Fighting Fire with Water
Eternal Vigilance, Grounded Struggle Define Democracy
by David D. Leeper
Main Street, Wisconsin — harbinger for the nation — is becoming aware that our democracy is being threatened by some very rich, powerful people. The super-wealthy are threatening the very core of our democracy as they consolidate more 
and more wealth and power. For those who recognize this conflict and want to resist, the first thing to realize is there is no quick-fix.
Abolitionist Frederick Douglass wrote, in 1857: “If there is no struggle there is no progress…. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will.” Benjamin Franklin reportedly told people that the form of government our founders had created “is a democracy — if you can keep it.†Preserving our democracy is not something we can accomplish with one powerful demonstration. Like freedom, democracy’s cost is eternal vigilance. (more…)
