James Miller's "Can Democracy Work?"

 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37941741-can-democracy-work

At the risk of having James Miller contact me and tell me I'm violating copyrights, I wanted to share a portion of this book that spoke to me:

from pages 242 and 243:

IN THE VIEW of Vaclav Havel, the Czech dissident who helped guide his nation through its deliberately nonviolent transition to free institutions after the destruction of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the very difficulties facing modern liberal democracies will episodically lead to a temptation: people will conclude that political life, viewed realistically, "is chiefly the manipulation of power and public opinion, and that morality has no place in it."

This literally de-moralized view of politics would mean, according to Havel, losing "the idea that the world might actually be changed by the force of truth, the power of a truthful word, the strength of a free spirit, conscience and responsibility--with no guns, no lust for power, no political wheeling and dealing." If we abandon a virtue like truthfulness, we put at risk a public sphere created, in part, by acknowledging a shared reality, and a handful of core, common values, over and above (p243)  the "hall of mirrors" constructed by competing political parties and the rival worldviews they propagate.

....we will never build a democratic state based on rule of law if we do not at the same time build a state that is--regardless of how unscientific this may sound to the ears of a political scientist-- humane, moral, intellectual and spiritual, and cultural. The best laws and best-conceived democratic mechanisms will not in themselves guarantee legality or freedom or human rights.... 

....I feel that the dormant goodwill in people needs to be stirred. People need to hear that it makes sense to behave decently or to help others, to place common interests above their own, to respect the elementary rules of human coexistence."

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This is exactly why I have found the current administration and enablers so distressing. The current felon in chief has been completely unbound by morals, ethics, truth, etc in pursuit of power, money and all manner of corrupt activity. Someone who cries "they're eating the cats, they're eating the dogs" in smearing immigrants to unite his followers in hatred, when that claim is demonstrably false, does tremendous damage to a democracy that relies on people acting in good faith. We can't police ourselves to compliance to laws, with leaders that believe they are above the law and sneer at those who think that acting for the greater good rather than self-interest is what should be done. A dishonorable man cannot  make America great, but following him can greatly diminish the health of our democracy.