This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus to use an image from my favorite sport, golf.  Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as a private sector lobbyist.  This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

This blog headline could be overstated, but there is ample evidence around these days that many people view violence as better than democracy.  Or at least that violence could lead to what they want – to achieve their goals no matter the human cost.

Democracy is in the cross hairs.

But, before going on, I did check to make sure I understood the real meaning of the word democracy.  Here is the definition I found on-line:

“A government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections.”

Just what I thought.

Let me give you just one incredible example of democracy not at work these days.  Donald Trump still has not conceded that he lost the last presidential election.

For that reason and others, the Washington Post’s Jennifer Rubin wrote this week that “it’s easy to feel grim about the future of democracy in America.”

She went on:

“The Republican Party is getting worse in the wake of the Trump presidency, openly praising vigilantism, egging on violent extremists, continuing its crusade to limit access to the ballot, attempting to corrupt voting administration, and seeking to stymie reform at every turn.  The shortcomings of our criminal justice system cannot be ignored.  Social media platforms cling to a business model that monetizes disinformation and hate.  Voters’ memories remain short; their desire for accountability for elected officials is tepid.”

Rubin’s colleague, Greg Sargent added to the contention when he wrote this:

“It is fitting that two Fox News contributors have severed their ties with the network over Tucker Carlson’s glorification of January 6 at exactly the moment when more than 150 scholars are sounding a loud, clanging alarm about the future of our democracy.

“This story is unsettling.  It should rivet our attention on the increasing flirtation among large swaths of the right with political violence, and on the role that the right’s campaign to delegitimize our political system is playing in it.

“Its manifestations are everywhere.  This includes far-right members of Congress openly fantasizing about killing Democrats, and a refusal of GOP leaders to impose accountability for it.”

Sargent’s commentary prompts me to summarize a few personal thoughts about the growing potential that we actually could be seeing the demise of democracy – at least democracy as we have come to know it.

• In addition to refusing to concede that he lost to Joe Biden, Trump continues to foment dissension and violence to achieve his apparent objectives – bringing Biden down and aiming again to gain for himself the nation’s highest political office.
• Trump’s true intent is illustrated by his actions, to encourage his supporters to invade the U.S. Capital on January 6 and, when violence was available for all to see, decline to call off the mob.
• And he and his ilk are trying to put people in power who will do what the Georgia election official declined to do in the last election, which is “to find votes for Trump.” 
• One of Trump’s chief acolytes in Congress, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy continues to endorse violence as a way to achieve his objectives, which is to be in charge of an authoritarian America.

Sargent goes on to say that “a true reckoning requires more than just observing this trend.  It also requires reflecting on the instrumental nature of propaganda like that coming from Tucker Carlson.  Much of the discussion treats the possibility of violence as a mere incidental by-product of that propaganda, depicting it merely as conspiracy-theorizing-for-profit getting out of control.”

A video timeline from inside the Capitol siege shows just how close some goons in America came to hurting or killing members of Congress, forcing Vice President Mike Pence to throw out the election, and keeping Trump in office.

To underline the tension, Sargent points to a new letter signed by dozens of scholars, which warns that attacks on the “legitimacy of America’s elections and, importantly, the use of this as justification to lay the groundwork to subvert democratic outcomes later, has grown to a crisis point.

“This represents a clear and present threat to the future of electoral democracy in the United States.  The history of other crisis-ridden democracies tells us this threat cannot be wished away.  It must be promptly and forthrightly confronted.”

By endorsing violence, various parties are effectively saying that democracy doesn’t work.

So, what can the rest of us do?  Well, on their own, no individuals are able to roll back the tide.  But several actions come to mind:

1. Vote for persons who have a heart for democracy.
2. Oppose those who favor violence over discussion and compromise.
3. Oppose every attempt by Trump to rise again.
4. Play a solid role as citizens of this country, not activators of violence and mayhem.
5. And, practice empathy, a trait mostly missing in action these days. 
   Empathy allows us to understand people whose life experiences are very different from our own.  If we had more of this in politics and in everyday life, we’d be better for it.