Marin Voice: Democracy takes patience, training and work

I was so saddened to learn of the death of Mikhail Gorbachev.

It moved me to reflect on his leadership and the state of democracy in the world today. Think how different the world would be today had he been able to stay in power and gradually move Russia toward the free and open society he was trying to achieve.

By now, we might possibly have had a modern pluralistic society within Russia that would be part of our united western world. Russia might even be called an ally.

In the early stages, there was even talk of Russia joining NATO. Today, we are on the brink of NATO and Russia going to war. We are in the midst of the first European war since World War II and the highest potential for nuclear conflict since the Cuban missile crisis.

So, what went wrong? In my opinion, it was too much too fast.

First, he had not built a big enough and strong enough coalition within his ruling Soviet group to hold things together through the tumultuous transition that would come. Most importantly, the Russian people were not ready, prepared and educated on how to behave and operate in a new free society.

“Russians were deprived of any elementary personal freedom,” said Mark Urnov of The Gorbachev Foundation, following the former president’s death. “To overcome this kind of legacy, three or four generations are needed.”

They did not know how to exist in this new world of glasnost.

Another example is “the Arab Spring” following Obama’s election. Multiple North African and Middle East regimes were toppled in favor of democratic elections, the most notable being Egypt where President Hosni Mubarak was thrown out. There were elections, the Muslim Brotherhood won. They and other parties did not collaborate and today we have another military dictator in Egypt. Again, it was too much, too fast, without preparation and training.

The success of our democracy is dependent upon the quality of our participation. People forget that America used to be called “the great American experiment.” Democracy really is that young in this world.

I have always been worried that we take our democracy for granted and are far too dismissive of its responsibility. Democracy takes work. It takes time to understand the facts; paying attention to different arguments and policies; separating rhetoric from truth; being aware when politicians are trying to manipulate your emotions instead of engaging your rational thinking.

Over the last decade, my worries about our democracy have become more real. How do you explain a nation where almost half the population does not want to acknowledge science? A third are ignoring the factual result of an election and advocating overturning the vote. A couple people even wanted to kill the vice president so he couldn’t certify it.

The reason is because we have not been given a good education on what it takes to be great democratic citizens. It needs to be taught in school from the sixth grade through high school. I’m talking about much more than just teaching the branches of government. I’m talking about a strong education that enlightens our students to the modern-day strategies and games that are played by political parties and gives them effective tools to differentiate fact from fiction, and emotional appeal from reasonable ideas.

It is our instinct to be emotional and tribal when it comes to politics. We must be trained to suppress those emotions and re-engage rational critical thinking. It is so easy to touch and manipulate people’s emotions in the world of politics and campaigns. It is impossible to eliminate passion and emotions and it does have its role, but it must be based on real facts and real policy.

Most importantly, we must be tolerant to different ideas, collaborate to a common goal and, in the end, respect the political process.

I am working on building a school curriculum to this end. I welcome anyone who wants to help and contribute. In the meantime, your election ballots are arriving soon. Take the time, do your homework, seek advice from people and places you trust and let’s be better.

Andrew Thompson was mayor of Tiburon and served three terms on the Town Council.