What’s the cure for a democratic hangover?

by | Mar 27, 2018 | Features, Politics | 3 comments

“Well, woke up this morning with a wine glass in my hand. Whose wine, what wine, where the hell did I dine?”
— Peter Frampton

The aforementioned lyric from Frampton’s 1970s hit “Do You Feel Like We Do” might also be apropos for the present moment. Collectively, we might be suffering from a democratic hangover.

During the week of March 12, the chattering class was initially titillated by a hearing date set for the lawsuit filed by former porn actress, Stormy Daniels, against President Trump. But our attention was quickly diverted by the news that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was dismissed via Twitter.

Two days later, roughly 26 hours before he qualified for his pension, retiring deputy director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Andrew McCabe, was fired by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The president, again via Twitter, appeared to gloat over the news of McCabe’s firing.

This is merely a small sample size of what feels increasing like a democratic hangover brought on by an unceasing series of never-before-seen behaviors emanating largely from the executive branch.

But unlike its alcohol-induced cousin, a democratic hangover is a group of unpleasant signs and symptoms that can develop when ignoring, abetting or overreacting to actions that feel antithetical to our democratic traditions. Moreover, democratic hangovers are also associated with poor job performance not only within the executive branch, by also the legislative branch and the press, and it has an unhealthy effect on the populace at-large.

None are immune from the cerebral dehydration brought on by being mentally and emotionally hijacked, reacting to the issue(s) de jour. By abetting some behaviors and ignoring others, the Republican-led Congress has tied an umbilical cord that connects the White House to Capitol Hill. Though not a new phenomenon, it feels more pronounced under the current administration.

Overreaction ensnarls many in opposition to the president. Though it can be difficult to believe, not everything uttered or tweeted by the president is “breaking news.” But we feel comfortable proceeding with our truth, while the burden is placed on the facts to catch up.

Void of many facts, hours after the McCabe firing, it was predictably being tried in the court of public opinion.

As Vox reported, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz found that, in 2016, McCabe inappropriately allowed two top officials to speak to reporters about his decision to open a case into the Clinton Foundation. The IG report led Sessions to conclude that McCabe was “lacking candor” under oath — the Bureau’s ultimate deal-breaker.

Granted, the optics look terrible. The president and attorney general appear peevish and vindictive. Until the IG report is made public, however, there is essentially no reason to go to the mattresses on behalf of McCabe or profusely justify his firing.

But as long as we suffer from a democratic hangover, the mattresses become the subject while McCabe is reduced to the predicate. It is a world where the facts originate from the suppositions. When the IG report is made public, will it change the minds of many who already embrace a counter narrative?

Because of our democratic hangover, facts gain credibility largely when they correspond with what we already believe. Otherwise, they are useless and inconvenient. Self-reflection is nonexistent; we become impervious to contradictions and hypocrisy.

We choose to drown our sorrows in certainty, unable to remember the reasons for our overreactions from the previous week. We cannot recollect why we tolerated behaviors from so-called allies we would find intolerable from the opposition.

For some, only the president being led out of the White House in handcuffs will suffice. For others, validation must come in the form of a full and complete exoneration of the president with Special Counsel Robert Mueller offering a public statement that not only was there no collusion with Russia, but it was an insidious plot concocted by the infamous “Deep State.”

Since neither is likely to occur in the near future, what shall we do? Shall we keep drinking the toxic elixir that will inevitably cause an irreversible scarring of our democratic values? We’re quickly moving from observing the color, clarity and consistency of our democratic traditions to an unhealthy rhetorical dependency.

There is a difference between alcohol-induced hangovers and those of the democratic variety. Most alcohol-related hangovers go away on their own, rarely lasting beyond 24 hours. They can be avoided by simply drinking responsibly.

Democratic hangovers last much longer. They will not necessarily go away organically. And the effects can stay with us for years, even decades, after we cease from overindulging.

3 Comments

  1. Scot Shumski

    Some great points about the divisions we see in our democratic republic. And more specifically, how we see only the things we want to see and how facts can become irrelevant in a voting democratic republic.

  2. smartysmom

    Mr. Williams, I’vebeen positive about your posts brfore, but this one is awful (and that’s being kind). It is all metaphors. For metaphors to work, there has to be a common frame of reference. I think the reason yours don’t work is a lack of common frames of reference. So I read your post, scratch my head, and wonder to myself, what on earth is he blathering about?

    I think the reason I’m so irritated is because I suspect you might have had something important to say.

    Whar on earth is a democratic hangover? Do you mean we’vehad too much democracy and should get rid of some????

  3. Progressive Wing

    OK. I’ll ask. Why does the title of this blog refer to a “democratic hangover”?

    I fully appreciate that the word used is “democratic” with a lower-case “d.” But I really don’t see how over-reaction to (or jumping to conclusions with) the news of the day is a failure or shortcoming of the democratic process.

    Better to have labeled the ailment a “partisan hangover” or “media indigestion.”

    Just saying…….

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