Overthrowing democracy

With all the dramatic foreign events of the past week or so, a bunch of important domestic issues have taken a back seat and slipped below the radar (Wisconsin teachers anyone?). But that certainly doesn't mean the stories have lost relevance, nor does it imply that there aren't crucial developments that deserve our attention.

Developments like this one:

Michigan lawmakers are on the verge of approving a bill that would enable the governor to appoint "emergency managers" -- officials with unilateral power to make sweeping changes to cities facing financial troubles.

Under the legislation, the Michigan Messenger reports, the governor could declare a "financial emergency" in towns or school districts. He could then appoint a manager to fire local elected officials, break contracts, seize and sell assets, eliminate services - and even eliminate whole cities or school districts without any public input.

In fact, Michigan lawmakers already did approve the bill, and it was signed into law by Michigan Governor Rick Snyder late last week. It's a very troubling development.
 
Democracy is full of gray areas, in terms of what powers are and are not delegated to our elected officials. Many of our politicians take advantage of these gray areas, for example by authorizing the use of force against a foreign nation without Congressional approval or any demonstrated imminent threat to national security. Oh, but um, I digress.

The point is that while certain gray areas are seemingly inevitable, some restrictions are absolute--for example, elected officials certainly are not imbued with the right to appoint a dictator. It's pretty much the basic definition of democracy, and yet that's exactly what this bill represents. The "emergency manager" is nothing but a dictator appointed by a democratically elected official. I'm pretty sure that whole last sentence was a giant oxymoron, and yet here we are.

The basic problem here is that we, as citizens, cannot allow our system of law and democracy to be overthrown simply because there is an "emergency". For one, it should and must not be entrusted to those in power to determine what does and does not constitute an emergency--to do so would open the door to all kinds of political opportunism, and the endgame should be fairly clear. Can't get a bill passed? Fine. Figure out a way to declare an emergency, even if it means creating one, or at least inspiring a media frenzy that creates the perception of one. Wag the Dog, here we come.

Furthermore, true times of crisis are the times in which protecting our democratic principles is the most crucial. To suggest that our rights are somehow expendable in the circumstances when we in fact need them most is disturbing. Recall that our nation's revolution was fought largely on the basis of this type of political relativism/opportunism, and multiple Constitutional amendments were drafted as a result.

It's become a bit disturbing to me how willing many of us have become to sacrifice personal, financial, and civil liberties in the face of "threats", whether real or perceived. We began this process in earnest after September 11th, and now we continue to watch our politicians take advantage of us because it's "too important" to get in their way. I think that this represents laziness on the part of our politicians--instead of using true leadership to get us out of ugly situations, they resort to stale power grabs to push whatever agenda they feel like. I have to think that eventually, American voters will wake up to what is going on--if not them, then at least maybe the Judicial branch.

But then again, Arizona basically said they were seceding a couple months ago, and nobody noticed. This is how democracies die--slowly, without anybody noticing, with the implied consent of the people via their complete apathy. We shouldn't be rising up in protest to protect our benefits or pension plans; we should be rising up in protest to protect our right to a real, actual representative government. But more and more, we seem unwilling to do so, and trust our politicians to save us from ourselves. They won't.

[CBS News]