{"id":12305,"date":"2022-01-09T09:57:26","date_gmt":"2022-01-09T14:57:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=12305"},"modified":"2022-01-09T09:57:29","modified_gmt":"2022-01-09T14:57:29","slug":"who-believes-in-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/?p=12305","title":{"rendered":"who believes in democracy?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got spirit \u2014 yes, we do! We\u2019ve got spirit! How \u2018bout you?!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then went the other side\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got spirit \u2014 yes, we do! We\u2019ve got spirit! How \u2018bout you?!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And after a few more back-and-forths of the familiar, middle school cheer, one side would boldly break into\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got more! We\u2019ve got more!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To which the opponent would equally, brashly retort\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what they all say!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forgive me. We were only 12. Maybe 13, 14\u2026 15 at best. While we cheered in zest for our Falcons and Stars, there typically wasn\u2019t that much animosity. Emphasis on \u201cthat much.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The implication, no less, was that \u201cwe\u201d \u2014 aka \u201cme\u201d or \u201cmy team\u201d \u2014 had definitively more spirit than the opposition. In fact, sometimes \u2014 especially if we played those perceived vicious Cardinals (sorry, remember our frontal lobes weren\u2019t fully formed yet) \u2014 the implication was not just that we had more,<\/em> but that we were the only ones who had it.<\/em> In our support, loyalty, fandom or whatever you want to call it, we simply assumed in our passion that because spirit was important to us \u2014 we had it, felt it, and ardently believed in it \u2014 that there was no possible way it could manifest itself in our opposition. This wasn\u2019t even a debate, friends. At the very least, we had more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes I feel as if middle school has somehow magically transported itself to current culture\u2026 only now we have more money and use bigger words. Because we feel something strongly, we assume our perceived vicious opposition doesn\u2019t have what we have\u2026 there\u2019s no way it could manifest itself differently\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note the following\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Republicans dispute Democrats\u2019 belief in patriotism; we heard it much during the candidacy and tenure of Pres. Obama. Democrats dispute Republicans\u2019 belief in democracy; we hear it now in promotion of their desired legislative agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I mean no disrespect. I simply refuse to believe the Democrats or Republicans as a whole don\u2019t belief in either <\/em>patriotism or democracy; certainly there are some outliers in each party; certainly, too, a biased media cannot be trusted to promote accurate representations of what each party\/party member believes. Hence, who\/what we listen to matters. So why then do multiple leaders of each party continue to attempt to convince us that the opposition is either unpatriotic or undemocratic?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll take a brief stab\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because patriotism \u2014 defined as a devotion to and support of our country \u2014 is a good thing\u2026 Because democracy \u2014 defined as a system of government in which everyone is treated equally \u2014 is a good thing\u2026 And if one party can convince us that the opposition is null and void of such a good thing, then maybe, just maybe they can convince us to only support and vote for them \u2014 to put\/keep them in power. Maybe we\u2019ll be so disturbed, enraged, or fill-in-the-negative-adjective-here, that we\u2019ll never take the time to notice the lack of integrity in the accusing party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s key to the current voting rights question. In this country, two things are true: one, every eligible voter should have access to vote, and two, no ineligible vote should be cast; both work in conjunction with one another in order to ensure the \u201cconsent of the governed\u201d occurs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The competing challenge, however, is that party victory is often prioritized more than the above \u201cone\u201d or \u201ctwo.\u201d Hence, rather than wrestling honestly with one party\u2019s own incongruity, inconsistency and undeniable contradictions pending their position when in or out of power, it\u2019s often easier to instead valiantly work to get others to perceive the opposition as vicious\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2026 acting like they have none of those good things\u2026 acting like we\u2019ve got more\u2026 and acting as if we\u2019re all back in middle school again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Respectfully\u2026 and wanting what\u2019s better and best\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWe\u2019ve got spirit \u2014 yes, we do! We\u2019ve got spirit! How \u2018bout you?!\u201d Then went the other side\u2026 \u201cWe\u2019ve got spirit \u2014 yes, we do! We\u2019ve got spirit! How \u2018bout you?!\u201d And after a few more back-and-forths of the familiar, middle school cheer, one side would boldly break into\u2026 \u201cWe\u2019ve got more! We\u2019ve got more!\u201d … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “who believes in democracy?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12305","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-event"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12305","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12305"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12305\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12306,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12305\/revisions\/12306"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12305"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12305"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/intramuralist.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12305"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}