What Happens When Democracy Lays an Egg?

Today we pause to remember all of those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom, those men and women killed in the service of their country. This is a good and proper thing. We should never forget them and their willingness to defend our nation, especially since the nation they died to save has lost its way.

It has been said that Democracy is the best form of government to have been created in this world and I believe it to be true. The injustices and gross violations of human rights wrought by both monarchies and the various flavors of communism are fully on display in the historical record. But, what happens when Democracy lays an egg? No form of government is flawless, so it should be expected that eventually Democracy would hock up a hairball. The hairball in question is the 2024 presidential election and the choice the American people will be forced to make between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, two adult diaper-wearing spent fighters speaking gibberish as they shuffle across their campaign stages. This is what the two major political parties have given us. This is the choice we are asked to make. Of course, there is a third party candidate on the ballot…Bobby Kennedy’s boy, who claims that even though a worm ate part of his brain he’s still smarter than the other two guys put together. The Kennedy ego survives.

Is this what the boys who stormed Normandy died to save? The answer is Yes. Democracy is the worst system of government ever devised by the human heart…except for all the others. Even when the wealthiest, most powerful country in the world is reduced to making a choice between two incompetents, at least we get to make that choice. Yes, any system that would offer up these two men to lead us is gravely flawed, and make no mistake—we are reduced. But, this is America. Every four years we get a say on who will lead us. We should be thankful for that right.

Although I am at heart an optimist, it is getting harder and harder to be so as a citizen of this country. In my short lifetime things that would have forever disqualified a person from seeking high office are now worn like a badge of honor. This is something I will never understand. I watch it happening and a part of me thinks, our day has passed. But then the history major in me thinks back to darker times than these and I am reminded that America has overcome worse than even this. If not now, I know that someday we will once again be a nation worthy of the sacrifices made by the men and women we honor today.