I believe in democracy.
It is not that I believe that democracy always comes to the right answer. It is not that when democracy comes to an answer different than my own that I am convinced that I am wrong. But I was taught that politics is how groups of people make decisions about values, and in this country our political system is a democratic one. And you know Winston' Churchill’s famous description, “Democracy is the worst form of Government except for all the other[s].”
What is the alternative? Divine right of kings? Oligopoly? I believe that the more people that vote, the more legitimate the decisions are. Surely, high quality education matters, because an electorate of well informed voters will yield better decisions than one fill with ignorant and thoughtless ones. This is what so many state constitutions say; this is why we need strong universal public schools.
Of course I would rather everything be done according to my values and my wishes and my judgment. But if we are instilling all the power in a single person, it’s not often going to be me. So, I prefer the wisdom of the crowd to any other mechanism. (With some sorts of constitutional limits, of course.)
And yet, for my whole career, I have seen educators and others deny the validity of democracy when they don’t agree with The People. They want to override the will of The People and the will of their communities. They think they know better and should be able to apply their own moral judgment in place of our democratic system of government and laws.
Now, I understand the challenge of a situation in which one’s own values are quite at odds with the values embedded in the law. I understand the outrage of seeing marginalized and disempowered people (and groups of people) further harmed by the actions of governments—especially when those people are children. Especially when those people are children. I feel that deeply.
But what is the alternative? I do not want an impassioned minority to impose its mistaken will upon me. How can I tell the difference between those situations and my own desire to impose my own minority will on others? How do we determine a system of government on any level if every impassioned minority thinks that they have the right to impose their will upon others?
We have seen better paths. We have seen the civil rights movement engage in direct action and civil disobedience. We have seen a Ghandi-led colony throw off its colonial oppressor by exposing the moral excrescence at the center of that enterprise. We have seen attitudes change—and the law change—as more people learned more about same-sex love and LGB people around them. We have seen paths.
I am deeply saddened—and at times infuriated—at what appear to me to be right wing minority views of what schools may do to support and educate children. I have seen irrational fear mongering and unrealistic views of what is actually developmentally appropriate for children at different ages, built upon willful ignorance born of arrogant self-centered intellectual laziness. I have been appalled and morally outraged. These asses exist in my community, as they exist around the country.
Luckily, I live in the part of the country where these asses have not gained control over the levers of government, where they so obviously in the minority and cannot hide behind other culture war issues. I know that, therefore, it is easier for me to preach democracy. I have no children being targeted by them. I know that, therefore, it is easier for me to preach democracy. It is easier for me to have patience for the democratic mechanisms of discussion and debate to work their way through elections to policies.
But what is the alternative?