Boiling the Frog

*Excuse this post if I have repeated myself

In the late 1700’s arguments ran hot and heavy about what form this new country would take. Many argued that it should be a republic; that is, among other things, that only landowners should have a vote. Of course, by landowners, they meant rich, white men. Others argued that there was before them a rare opportunity to form a true democracy where everyone could participate in the direction of the country and, therefore, of their own fate. Fortunately, the latter opinion prevailed, although it took decades before women and minorities could join in.
There is a paradigm going around, if you will, amongst hard-core conservatives that we’ve lived out this democracy folly a little too long. They argue within their own ranks that it’s now time to get this country back on track and dump the messy notion of a government by the people and for the people. It’s so inefficient and anti-business and besides, they argue, most people don’t want to be bothered with the complicated and sometimes exasperating business of running the ship of state on a daily basis. As long as we have our TV sets, our cell phones and our SUVs, let the politicians run the show.
This would seem to be more left-wing conspiracy babble if it wasn’t showing up in the news on an almost daily basis. The growth in the legal status of business versus human rights, the waning of the power of those pesky unions, the rapid erosion of our liberties and rights in the name of security, the increase of raw power of the Executive branch by way of a weakened Legislature and Judiciary and so on. A detailed list of the damage done to true American principles would be a multi-chapter report even without the supporting charts and graphs.
This pack of scoundrels and the thirty-something percent that support them don’t like democracy. It’s that simple. They can’t say it out loud but all of their actions take us inexorably towards the republic model if not to an out-and-out dictatorship. These people are very smart. They have figured out the American electorate. If you chip away at this rather fragile democracy in a gradual manner and speak the words “freedom” and “security” in a repetitious mantra, nobody notices until it is too late. If you put a frog in boiling water he will jump out immediately. But if you put him in cold water and slowly raise the heat, he will remain until he is cooked.
To me, at this moment, it feels like we are just about medium rare.