Hopefully Churchill was right - Keith Roulston editorial

Winston Churchill once said: “democracy is the worst form of government – except for all the others that have been tried.” This thought comes to mind a little over a week after the U.S. mid-term elections, which most prognosticators were predicting would be a victory for the Republican Party. 

 

Former U.S. President Donald Trump had supported, indeed hand-picked, candidates for various positions, based on their views that he had been cheated out of the presidency in the 2020 election and he was the rightful president, not Joe Biden. On top of that, Americans, like Canadians, are suffering the worst case of inflation in 40 years – the lifetime of many voters. Given that mid-term elections are normally hard on the party of the sitting president, the worst was expected for President Biden’s Democrats.

 

The surprise of the election was in the wisdom of voters. As this is written, it appears the Democrats will retain control of the Senate, perhaps even get a clear majority, depending on the outcome of the Georgia run-off election,  instead of the current tie that is broken by Vice-President Kamala Harris. As this is written, the final total for the House of Representatives is too close to call, although it seems likely the Republicans will win a small majority – yet with much fewer lost seats for the Democrats than Barack Obama or Bill Clinton, or for the Republicans in Trump’s lone mid-term election.

 

In general, Trump’s hand-picked high-profile candidates did not do well. Dr. Mehmet Oz lost Pennsylvania’s Senate seat to Democrat John Fetterman. In Georgia, pending an upcoming run-off election, incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock leads Herschel Walker for the U.S. Senate seat available. If he wins the run-off, Democrats will have clear control of the Senate.
In state races, Democrats swept the three levels of our previously concerning neighbouring Michigan state legislature with Gretchen Whitmer defeating Trump-supporting Tudor Dixon. In too-close-to-call Arizona, as this is written, Democrat Katie Hobbs led Republican Kari Lake, one of the most high-profile and vociferous Trump supporters.

 

Normally, in mid-term elections, voters worry about themselves and things like inflation. Yet, though they are worried about the high cost of living, it appears voters are also worried, particularly women voters, about the Republican-backed Supreme Court decision that allows states to ban abortions, and punish women who obtain one. Polls show the vast majority of women and men oppose these laws, yet Republicans have embraced them.

 

And, I suspect, a healthy portion of the U.S. voting public worries about the future of democracy in their country given Trump’s desire to play with the rules and his party’s desire to please him.

 

Perhaps many Republicans need to do as I did recently and watch the old movie All The President’s Men, starring  Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford as dedicated (real life) Washington Post reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward (yes, the same one who is reporting on Trump 50 years later). It took years, but they, and another dedicated team at the New York Times, uncovered the attempts by U.S. President Richard Nixon and unscrupulous manipulators around him, to undermine the Democrats in the 1972 Presidential election. 

 

What was different about those times, was that many Republican legislators, who held a majority, were prepared to vote to impeach Nixon for his efforts, leading him to resign in August, 1974 before he could be forced from office. Meanwhile, today’s Republicans defeated attempts to impeach Trump twice. He seems determined to run again.

 

Although the mid-term U.S. elections are the most evident, and refreshing reminder that democracy is alive, we have examples closer to home. Here in Ontario, fresh from a big provincial election win, Premier Doug Ford seems drunk with power. Not only did he initially legislate that education unions couldn’t strike, but he invoked the constitutional “notwithstanding clause” to prevent them challenging his rule in court. But he backed off following public reaction and the reality that union leaders were prepared to face ridiculously high fines to strike anyway.

 

Meanwhile, the federal government’s use of the Emergencies Act last winter to oust the anti-mask occupation of downtown Ottawa and blockades at border crossings at Windsor and Coutts, Alberta is being examined at hearings by Commissioner Paul Rouleau.

 

And Alberta’s new United Conservative Party leader Danielle Smith, who feels COVID-19 prevention efforts like masks are silly, is trailing Rachel Notley’s New Democrats by a wide margin as an election nears.

 

Hopefully, Churchill was right!