September 6, Power or Democracy?

 

It’s power or democracy; the battle lines are drawn.

Republicans want power.  And democracy?  Begone!

For Democrats: democracy.  The people have the power.

So, civil rights and voting rights and marriage rights can flower.

 

Democracy is difficult, a battle to maintain.

Conservatives, by nature, will fight every single gain.

Maintaining our democracy means thoughts must be reformed

To nourish the republic that our Founding Fathers formed.

 

Good nourishment makes flowers bloom and variants arise;

Such variation is a fact we all must recognize.

The Founding Fathers, for their time, were forward-looking men.

Democracy, for them, meant voting by white gentlemen.

 

So, should we value only their “original intent?”

Or, should we let “intent” evolve?  If so, to what extent?

Amendment remains difficult, for plutocrats resist.

But evolution is a force of life that will persist.

 

First anarchy, then monarchy, (and sometimes absolute.)

When here and there the power is shared, plutocracy takes root. (1)

Democracy may then evolve but it’s not guaranteed.

The rich do not share willingly; it goes against their creed.

 

From just white men to all men, blacks, then women got the vote.

The racists mount resistance; that’s what Jim Crow laws promote.

Democracy is under fire; will it endure, prevail? (2)

The choice is ours, at least for now.  We dare not let it fail.

 

Democracies are known to fail; they’re always under threat.

The plutocrats want power back and bigots stay upset.

Just power or democracy: this is our great divide.

Republicans or Democrats: it’s time to take a side.

 

• See the Magna Carta, 1215, Runnymede, England. The feudal lords asserted to King John that they had certain rights.
• “I believe that man will not merely endure; he will prevail.” William Faulkner, Nobel Prize acceptance speech, Stockholm, December, 1950.