Going Bananas (Republic) 0
The small city of Oroville, located in the mountainous area of California about halfway between San Francisco and the Oregon state line, has declared itself independent of its state. In a long and fascinating article at the Sacramento Bee, Josh Gohlke considers the implications. A nugget (emphasis added):
While this measure might sound like a stray trickle from the town beneath the nation’s tallest dam, it’s part of a much larger atmospheric river of misinformation. For a variety of supposed reasons and one real one — namely, that majority rule no longer seems likely to put certain politicians in power — it’s become fashionable in certain circles to point out, as if it’s a crucial distinction, that “America is a republic, not a democracy.”
It is another indication that some of our polity have abandoned the concept of the common good (or, if you prefer, Will Bunch’s phrasing, the public good).
