September 12, 2022: Democracy, our New Top Issue

Posted on September 12, 2022 at 12:00 AM

by Elizabeth Clark, Chair, Human Rights & Democracy Task Force

Democracy, our new top issue—that is the way it’s been listed for weeks, taking precedence over the economy and inflation. Even though Democracy has almost always been at the very bottom of the list, nobody has expressed any concern about it because, perhaps unconsciously, the change is connected to something they care about and which required a vote: the Roe v Wade reversal. People have become aware that they care about their access to abortion and that this is under threat in many states. And in most cases the way to combat this is to vote for the other party—the Democrats. Kansas demonstrated this very sharply in its vote this August on the issue of the Roe v Wade reversal.

If Democracy stays at the top of America’s choice of issues it cares about, people may well forget why that came about. But it has a great and good result. This is because Biden has always made Democracy an important goal but, more important, his concept of Democracy is particularly useful. In the first place, it enables him to push government and government policies such as combating inflation. I have a long list of other policies where being pro-Democracy is also being pro-government, something that I think very few Americans have understood. Biden also includes the idea of safety in his concept of when we are united.

Biden is very clear in defining Democracy as getting freedom-loving people together: the individual, the freedom, and the group—not in the context of common interests, but in the search for celebrating America and improving it. Because of his link to protecting women’s right to abortion it will have staying power.