America’s democracy needs fixing.

This is its nature, not its fault. Any population-management system is an experiment. People and circumstances change. Today’s concerns are not yesteryear’s. We must always be tinkering, adjusting. Originalists are fools or fiends – like those sly-dogs who insist on the Bible’s inerrancy. Moses’ challenges shepherding a stateless tribe across a killing desert are not ours.

Democracy is failing in America for one reason: “We the people” aren’t participating in this government “of the people.” We’ve lost faith in our ability to influence results. We deputize representatives to govern for us and – guess what? – unsupervised these supposed public servants turn greedy miscreants. How many politicians resent and evade public scrutiny except at election time, when they scheme to keep their jobs with well-orchestrated lies. How many noisy (small d) democrats are wannabe autocrats. Just bamboozle their supporters and all will be well.

Don’t let the surge of enthusiasm for the Harris-Walz candidacy console you, that we the people see the light when push comes to shove. Yes, we seem to be awakening from our decade-long grumpy political torpor; yes, Harris and Walz seem to be real-deal small-d democrats committed to doing their best for all; but still, some forty percent of Americans favor a proven huckster thug to lead them (who’s bonkers to boot). Support for Trump indicts today’s democracy, just as support for Hitler discredited the Weimar Republic. If this mendacious mischievous monarchical sleazebag is a suitable captain for our ship of state, democracy isn’t seaworthy and we should board some safer vessel.

How to fix democracy? Make “we the people” believe we matter. Make self-governance an exciting chance, not a tiresome chore. Force plutocrats to behave like pluralists not puppeteers. Insist on truth in public discourse. Make every vote count, not just a handful in Nevada or Georgia (go, Georgia!). Make voting fair and feasible. Institute universal conscription so all learn to serve.  Resist, wherever it pops up (and it pops up everywhere), the tyranny of the minority. Publicize the benefits of America, to counteract its detractors: celebrate our luck, not just bemoan our lack. Purge politics of money: public service should not mean (please note, Justice Thomas) self-service.

I could go on – but you get the idea. Pie in the sky, you say? Fat chance?

Granted, the swine who swill at the American trough – billionaires and their minions – will oppose any abatement of their advantages. But the whole idea of democracy is that we the people get to design our own government. There’s nothing that can’t be done if we the people insist. The dead hand of precedent should be impotent against the popular will. To fix democracy we must, first, recognize it needs fixing, and then, get to work on this heroic project.

Perhaps the most exciting data-points of this exciting hour are the number of new contributors to political campaigns – many of them younger voters and minorities – and the increases in voter registration among the same crowd. It’s as if, with the sudden Harris ascendancy, an alarm bell ejected indifferent and cynical Americans from their settled dread. Hurray. But the Italians have a saying, “Una rondine non fa primavera – One swallow doesn’t make it spring.” Neither does one vote – or one Act Blue contribution – repair democracy. We must, first, trounce the plutocrats and their stooges November Fifth, gaining power enough to effect vital change (and yes, I said “trounce”). Then we must begin the work of reshaping democracy to do what we the people seek, not succumb like galley-slaves, doing what we’re told.

Possible? Yes. Easy? Hardly. Nothing worthwhile is.