Thursday is Thanksgiving Day in the United States of America. Here at CFFAD, we have a lot to be grateful for.
We are grateful every day for “the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.…” (W. Churchill).
We are thankful for not living in a state of chaos where only those with guns, money, and connections can have any hope of food security and physical safety.
We are grateful for not living in a territory ruled by competing warlords or drug lords where public services are few and violence is a constant threat to just about everyone.
We are thankful for not living under an absolute monarch, a strong-man dictator, or a military junta where only a few elites get the good things in life, where no one dares to challenge a leader’s bad ideas. Resistance is met with beatings, jailing, and executions.
We are grateful for being able to worship as we please and not to be living under a government theocracy where faith outside of what is approved brings shunning, job firing, jailing, and executions.
We are grateful not to be living in a one-party state where free thinking is punished, where only party leaders have power, where only party members control business and government, and where resistance is met with harsh repression up to and including death.
We are grateful for living in a republic based on representative democracy, where power comes from the people and is accountable to the people.
We are grateful that our political system includes civil liberties that our governments shall not infringe upon and civil rights to help ensure the law and our liberties apply equally to all Americans.
In return, we want to encourage all Americans to help make our system of government even better by showing each other respect; by being willing to speak, hear, and debate new ideas; and by electing problem-solvers rather than warriors.
We also encourage everyone to renew and expand their knowledge of the American system of government. In particular, what are the advantages of representative democracy over the alternatives? What are the advantages of checks and balances through the separation and sharing of powers? What are the pros and cons of federalism? How do these features interact with polarization? You can find a lot of answers right here: CFFAD.org.
