"US democracy in decline? Not if its purpose is understood”

Posting this just because it’s such an unusual take in the South China Morning Post.

Letter to the SCMP on 22 November 2023, from Roberta Schlechter, Portland, Oregon, a very far-left  place:

Jonathan Power is an accomplished European, nine years my senior. My American bio includes three terms as a legislative staffer and an ongoing student of history and public policy. Having read Power’s opinion on “declining US democracy”, I respond from my context.

Power’s use of the term “democracy” is disconnected from our use. Beyond the one-person-one-vote democratic model, America operates as a representative republic built on a constitutional foundation of federalism – a formal power-sharing arrangement that recognises the co-equal value of the individual and the sovereign state.

During Donald Trump’s term, America had no new long-standing military entanglements. He renegotiated international partnerships. The Abraham Accords built bridges between Israel and its neighbours. Faced with Trump’s unpredictability, world dictators generally behaved. He urged Germans to avoid energy deals with Russia. No missiles were dropped on Ukraine.America doesn’t have “national” elections or a “people’s president”. POTUS stands for “President of the United States”. President Abraham Lincoln won the Electoral College while losing the popular vote. Americans remember the 2020 election controversies in a handful of states. Thanks to the Electoral College, the 20 states that border the ones in question were unaffected by those disagreements.

As for Wyoming versus New York, we ask, does Wyoming have an equal right to exist with a mega state? In Federalist No 62, James Madison writes of “people thoroughly incorporated into one nation”, “a compound republic, partaking, both of the national and the federal character” and “principles of proportional and equal representation”.

I urge Power to drop the idea of an unfettered press. The media industrial complex pushes narrative over news. Americans need look no further than the notion of “malinformation”, defined as accurate information used to harm another – in other words, used for an end other than what the Biden regime and progressives in academia find useful.

Perhaps Madeleine Albright’s advantage over James Traub is that she began life in a communist country and flourished in the US. Currently many US lawmakers echo Albright’s example. They include Victoria Sparz (Ukraine), Alec Brook-Krasny (former Soviet Union), Alina Garcia (Cuba), Janet Nguyen, Quang Nguyen and Tri Ta (Vietnam), Michael Novakhov (former Soviet Union), and Ben Toma (Romania). They continue the legacy that grounded America, and always comes out on top.

Roberta Schlechter, Portland, Oregan, US