The United States of America heard the death knell of democracy on the day that Ford pardoned Nixon. On that day, the fact that those in power would not be held accountable was on full display, and there was no outrage.
The US is failing the test of basic kindergarten:
Don’t lie, don’t cheat, don’t steal.
If it’s not yours, don’t touch it.
Be respectful, and whenever possible, be kind.
A kindergarten teacher, fed up with the incessant tattletale activities of her students, installed a phone in the coat closet just for the children to report the infractions that they saw. It worked amazingly. Children reported pulled hair, lunch money infractions, being late, saying mean things, everything that you would expect. They tattled on their parents as well as on each other. This, in so many ways, is the epitome of democracy: reporting an infraction, regardless of the status of the offender, expecting that the rule of law will swoop down and have its say, setting everything to rights. Children have an unerring sense of fairness. But this is not about Rawls.
The experiment worked until it suddenly didn’t.
It didn’t take long for children to notice that nothing was coming of their reports. Not for wearing un ugly outfit or for pulling hair. Not for their parents or adults, and not for the children. When this anticipated accountability failed to materialize, the children’s participation waned and then disappeared altogether. The children had given up.
The Nixon pardon stands out, but it is far from the only instance of those in power in the US slipping free from accountability. What makes it so distinct in my mind is the lack of outrage. Everyday adults—not only just the cronies of the perpetrator—took the pardon in stride, defended it even, as simply what one would expect. This was presented as sincere, a genuine belief that this pardoning of corruption was defensible and ought to be done, not merely expected. Impeachment, the highest crime in the land against an elected official, would simply and predictably be pardoned by his successor.
Today, we are faced with rampant corruption, and at times there seems to be outrage, but more than anything there is a thread of cynicism, a shrugging dismissal as though to say It’s all unfair; what are you going to do?
This stance of political powerlessness by the citizenry is the antithesis of democracy.
