Sally Yates: These 2 Things Separate America From An Autocracy

By Sally Yates for USA Today

Over the course of our nation’s history, we have faced inflection points – times when we had to decide who we are as a country and what we stand for. Now is such a time. Beyond policy disagreements and partisan gamesmanship, there is something much more fundamental hanging in the balance. Will we remain faithful to our country’s core values?

Our founding documents set forth the values that make us who we are, or at least who we aspire to be. I say aspire to be because we haven’t always lived up to our founding ideals – even at the time of our founding. When the Declaration of Independence proclaimed that all men are created equal, hundreds of thousands of African Americans were being enslaved by their fellow Americans.

Not so long ago, all across the Jim Crow South, our country’s definition was defiled by lynchings, the systematic disenfranchisement of African-American voters, and the burning of freedom riders’ buses. And still today, we have yet to realize fully our nation’s promise of equal justice.

But while we have too often fallen short, we have remained dedicated to our defining principles in our resolve to form a more perfect union. These principles have remained if not fully who we are, at least who we seek to be.

Despite our differences, we as Americans have long held a shared vision of what our country means and what values we expect our leaders to embrace. Today, our continued commitment to these unifying principles is needed more than ever.

What are the values that unite us? You don’t have to look much further than the Preamble to our Constitution, just 52 words, to find them:

“We the people of the United States” (we are a democratic republic, not a dictatorship) “in order to form a more perfect union” (we are a work in progress dedicated to a noble pursuit) “establish justice” (we revere justice as the cornerstone of our democracy) “insure domestic tranquility” (we prize unity and peace, not divisiveness and discord), “provide for the common defense” (we should never give any foreign adversary reason to question our solidarity) “promote the general welfare” (we care about one another; compassion and decency matter) “and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity” (we have a responsibility to protect not just our own generation, but future ones as well).

Our forefathers packed a lot into that single sentence. Our Bill of Rights is similarly succinct in guaranteeing individual liberties – rights that we have come to take for granted but without vigilance can erode and slip away, such as freedom of speech (our right to protest and be heard); freedom of religion (the essential separation between how one worships and the power of the state); and freedom of the press (a democratic institution essential to informing the public and holding our leaders accountable).

Our shared values include another essential principle, and that’s the rule of law – the promise that the law applies equally to everyone, that no person is above it, and that all are entitled to its protection. This concept of equal protection recognizes that our country’s strength comes from honoring, not weaponizing, the diversity that springs from being a nation of Native Americans and immigrants of different races, religions and nationalities.

The rule of law depends not only on things that are written down, but also on important traditions and norms, such as apolitical law enforcement. That’s why Democratic and Republican administrations alike, at least since Watergate, have honored that the rule of law requires a strict separation between the Justice Department and the White House on criminal cases and investigations. This wall of separation is what ensures the public can have confidence that the criminal process is not being used as a sword to go after one’s political enemies or as a shield to protect those in power. It’s what separates us from an autocracy.

And there is something else that separates us from an autocracy, and that’s truth. There is such a thing as objective truth. We can debate policies and issues, and we should. But those debates must be based on common facts rather than raw appeals to emotion and fear through polarizing rhetoric and fabrications.

Not only is there such a thing as objective truth, failing to tell the truth matters. We can’t control whether our public servants lie to us. But we can control whether we hold them accountable for those lies or whether, in either a state of exhaustion or to protect our own political objectives, we look the other way and normalize an indifference to truth.

We are not living in ordinary times, and it is not enough for us to admire our nation’s core values from afar. Our country’s history is littered with individuals and factions who have tried to exploit our imperfections, but it is more powerfully marked by those whose vigilance toward a more perfect union has prevailed.

So stand up. Speak out. Our country needs all of us to raise our collective voices in support of our democratic ideals and institutions. That is what we stand for. That is who we are. And with a shared commitment to our founding principles, that is who we will remain.

 

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6 thoughts on “Sally Yates: These 2 Things Separate America From An Autocracy

  1. A noble sentiment, belied by ignoble partisan actions of her party as well as the offender to whom she points. And to imply we’re even such a hairs breadth away from devolution into an autocracy is, as any dispassionate observer would note, laughable. This President is as neutered as one can be prior to losing control of Congress (which will almost assuredly happen in the relatively near future).

    1. it isn’t Trump, his administration or Congress, that is pulling us toward autocracy – it is the will of a good number of eligible voters

  2. H

    Thank you for reprinting this. And thanks for Sally Yates for writing it. Too many don’t believe it is real. When the constitution was finished Benjamin Franklin was one of the first out of the meeting. In the notes of Dr. James McHenry, one of Maryland’s delegates to the Convention, a lady asked Dr. Franklin “Well Doctor what have we got, a republic or a monarchy.” Franklin replied, “A republic . . . if you can keep it.”. I sure hope we can. To many today find our current arrangement a test of their patience. That is an attitude greatly to be feared.

  3. Thank you Sally Yates… We are on a slippery slope. The liar in chief and his sycophantic puppets in the GOP congress are willing to do anything to advance their “agenda”. Hell, I voted for the fool thinking it didn’t matter in California anyway, and now feel deeply ashamed. Putin has won, the country is at war with itself, there are many people whom I will never speak to again due to the cavernous divide over basic morals and polarization.

    1. I sure relate to that comment, Luther! A married couple, dear dear friends – He voted for and still believes every word out of Fox News and all the rest of those asswipes — She, totally opposite from him! I don’t know how they still live in the same space! She and I share the same opinion and he was in the loop of emails exchanged UNTIL he went off the deep end and so much so that he has now blocked my emails. Even the 60% that are not trump related! Breaks my heart too but at least I no longer have his total crap coming in to me now! The cookie basket I sent to them still has his name on it – arrives today – we will see what happens! How anyone can hear that garbage from Fox and believe it, just beyond my understanding. And will not even open their mind a little to hear what the other news channels report…. something seriously wrong in our Nation.

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