What if Democracy is actually working?

We are in a moment of viewing our democracy as unstable. But what if it's actually working...what if, instead of being on the cusp of failure, we are emerging into the next successional stage of democracy, a stronger, more stable version?

After John Roberts defended the legitimacy of the Supreme Court, my Twitter feed was a chorus of cheeping that it was not. But we are already seeing the balance shift. People forget that the Supreme Court does not make the laws, merely interprets them. What if the Supreme Court accurately assessed that the United States' right to abortion stood on a shaky foundation?

We lived in a world where a would-be despot was able to wield the cudgel of abortion rights to split the country and propel himself to power. He got what he and the right claimed to have wanted - the trophy - overturning Roe v. Wade. And now we are seeing how our system, a mosaic of states' rights, a House, and a Senate, is working to correct itself. Kansas, a so-called red state, passing a ballot measure to protect the right to abortion in its constitution. The same question on the ballot in Michigan may bring Democrats out to vote, shifting the balance of power back to the left. Now that abortion rights have no longer been granted (or decreed) from on high, it is left to citizens to decide what they want. How much more powerful is a movement when it comes from the people, rather than the federal government? Look at gay rights, women's suffrage, civil rights. These all came from below, bubbling up, until multiple states recognized them and either amended the constitution, or, in the case of gay marriage, have a decent shot at successfully asking legislators to recognize this right.

In our country of divided sentiments, we are loathe to talk to one another. Bipartisan legislation is few and far between (although recently it has been making a come-back). We want the Supreme Court to decide things for us, rather than doing the hard work of hammering out compromises that satisfy the majority of the country. But sometimes the Supreme Court says no - work it out yourselves. And instead of wallowing in anger at our "broken" institution, perhaps we should buckle down to the challenging but satisfying work of fixing our country, conversation by conversation.

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