What Democracy Looks Like

            The dust is finally settling on a very busy month of February, and it’s time to reflect. The month has been framed by the extraordinary turnouts first for precinct caucuses on the 3^rd and then for our county convention on the 21^st. The energy was palpable, and it bodes well for the Fall election that so many people are determined to make their voices heard.

            To the ancient Greeks, “democracy” meant the people of a particular place (demos) coming together to govern themselves. In its purest form, it is a literal gathering of the common people. That is a bit of what we experienced this month.

            For most of those who attended our events, it was their first time. In recent years, between rotten weather and a lack of any serious contests, the turnout has not been great. For everyone, it was a learning experience. I expected attendance would be a lot better this year, but I was not prepared for over 400 people showing up to caucus. If you were there, you might have noticed.

            Maybe, though, a measure of chaos and confusion is a feature of democracy, not a bug. It’s not a mob, but it’s not a regiment either. They used to say of Mussolini that “at least he made the trains run on time.” He actually didn’t, but it suggests that an authoritarian government ruling with an iron fist is at least efficient at getting things done. We’ve seen in the past year how an administration unconstrained by checks and balances and unconcerned about the rule of law can steamroll ahead and pose a real threat to democracy.

            The wonder is not that things didn’t run like clockwork on caucus night. The wonder is that a bunch of volunteers managed to get all those people checked in and sorted into seventeen different rooms, and most of them ended up in the right place. The wonder isn’t that caucus conveners, after one evening of training, might have been a bit befuddled by their tasks at times, but that in the end they got the job done. We ended up with 79 unique resolutions and a full slate of delegates for the convention that followed.

            The same could be said for the convention. Paring down the resolutions to the twenty we will forward to the state DFL was challenging, and I got some good suggestions for improving the process. But the vote was taken, and the results are gratifying. The rules for walking subcaucuses maybe made people’s heads hurt, but it proved to be a fair and successful way to choose delegates and alternates for the Congressional District and state conventions.

            So democracy is messy, and mistakes were made. Still, as Winston Churchill said, “democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the other forms that have been tried.” If we keep at it, we can make it work. We are on a path that might be rocky and difficult at times, but take it from this old hiker, you can find beauty on the way.

Paul Harris