Part One: Vote Today as a Free Person

Part One: Vote Today as A Free Person

The Clock Is Ticking on Democracy’s Future

and Tomorrow May be Too Late

by Thomas Coffin

I am not exaggerating a bit. Decades of determined assaults on the foundations of our democracy and freedoms have taken their toll, and we cannot afford to continue to take our liberties and Constitutional system for granted. Much of our citizenry has been lulled into somnolent passivity by a “both-sideism” neutrality of mainstream media that all too easily minimizes grievous attacks on fundamental principles which underlay the more than two centuries of stable government which is our heritage. This bothsidesing treats such attacks on democratic principles as normal political spats representing legitimate differences of opinion. Such is a most dangerous and fatal delusion.

Let me begin with a telling and dramatic example—our jury system, and its critical function in a Nation which is built entirely on the supremacy of the Rule of Law.

An early student of our nascent democracy, Alexis de Tocqueville, a French political science scholar who travelled throughout our country in the 1830s and expressed his views when he penned Democracy In America, described our jury system as one of the most effective pillars of democracy because it connected citizens with the American justice system, contrasting it with a despotic system from which citizens were completely excluded.

Our history is full of momentous jury trials illustrating that very point. Those accused of crimes are presumed innocent and have the right to present their defense to an impartial jury of peers, and likewise those with civil disputes have the same rights. A jury becomes the embodiment of even-handed justice, returning a verdict solely on the sworn testimony of witnesses subject to cross-examination and other admissible evidence. Not only the parties, but the entire community has faith in the process.

Compare this time-honored and neutral tribunal with the blatant present-day barrage on the jury system by then-president Donald Trump following the conviction of his close adviser and associate Roger Stone in November 2019. A jury convicted Stone of lying to Congress and tampering with witnesses. Trump exploded with rage, attacking not only the trial judge but also the jury and particularly the forewoman of the jury. He used the prestige of the White House to level scathing claims of bias and misconduct, placing all those serving on the jury as well as the court in danger from his violence-prone followers that he well knows act on his cues. Never in our history has a sitting President so reached down to castigate citizens fulfilling their duty by serving the country in their role as jurors.

This was no accident. He likewise had threatened civil war if he were to be impeached. And later, after losing the election for a second term, he sparked a violent insurrection in a vain attempt to overturn the election result and remain in office by force. Trump has no regard or use for the Rule of Law. Of course, he pardoned Stone before exiting the White House in disgrace.

But the attacks continue nonetheless. More recently, a Republican Senator and ally of Trump, Lindsey Graham, similarly attacked our justice system/rule of law by publicly predicting violence in the streets if Attorney General Merrick Garland were to procure indictments against Trump for any potential crimes currently reported to be under investigation (which purportedly include both the January 6^th insurrection and Trump’s post-term unlawful possession of highly sensitive and top secret intelligence material belonging to the government.) Graham’s remarks and inflammatory rhetoric were echoed by House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, raising the danger level against FBI personnel and all public servants charged with the responsibility of enforcing the law that binds all of us equally and places no one above the law.

These comments must be recognized as a rejection of the very basis of our nation’s legal system and the primacy of the rule of law. In the first place, the Attorney General does not unilaterally file felony charges or indict anyone. Only a grand jury can “indict” a person on felony charges. A prosecutor can present proposed charges to the jury, but at least 12 grand jurors must concur to return any true bill (indictment). The prosecutor’s role is to present evidence to the grand jury in support of any charges, but the jury votes in secret on the proposed indictment.

Moreover, if the grand jury returns an indictment, that only triggers a trial by a petit jury on whether the accused is guilty of the charges specified in the indictment. The accused is presumed innocent, and the petit jury must be convinced of guilt beyond any reasonable doubt in order to convict.

That is our system and our heritage. The repeated invocations for violence and rejection of the validity or integrity of our system of law is in reality a call for authoritarian government, tyranny, and a license for the privileged to commit crimes with impunity.

This violence theme is also seen in the utterly fabricated interpretation of the Second Amendment by the anti-democracy proponents to the effect that armed rebellion against our constitutional government is itself constitutional via this virtually simultaneous amendment to the body of the document (in which the Founders describe treason as taking up arms against the government being created). Thus, the supposed constitutional basis for rebels possessing military grade arms is the very Constitution that is the target of their rebellion, which would be a form of patricide.

To preserve our democracy, we first must prohibit the arming of those who seek to destroy it with the weaponry that they need to accomplish their objective. The Insurrection was just the beginning stage of a nihilist movement that is determined to install a form of government that is radically different and even opposed to that which we have now and which we can no longer take for granted.

Voter suppression and gerrymandering is a less violent tentacle of this movement but no less of a threat to democracy. It has been known for some time that white people are destined to become a minority of the American population, and census projections estimate the nation will reach the tipping point of “minority white” in 2044-2045. Reducing the voting power of Black people and other citizens of color is the primary goal of these suppression tactics. The racism behind them is palpable to everyone but a complicit Supreme Court, which has instead enabled the practices. As a result of gerrymandering, for example, the city of Detroit, which has a population that is 80% African-American, will have no Black representative in Congress for the first time in eight decades. This is discrimination as obvious as it can be.

Even more egregious are the efforts underway to empower state legislatures (populated by white legislators whose numbers are inflated by gerrymandering) to reject the popular vote for the office of president and cast the state’s electoral votes for the losing candidate.

These are just some of the major issues facing voters in the November midterm

election cycle – which party and candidates support and defend our Constitution and Rule of Law, and which party and candidates in their actions and words evidence the opposite. The voters must choose accordingly, because that is the existential question for our country. There are no “both sides” to that question.

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Thomas Coffin was the keynote speaker at the Blackberry Pie Society’s Political Party in February, 2020.

He is a retired federal magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon and a former professor at the UO Law School.
Thomas retired in 2016 after 24 years on the bench, prior to which he had a career as a federal prosecutor spanning 21 years.

He is married with 7 children.
The Blackberry Pie Society is pleased to include a collection of his essays on our website. We will post them as they become available.

Posted 9.16.2022