6 (not so easy) ways to restore democracy

by Lorel Clayton

My books are funny romps in a high fantasy world, but I lace them with heady subjects like slavery, race wars, and differing sociological and economic principals. And you just thought they were chick-lit. With democracy in my homeland (and probably many other people’s homelands) in the balance this year, I wanted to share my thoughts and solutions for the future—no veil of fiction to hide behind this time.

For decades fundamentalists in America have been trying to deconstruct democracy in favor of capitalism-fueled racism that favors them. I recall a brilliant opinion piece in the Seattle Times on this subject back in the 1990s by Norman Mailer. You can read more about his sadly accurate predictions here.

Growing up in Idaho, which was a holdout state of the Ku Klux Klan overrun by Mormons and other religious extremists, I was well versed at recognising fundamentalist racism/fascism happening around me. It wasn’t until recently, while reading War of Art by Robert Pressfield, that I finally understood its roots: Fear of freedom. Specifically fear fuelled by the conquered. 

Just as Nazis arose from Germany’s defeat in WWI, American fascism arose from the Confederacy’s defeat in the Civil War. That’s a century of brewing trouble that had never been quashed, thus it’s highly virulent and evolved form in 2024. 

Seeing all the Confederate flags that lingered in American society growing up, I was not as shocked by this revelation as I thought I might be. It explained the battles in the 1960s for racial freedoms that had been granted on paper during the Reconstruction—Deep racism/fascism resistance had been acting against freedom for decades. Only when artists (those who can deal with freedom in a more positive way than fundamentalists) inspire freedom fighters and activists does societal change for the better begin. The 1960s was not the first freedom revolution. Before that there had been suffragists and beats (better known by the pejorative beatniks) inspired by or creating inspiring art to revolutionize society, to name just a few examples. Today, the existential threat of global warming has rallied activism, and some of what I find the most effective forms are inspired by art, including films like Common Ground, and by scientists and other intellectuals who also embrace freedom rather than fearing it. 

The main point is that when people wake up, for whatever reason, they suddenly see the monsters that have been lurking under the bed and which now hover over them with their claws and teeth ready to strike. 

If you don’t believe in monsters, then picture a serial killer with a knife or a terrorist with a gun to your head. American fundamentalist fascists are like terrorists who flee the light of freedom (like monsters flee the daylight) because they don’t know what to do with it, and they seek solace in the simple rules of the past and any master who promises it to them. 

Fundamentalists seek masters like Bin Laden, Hitler, Trump … Someone, for example, who promises that climate change is a hoax and will go away if we silence those raising the alarm. Your American dream of middle-class life will return if you evict the immigrants (forgetting you are one too—and I can say this as I have Cherokee heritage) and get women back into aprons in the home and under their husband’s thumb. Subjugating women, who are more than 50% of the voting population, is a key way fascists exert control. While it doesn’t start with genocide, it’s a slippery slope that leads to getting rid of anyone different, whether through incarceration or extermination, including the disabled, LGBTIQQ+, other religions of course … the list will grow and grow. Like Nazis claimed to save Germany by removing all that was not pure German (and remember the Nazi Party was voted in too), it eventually led to their ‘final solution’, the systematic murder of over 6 million Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, intellectuals, and many more who were not German enough. 

The American fundamentalist/fascist plan has chillingly similar objectives underlying it, such as subjugation of women. It’s called Project 2025 (here’s the link if you want to read it all). They are on the verge. We’ve woken up with the knife to our throats. Those who vote for Trump or other fundamentalists/fascists are more than asleep—they want their throats cut because it takes away all their pain and confusion and ends this terrifying freedom they’ve never known what to do with.

Now, I really hope I don’t lose you when I say that fascists and economic elites are perfect bedfellows. We all understand dictators as obvious fascists—they get to have absolute power—but how do the rich benefit? They rule from the shadows, out of the line of fire, with no one to stop them from exploiting whatever they want for whatever they want. Having a puppet fascist under their control gives them cart blanche without any checks and balances.

Corporations and more specifically the billionaires running them have benefited from numbing our fear of freedom for decades, replacing it with dissatisfaction and greed for material purpose rather than real purpose that seizes freedom. It’s the ‘look at the monkey’ Chewbacca defense approach, the modern Roman circus (not clowns but gladiatorial games), the tv opiate of the masses … the distraction so no one stops them or recognizes their own subjugation to them. They do not want to lose their power, and they are willing to sacrifice democracy for their personal freedom. They are the perfect bedfellows of fundamentalists who will fight for their economic status quo (unless of course you are an immigrant or outsider in which case maybe that’s an excuse for your assets to be seized by the state just as Nazis seized and grew strong from stolen Jewish wealth). American fundamentalist voters are the most deluded because they’ve convinced themselves they can all be billionaires if they toe the line—and so they serve the very masters who have destroyed the middle class and their American dream. 

Fascists and their wealthy supporters are powerful and calculating foes, difficult for the uneducated especially to deal with, and so they attack the educated and all institutions of knowledge. Just as in Nazi book burning times and Taliban history destroying fervor, you see the American fundamentalists and fascist billionaires destroying education systems, cutting funding, banning books. The media (bought decades ago by rich conservatives like Rupert Murdoch) are now toothless—the watchdog purpose of independent and investigative journalists replaced by wide-eyed parrots lulling the masses with alarmist messages or brain destroying drivel in a coordinated attack to make everyone dumb (in its original definition of silent). Don’t get me started on Tik Tok and social media with its isolating and zombifying influences. The moment I saw Dan Rather go down in 2004, I saw it happening and what was to come. How could no one else see?

