In their 1970 jam “What Is Soul,” Funkadelic advances a proposition, “Nothing is good unless you play with it,” and a corollary, “all that is good is nasty.” The lyrics then go on to define “soul,” a word used at the time to distinguish and valorize Black American music and culture, through a series of disconcerting images of matter out of place. Soul is “a ham hock in your corn flakes,” “the ring around your bathtub,” “a joint rolled in toilet paper,” etc. 

Authoritarianism is not, at least in this sense, nasty. Authoritarianism is clean, with clear hierarchies and simple narratives. Nothing is out of place, except for scapegoat populations that are blamed for all problems and targeted for removal or elimination. 

Democracy is nasty. Democracy is the ham hock in your corn flakes—or, at least, it’s the corn flake lobby having to negotiate with the ham hock interest group. Democracy is good because we can play with it and because we all have a role to play. The process of democracy is always messy, and the results are often unsatisfying. Finding a compromise among the values and priorities of hundreds of millions of Americans can never be clean or uncomplicated. But the alternative is a lack of compromise, with some segment of the American population dominating and ignoring the interests of everyone else. 

Last year, in the middle of the divisive campaign season, I attended a Parliament-Funkadelic concert. Being part of the crowd as 82-year-old frontman George Clinton led us in a chant of “We are one nation, under a groove” was the most moving, patriotic experience of my recent memory. Democracy does not preclude unity. But you don’t get music without contrasting instruments and melodies, and you don’t get democracy without contrasting opinions and goals.  

Alex Lovit is a senior program officer and historian at the Kettering Foundation. He is the host and executive producer of the Kettering Foundation podcast The Context.

From Many, We is a Charles F. Kettering Foundation blog series that highlights the insights of thought leaders dedicated to the idea of inclusive democracy. Queries may be directed to fmw@kettering.org.