by Marilynne Robinson
Every
four years Americans give themselves information about who they are
and where they are on a spectrum of tradition and aspiration that
normally frames our politics. The documents that have mattered to us
have given us a set of ideals against which actual institutions and
practices can be measured, and an abstract and deliberate language
for encountering the issues that arise among people, which can, and
often do, devolve into visceral and intractable conflict. The origins
of these electoral arrangements are to be found in our history. They
have been sustained over many generations by an agreed deference to
custom and law.
This
is to say that they are fragile, and that they are, in a sense,
arbitrary. As resilient as they have proved to be through the trials
of centuries, when their value and authority are not generally
granted they can be overturned and dismissed, suddenly and almost
casually. Let the idea take hold that elections are rigged, and
popular government begins to seem no more than an illusionary empty
exercise. Discredit the press, and the First Amendment is only a
license to bloviate and slander. In other words, the viability of our
system depends on a certain care, a restraint that avoids unjustified
attacks and unfounded accusations against the system itself, and that
demands integrity of those who hold positions of authority. If the
generations that succeed us have a free press and elected
governments, they will have the means to address our failures and
their own.
NYRB
10/25/2016
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