Which is more important? Making all abortions illegal or preserving our democratic republic? I asked this question recently to a very bright and well-read senior citizen. She is a thoughtful and faith-filled Catholic. When I posed the question, she paused for about five or six seconds before answering, “Of course, defending democracy is the more important of the two choices.”
It was interesting for me to see how long it took her to answer. I asked her a second question: “Suppose I invite you and I to go and rob a bank?” Her answer was immediate!
The answer to both questions should be instantaneous. Democracy is why we have the government that we have. Everything about our way of life in the United States depends upon the work that our forebears did in the 18th century.
The executive, representative and judicial branches of our government reflect Enlightenment thinking that moved away from monarchy and authoritarianism. While the built-in tension among our three branches of government can often produce frustration, we remember the observation of Sir Winston Churchill that democracy is the worst form of government except that it is better than all the rest.
The polarization that exists in our nation today did not happen overnight but is the consequence of many factors over the past 48 years. Think of a fuse attached to a stick of dynamite. When the fuse gets lit, it takes some time to burn to the point that it ignites the dynamite. Then an explosion occurs. In 1973, Roe v. Wade lit a fuse that culminated in the Jan. 6 insurrection in our nation’s capital.
For the past five decades, abortion has been the defining issue that has been like a power surge that fries all the electronics that are attached. Terms like pro-choice, pro-life and anti-abortion entered our lexicon of political jargon and have been used to define and brand institutions and individuals alike.
Jerry Falwell’s Moral Majority, founded in 1979, would never have gotten its traction without its anti-abortion flag. Coincidentally, the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, was founded in 1973 and went on to prominence by burnishing its anti-abortion policy prescriptions during the Reagan presidency.
The insurrection on Jan. 6 of this year was the result of coalitions that came together a long time ago on the common ground of reversing Roe v. Wade. This became the preeminent issue in the culture war that decries gay marriage and LGBT rights and promotes traditional family values.
The insurrection would probably not have happened if evangelical churches and Catholic bishops had not told their constituents that they had no moral choice to make in the 2016 election.
In spite of a history of being pro-choice, the Republican nominee saw great political gain in becoming the standard bearer for the pro-life factions in our national electorate.
This was enough to win the effective endorsement of more than a few prominent religious leaders. Many ministers and priests echoed these semi-official sentiments; opinions to the contrary were silenced.
It is becoming increasingly clear that the culture war is fueling some very anti-democratic aspirations. When retired General Flynn recently agreed with a rally-goer that we need a Myanmar type of overthrow of our government, both the suggestion and the response should alarm us all. Notable Second Amendment proponents have lately downplayed recreation and hunting as reasons to own guns. The real reason, they maintain, is so that militias can confront government authority if people feel that their freedoms are being taken away.
These may be outliers that can be dismissed. But groups like The Proud Boys and other white-supremacist groups should give us pause. More dangerous to our democratic institutions, however, are the wide-spread attempts in many states to curtail voting rights and to make it simply more difficult for people to vote. Curtailing Sunday morning voting (which has become a practice in many Black churches) is not only an attack on democracy; it is a clear revival of the discredited practices of the Jim Crow era.
The divisions that exist within our nation today are becoming more hardened than ever before. The algorithms of the internet that can feed our worst fears may be good for some businesses but are bad for democracy.
What is most needed is a return to civility, an appreciation of the need for real compromise and a recommitment of religious institutions, among others, to become part of the solution and not part of the problem. Unless we become more proactive about what is taking place around us, the next insurrection may be a lot worse than the last. Democracy is fragile and needs us all to protect it for generations yet to be born.
Msgr. Paul V. Garrity is the former pastor of St. Mary’s Parish in Lynn and the current pastor of St. Brigid and Sacred Heart Parishes in Lexington.
