Debate Over Systemic Elitism

Dear Editor,

The debate of the hour is over systemic racism, the question of whether there has been and still is racism in law and culture. But what about the systemic elitism that underlies both our two political parties today?

While we are seemingly getting better at not being racist, we are getting worse at not being politically autocratic. Whether we have truly democratic or republican minds and hearts determines whether we have racist hands and feet. Today, Republicans seem to have little idea what real republicanism means, and Democrats seem to have little idea what real democracy means.

Has anyone stood up and argued we need to teach “critical constitutional theory,” the idea that our political, business, and cultural leaders have long been steeped in ignorance, and even today bathe themselves regularly in ugly partisanship and roiling anger? Our handsome and seemingly intelligent leaders are hypocritical and autocratic in most of what they say, do, and think.

How on earth are our leaders going to stop being racist, if they have stopped being American, stopped reading history, and stopped upholding the Constitution?

Kimball Shinkoskey