I’m Gen X and part of the problem—aloof, angry at the world, expecting nuclear war at any moment—we expected the end to come, and so we were preparing, almost looking forward to, surviving Fallout-style in the aftermath of Armageddon. But I have a child now. A love of nature greater than my love for myself. And I’ve just opened my eyes. That means it’s my duty to raise the alarm (even if I’m much later to wake up than many others around me, the more voices raised the better). 

We all have knives at our throats. 

Maybe if we all wake up, one of us, or better yet, all of us can fight back and survive. This is why I prefer the monster analogy—if we wake up, they vanish. If someone else opens wide the curtains to let in the daylight, they vanish. Because … and this is the secret they don’t want you to know … despite their takeovers of religion, media, Supreme Court, and politics—there are fewer of them than there are of us. A whole lot less. Fascists win by making the people feel powerless, but they can only hold power if we let them. If we fail to vote, fail to speak up, fail to wake up.

So, I’m trying. I know a brilliant scientist and professor who won’t speak out on social media or even on the phone to relatives because he’s convinced Trump’s people are already creating an extermination list. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that as a Professor he’s already on it. He has nothing more to lose by speaking up. Neither do you. I’m a female intellectual. I’m on that list. What about you?

I was enlivened by Kamala entering the race, and I’m doing my part to spread the word about fighting back. Not that any politician is perfect but because if the choice is democracy or fascism, I prefer democracy. Yet, even if Trump is beaten in this election, a democratic win does not stop the problem. It will continue to fester for years, decades … who knows? Some people think terrorism or civil war come next. How sad. How can freedom scare so many so much?

I realized that not everyone sees what I see (or what far more brilliant people like Norman Mailer see), so I thought I’d share my thoughts for turning our democracy around. While I’m a proponent for pure Greek style democracy, I mean our republic, but one with Cato and not Nero in control.

6 Not So Easy Ways to Restore Democracy (finally after that long winded intro!):

Stop fascism right now before it’s too late (writing this on my phone with spellcheck where fascism is not even in its dictionary which is very scary). This means raising awareness, mobilizing friends and family, and above all voting! At the best of times, 30% of Americans don’t vote. Change that and the fascists don’t come to power (and if they still do then we’re in real trouble).Restore independent media watch dogs (and teach them old school journalism). This is hard. Wresting media from private control means a Ma Bell style break up of media into smaller, more independent ownership. No corporates. Not even government ownership as that way leads to State propaganda. How do we police the media and not have others puppet them? Not sure. I didn’t say these would be easy steps!Invest in public education and critical thinking. Public schools have been undermined for decades and it shows. The US continues to rank at the lower end of PISA scores for advanced nations. Just as important as more funding is teaching critical thinking. We don’t want rote learning but the ability to question, to think independently. This is the core of freedom: free thinking. Scientific method and logic, philosophy and ethics … this is what created democracy in the first place. No oligarchs. This is supposed to be a democracy/republic. Sharpening my pen again and recommending more Ma Bell style breakups of mega corporations and billionaire conglomerates. We shirk at this anti-capitalism approach, but capitalism is not democracy. One is an economic theory and the other is a form of government by the people for the people. When individuals are more powerful than nations, when petroleum giants dictate elections, when one man controls not just Fox but all news … you are in trouble. And we are in trouble. I have nothing against millionaires, but billionaires are obscene, and if they want to do good like Bill Gates, great, but even so, think of the incredible influence and power he wields to ensure what he cares about is addressed? That’s still not democracy. This is another hard one, because I’m all for letting them keep their money (unless they caused pain and suffering to get it that can be proven in a court leading to paying restitution to their victims)—they just need to be prevented from using it to buy politicians or unduly influence policy and elections. This kind of thing is why laws are made and meant to be enforced. People do not always—actually seldom do people with power—listen to their better natures. Safeguards need to be put in place to prevent oligarchy.  Save the planet. I had to stick this one in here, because the squabbling of us ants means nothing if we don’t have an ant hill to fight over. Global warming, nuclear war, disease, overpopulation … there’s quite a few ways we toy with annihilation. Let’s not lose the only planet known to support life and all the amazing (and probably smarter than us) lifeforms on it while we’re arguing about who stands on the top of the hill.Learn to live for others again. Find purpose. Stop being selfish. Society exists when we are social creatures. Selfish is the way a cancer grows in the body. Put yourself in someone else’s shoes from time to time and have a little sympathy.

The selfish cancer of fascism and unchecked capitalism has grown too large. We need to stop its spread and start to heal. Cancers arise from us. They are us, just the darkest version. It will be painful to treat and recover our nation, our world, but what choice is there but death? Fundamentalists may seek death, blow themselves up, kill those who frighten them in wars or camps …but is this what YOU, and I’m looking at you, want?

If you want to live free in a democracy and a world safe for your children and their children, then let’s start at Step 1 and go from there. Unless you have some better ideas? I’d love to hear them. Open discussion, debate, and listening to others’ viewpoints are all key to a healthy democracy also. Let’s just debate from a place of  mutual respect, openness, and without hate.