c. 2004 Religion News Service

(Tom Ehrich is a writer and computer consultant, managing large-scale database implementations. An Episcopal priest, he lives in Durham, N.C. Visit his Web site at http://www.onajourney.org.)

(UNDATED) Throughout this ugly election year, bullies have been out in force, sowing fear and distrust among the people. Next Tuesday, they will try to intimidate voters into staying home.

It is a shabby and critical moment for American democracy. We must all recognize it as such. Whichever candidates win, if victory is gained by distorting facts, frightening voters and disenfranchising citizens, we all lose.

Power will flow to the manipulators. They will use it, as manipulators always do, for their own benefit. The national interest _ a nation does have interests that rise above partisan division _ will be set aside, losers will be cast adrift, and even those shouting in victory will find their gains ephemeral and their freedoms diminished.

Power knows no loyalty except to itself. When will we learn that? Democracy works as a constraint on power, not as yet another system for concentrating power and wealth in a few hands. When our leaders deliberately sacrifice democracy _ and we let them get away with it _ that constraint vanishes, and the powerful will plunder freely.

Many Americans have decided that politics is too toxic for daily conversation. That is a loss. For it means we don’t hear our neighbors, we don’t hear the yearnings and concerns of our fellow citizens, we don’t hear our common ground. Instead, we see each other only through the scornful depictions of political advertising. We receive the fear-mongering and sidetracking assertions but don’t subject them to the scrutiny they require. To a degree that will yield sour fruit, we cease to be neighbors and become competing yard signs.

Many Americans have decided that Election Day will be a gauntlet, and so what? Legions of lawyers will try to use election laws, precinct challenges and ballot tampering to secure their desired outcome. This won’t be the first time, but it apparently will be the worst _ anti-democracy taken to a new level. Will we allow it? If our voting right is challenged, or if the person next to us in line is turned away, will we allow it? Whether or not that other person’s vote would differ from ours, will we allow citizens to lose their franchise? This is a defining moment for grass-roots democracy. Are we so intent on winning that we will deny basic rights to other citizens?

Politicians will do anything that voters allow them to do. In Texas, they speak with awe about a marginal candidate who won by defaming his opponent as a drunk, even though that candidate had been in recovery for many years, while masking his own problems with alcohol. It was considered good sport, a nice he-man touch.

If it works _ if the voters fall for it _ why not keep on doing it? That is where we have come. Distortion, lying and cheating work, so why not keep on doing it? Until voters demand better, this is what we will get.

How do voters demand anything? We have two ways: our votes and our money. The money moment has passed, and anything we did or didn’t give has been overwhelmed by special-interest largess. All that remains is our votes. This is not a year to stay home or to wink at Election Day shenanigans. If we want better from our politicians, it has to start with their knowing that we will vote and that we want every other citizen to vote, too.

In the religious realm, we have one additional responsibility. That is to stand against the prelates and preachers who have tried to introduce holy warfare into this election. It is shameful when pastors badger their flocks into believing that God demands a certain outcome. We need to cast our votes without fear of rejection by God or by the Sunday assembly. Then we need to demand that our leaders be pastors, not political ideologues.

MO/PH END RNS