From Grassroots to High Places

Two Small but Hopeful Glimpses at the State of Our Democracy

Grassroots

This past week I did something I had never thought of doing before – I volunteered to help with early voting at my local polling place. It was a great experience. As dozens, perhaps hundreds, of people came in to vote during my shifts, I got an up-close glimpse of the wonderful community in which I live. Most important, I was moved by the eagerness of all of these people to vote.

The voters included men and women, young and old, and people of diverse races and ethnicities. They included Democrats, Republicans, and those not enrolled in any political party. There were experienced voters who walked in without assistance, persons with disabilities accompanied by family members, and my favorite, a young woman who was eager and slightly nervous as her mother brought her in to cast her very first ballot.

My own political views temporarily took their leave as I assumed the neutral role of election worker. I put aside any personal preferences I had and simply enjoyed watching and helping people of all political persuasions participate in our democratic process. I was there to serve all of them equally, regardless of party affiliation, and in every case considered it a privilege to do so. In this little microcosm, I came away with the sense that our democracy is strong and vibrant, and I acquired a deeper appreciation that its foundations lie at the grassroots level.

All of which got me thinking –- when one group tries to steal an election, as could happen in the coming weeks, the victims wouldn’t be the aggrieved candidates or political parties. No, the real victims would be the voters whose legitimate votes would be nullified if an illegitimate challenge were to prevail. Such an outcome would, at the Presidential level, rob tens of millions of Americans of the right to have their votes count.

Of course, honest, timely, and procedurally compliant challenges to any state’s or district’s election results, when supported by reliable evidence, should be permitted, but challenges based on false and unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud should not. That’s the only way each of the tens of millions of voters on either side of our presidential elections can be assured that their votes will count and that their right to vote will be preserved.

I hope our nation’s guardrails – state election officials, state courts, state legislatures, governors and secretaries of state, members of Congress, federal courts, and state and federal law enforcement – are prepared to protect all Americans from any attempt to rob them of their votes in the coming election. Our democracy, and our freedom, depend on it.

High Places

Another highlight of my past week was the opportunity to interview former Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger for my podcast, Higher Callings. I invited Scott to appear because of his leadership of a non-profit organization called Lawyers Defending American Democracy (LDAD).

Although I’ve been generally familiar with him since his rise in Massachusetts politics in the early 1980s, I underestimated how much I would be inspired by Scott’s stories of his formative years as a college, seminary, and law student in the 1960s; as a private lawyer, public defender, and government lawyer in the 1970s; as two-term District Attorney in Massachusetts’ largest county in the 1980s; and as Massachusetts’  two-term Attorney General in the 1990s (not to mention his later work as head of Common Cause in the early 2000s and then in private law practice).

Scott’s values were formed, in part, in the crucible of the 1960s and early 1970s civil rights and antiwar movements and the Watergate scandal, and were put to the test in the 1970s through his work on the Boston Public Schools busing case under the mentorship of the state’s then-Attorney General, Frank Bellotti. One lesson Scott took away both from the lawyers who stood up to President Nixon during Watergate, and from Mr. Bellotti’s example during the busing crisis, is that lawyers in high public office owe their primary loyalty not to any political party, but to the law. That lesson has guided Scott, and continues to guide him, throughout his illustrious career.

Scott takes seriously the oaths by which lawyers, both in private practice and in public office, pledge to refrain from asserting false claims and testimony in court, and promise to protect, preserve, and defend the state and federal constitutions. Scott’s passionate belief in the sanctity of those oaths prompted him and others in 2019 to form LDAD, a national organization that, among other activities, has advanced and supported claims against lawyers they believe violated their oaths by using the courts to fraudulently try to overturn the results of the 2020 election. LDAD also works to educate lawyers about the importance of their ethical obligations and their responsibility to stand up to attempts by those in power to undercut American democracy’s core principles, norms, and values.

I expect that many listeners will enjoy hearing Scott’s inspiring stories and insights as much as I did. You can find the podcast episode at the following link: Higher Callings Episode 40