My, oh my. This one should be a “real barn burner,” as grandpa used to say. It seems that every presidential election year becomes more important than every one that preceded it. But this time it could be true.
What’s at stake is control of Congress and the White House. And by consequence, so will be the balance of power between moderate and conservative factions on the Supreme Court. The impact of Citizens United will be analyzed and measured. In this contest for political power, America will once again be divided into the same two political parties that have been doing battle since 1860: the Democrats and the Republicans. But today’s version of these parties do not resemble anything I remember growing up.
The Democratic Party today resembles the Republican Party of the 1950s and 60s, and the Republican Party has emerged as a bastion of right wing ideology, never before so close to the seat of absolute power within our government. Yes Mildred, the country has indeed been moving rightward over the past 30 years.
But this election is really not about ideology or even the economy. No, this election, like all others before it, is about power. Political power in a democracy like ours is very different from power in a theocracy or power in an autocracy. Rather than religion or a dictator’s whim, democratic political power derives its legitimacy from the common good. Power is shared and subject to various forms of checks and balances. It is not concentrated or absolute. At least that is the theory.
