I Call Foul Play: Our democracy is flawed

Democracy, though arguably the best form of government, is inherently flawed.

The revered English prime minister Winston Churchill — who aided the United States in preserving our democratic institutions during World War II — once said, “Democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.”

Like a clock, our democratic institutions have dials and gears that must operate simultaneously to function correctly. When these dials do not perform their prescribed job, our democracy no longer behaves the way our forefathers intended.

While the glitches in our democratic system are challenging to uncover, the byproduct of such failures are the events that make news headlines: “GOP Congresswoman Blamed Wildfires on Secret Jewish Space Laser,” for example, is the title of a recently published article in the New York Intelligencer.

This headline is so wildly absurd it might make the average reader chuckle. Unfortunately, this is no laughing matter.

The lawmaker featured in the article is Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. Greene represents Georgia’s 14th congressional district and was a stark advocate and ally of former President Donald Trump.

Greene has been a longtime voice in D.C. for the radical and extremist online conspiracy theory group QAnon. She has publicly claimed that individuals who follow the Muslim faith should not be allowed positions in the government.

Greene has also claimed the following: the tragedy of 9/11 was an inside job, the mass shootings at Parkland, Sandy Hook and Las Vegas were staged, Trump is secretly fighting child-sex-slavery ring and some Democratic leaders should be executed.

Though wildly offensive, often racist and anti-semitic, Greene didn’t lose support from the Grand Old Party. Instead, she became a popular player within her party.

Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, the outspoken Republican leader and a founding member of the GOP’s House Freedom Caucus, said Greene was “exactly the kind of fighter needed in Washington to stand with me against the radical left.”

Trump declared Greene would be a future star of the Republican Party and said QAnon conspiracy members are “people that love our country.”

The Founding Fathers constructed our government with the hopes that the most rational, selfless, empathetic and loving individuals — the best Americans — would be elected into positions of power by an educated constituency. Once elected, these rational lawmakers would represent their constituency in our government by promoting the values of liberty, equality and justice through the laws they enact.

But there are currently famous politicians in power — such as Greene — who represent the worst of us. This is why some Americans, incited by the conspiracy theories of their president and those who represent them in Congress, breached the Capitol Jan. 6.

Our ideological democratic government should not have a platform for baseless conspiracy theories, loony lies and outdated racist ideology. Certainly, influential representatives and even the U.S. President should not be enabling those voices or uplifting those platforms.

During these turbulent times, the U.S. people must rally together. We must protest those who represent the worst of us and elect those who represent the best of us.

Our democracy depends on it.