By Dick Withers
The first Unitarian President of the United States, John Adams, famously wrote to his wife, Abigail Adams, just a few days after signing the Declaration of Independence, observing that:
“…democracy never lasts long…it murders itself….It is in vain to say that democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious or less avaricious than aristocracy or monarchy. Those passions are the same in all men…and when unchecked, produce the same effects of fraud, violence and cruelty….”
Nearly fifty years later, our second Unitarian President, John Quincy Adams, was elected as the 6th President under the Constitution; he observed in his inaugural address:
“If there have been those who doubted whether a confederated representative democracy were a government competent to the wise and orderly management of the common concerns of a mighty nation, those doubts have been dispelled….”
Our second workshop last winter focused on the many forms that democratic process takes within governments and in society at large. We examined the checks and balances – the guardrails – that promote a healthy democracy.