Our grand coalition: the under-reported story of this election year

Jeff Jarvis has this wonderful post that should be must-reading. The US normally doesn't have a popular front or grand coalition. In fact I have never experienced such a phenomenon as a citizen. We hear of grand coalition governments in parliamentary democracies, especially under circumstances where the more mainstream parties find the need to band together either just to have a functioning government because no party commands a majority or because the largest minority party just happens to be a threat to democracy and there is a justifiable need to freeze the fascists out of a functioning coalition government. Grand coalitions can and do work just fine. The requirement for all parties involved is a willingness to put aside a lot of partisan differences in order to serve the greater good: protecting the democratic institutions that so often get taken for granted. And once a threat to the democratic order is vanquished, a grand coalition can be dissolved, and we can go about our more mundane partisan bickering and gamesmanship. It's safe to say that in many EU nations, those grand coalitions are going to have to hold for a longer term than any of their respective members would have preferred. No one said defending democracy was easy or that freedom was free. And the reality is if we approach these coalitions with a healthy frame of mind, we can get a reminder that the very people we've viewed as opponents actually have more in common with us than we would have imagined. 

We live in times that seem unprecedented to us. We do have a legitimate fascist threat. The GOP as we once knew it no longer exists. It is effectively a subsidiary of Donald Trump's family business. As such, its members and supporters have attempted a coup or at least stood by and allowed it to happen. These are not friends of democracy. They are enemies of freedom. How terribly un-American or anti-American their policies and actions are worthy of as much coverage as possible. However, that cannot be the only story told, since it's a story often framed as how hopelessly divided we as Americans are supposedly.

A funny thing has happened in the last several years. Many of us from a variety of political persuasions have started to unite in a way that deserves a lot of coverage in its own right. So what do people like Adam Kinzinger, Liz Cheney, Dick Cheney, Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a host of other leaders have in common? They respect our nation's constitution and our democratic institutions first and foremost. I can say the same of a lot of rank-and-file folks like myself and the people I consider my friends. We can put aside our differences on policy matters long enough to do our best to vanquish a dark force in our political sphere. If we succeed, I hope we remember that no matter what, we are united in our respect for some core democratic values that supersede any petty ideological disagreements. We have a democracy to preserve for our children and grandchildren, and that comes first.

PS: A bit of personal trivia: When I took my first full-time job, one of the conditions of employment was that I sign a loyalty oath in which I swore to uphold and defend the US Constitution. I gladly signed it and would again in a heartbeat.