Opinion: Democracy as a Noble Experiment: Where Do We Go from Here?

• Published in: College composition and communication Vol. 74; no. 2; pp. 352 - 372
• Main Author: Jones Royster, Jacqueline
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Urbana National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) 01.12.2022; National Council of Teachers of English
• Subjects: African Americans; Beliefs; Democracy; Essays; Females; Justice; Literary Genres; Lorde, Audre; Oppression; Philosophers; Political aspects; Race relations; Research Methodology; Social aspects; Social Responsibility; Walker, Alice (1944- ); Writing Strategies; United States
• ISSN: 0010-096X; 1939-9006
• DOI: 10.58680/ccc202232279

The rise of Donald J. Trump as president of the US and the occurrence at the end of his term of the Jan 6, 2020, insurrection, as a stunningly violent event, have gained increasing traction in contemporary public discourses as the harbingers of dramatic societal crises and, arguably, as bellwethers of the disastrous decline of our nation as a noble experiment in democracy. In effect, these two major events are functioning within the confluence of a seemingly endless stream of occurrences--from outrageous efforts to suppress voting rights, to efforts to increase, rather than decrease, guns on the streets, to the persistent resistance to COVID-19 vaccinations in support of public health, to the most toxic public discourses that we have seen in recent history, and more. A frequent mantra has become the statement that these crises are pushing to reflect on where many might be going from this incredibly sobering era forward.