, and a president elected every 4 years based upon an electoral college voted geared to favor smaller states. The two term limit for president came after World War II..
Trump knows a great slogan when he makes up one. His media echo chamber magnifies it. He is the master demagogue at work. , Mike Pompeo, must not have gotten his daily talking tweet and said there was no such thing at the CIA or State Department The sad thing is that so many Americans have fallen for this line. We have met the enemy of democracy and it is ignorance. That ignorance is. fertile ground ready to absorb the slogans.
Once upon a time in our history government employees were appointed; it was the spoils system and was a corrupt as could be and they were not appointed because of credentials or ability. We have had reform and the overwhelming members of the employees belong to the civil service and are not political appointees. Those who are appointees and confirmed by the Senate direct and set policy and priorities for the body of civil servants they supervise, but they still swear to uphold and defend the Constitution not the rule of the person in the White House. This applies to the FBI, the intelligence agencies that Trump claims are "criminal". That they are sworn to defend the Constitution and not the president is a critical element that keeps us from being an autocracy or ruled by a tyrant. This paranoid fantasy Trump wants the public to swallow is a way for any negative findings of the Mueller investigation will not be believed..
75% of Republicans believe his slogan that the Mueller probe is a witch hunt, and 53% of all voters think the probe is politically motivated. 5. Nonetheless, two thirds of Americans want the probe to continue. .Witches found to date by Mueller: indicted or guilty pleas, 19 people, 3 companies .59% do not know this, per a recent poll.
Media is partly to blame.
This is what happens when either Americans do not pay attention to the news or they get all of their news from one TV station that only reports good news about Donald Trump or spins his spins about bad news. There is a whole world out there over half the country is missing...thanks to our partisan media divide. That other half dwells heavily on being the critical opposition, and only back handedly praise Trump when he does succeed. In making constitutional based arguments, middle and independent media is assuming a level of voter sophistication that does not exist.
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https://www.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org/americans-are-poorly-informed-about-basic-constitutional-provisions
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/03/19/poll-deep-state-470282
https://www.politico.com/…/23/mike-pompeo-no-deep-state-604
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/05/23/mike-pompeo-no-deep-state-604199
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/why-don-t-americans-know-111950565.html
https://www.vox.com/2018/5/23/17384096/mueller-investigation-poll
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/2/20/17031772/mueller-indictments-grand-jury
https://www.vox.com/2018/5/10/17340200/poll-republicans-trump-fbi-mueller-witch-hunt
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michellefabio/2018/04/06/department-of-homeland-security-compiling-database-of-journalists-and-media-influencers
