Vote for Democracy in 2022, Like You Really Mean It
Dangers to democracy in the United States continue to mount. Like the economy, correcting what ails us involves lots of little steps, even as those who would weaken democracy continue to chip away.
An NBC poll released this week shows voters are starting to take the subject seriously, with “threats to democracy” named as the most important issue in the country, surpassing concerns about the economy, immigration, climate change and crime.
Some pundits are urging the Department of Justice not to prosecute former president Trump, the man who set the stage for more rampant destruction of democracy. Or floating the idea that President Biden should pardon his predecessor. These are horrible ideas.
Somehow the thought of menacing trucks with Trump flags encircling the FBI building is a reason not to do the right thing. And, have they considered what Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon did for his political career?
Here’s Jamelle Bouie at the New York Times:
The most important of our new realities is the fact that much of the Republican Party has turned itself against electoral democracy. The Republican nominee for governor in Arizona — Kari Lake — is a 2020 presidential election denier. So, too, are the Republican nominees in Arizona for secretary of state, state attorney general and U.S. Senate. In Pennsylvania, Republican voters overwhelmingly chose the pro-insurrection Doug Mastriano to lead their party’s ticket in November. Overall, Republican voters have nominated election deniers in dozens of races across six swing states, including candidates for top offices in Georgia, Nevada and Wisconsin…
…Our experience, as Americans, tells us that there is a clear point at which we must act in the face of corruption, lawlessness and contempt for the very foundations of democratic society. The only way out is through. Fear of what Trump and his supports might do cannot and should not stand in the way of what we must do to secure the Constitution from all its enemies, foreign and domestic.
Getting back to the NBC polling, just 1% of voters listed the coronavirus as the most important issue. That’s probably bad news for the GOP tacticians who are hoping to make Dr. Anthony Fauci’s departure from government service to whip up MAGA mobs.
From Vanity Fair:
Notably, the poll revealed that most Americans believe the various investigations into Trump's alleged improprieties should remain underway. The poll also bore out a narrowing enthusiasm gap between Democrats and Republicans. Not six months ago, Republicans held a 17-point advantage over Democrats when it comes to voter interest in the midterms. But in the poll released Sunday, that lead had shrunk to two points, with 68 percent of Republicans expressing high interest in the November election compared to 66 percent of Democrats.
The most significant change over that timespan, of course, was the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade, clearing the way for abortion to be immediately outlawed or dramatically scaled back in half the country. For many voters, Roe's rescission laid bare the dangers of minoritarian rule by the GOP. "You don’t have to agree with abortion to want to honor peoples’ rights,” as one voter told NBC News.
At the state level, in addition to the raft of laws aimed at prosecuting people for the virtually non-existent crime of voter fraud, Republican legislatures are undertaking a deliberate, sustained and escalating effort to undermine ballot initiatives at every step of the process.
These restrictive measures are trying to make it harder to get initiatives on the ballot, make it harder to pass initiatives after they’re on the ballot and then overturning the initiatives that do pass, despite winning approval from a majority of the voters.
A measure to raise the requirement to a 60% majority from a simple majority recently passed the Arizona state house; in South Dakota, the legislature offered up an initiative that would similarly raise the threshold for other initiatives to 60%, but will itself only need a simple-majority to be ratified; and in Missouri, lawmakers have proposed leaping from the current simple majority threshold all the way up to a two-thirds majority.
In Kansas, the overwhelming support for a referendum affirming the state’s constitutional protection for abortion rights was challenged by election conspiracy theorists, who demanded a recount. The audit left the results unchanged and now anti-abortion advocates have filed a law suit to overturn the voters choice. The point here isn’t to change the result; it’s to give anti-democratic forces a platform for casting doubt and uncertainty over the process.
This week Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is in Ohio, campaigning for Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance. Ohioans won’t be reading about the speeches made at events, thanks to ridiculous restrictions placed on anyone covering the event.
So, why is all the anti-democracy stuff relevant here in true-blue San Diego/California?
Because every vote cast makes a statement. Apathy is an autocracy’s greatest ally. And because there will be stuff you’ll want to weigh in on come November. It might be a small thing, like making sure that the local covid-truthers lose by as much as possible It might be a big thing, like affirming the constitutional right of abortion.
Finally, a big part of the statement you make by voting is saying “no” to the forces hoping you just don’t care. The NBC poll is right. We should have reason to be concerned. Our nation just went through four years of leadership by individuals more concerned with fame and fortune than the welfare of the people.
Here’s Brian Klaas, writing at the Atlantic, with quotes from Erica Frantz, a political scientist and expert on authoritarianism at Michigan State University and Brendan Nyhan, a government professor at Dartmouth College and a co-founder of Bright Line Watch, a group that monitors the erosion of American democracy.
The American system isn’t just dysfunctional. It’s dying. Nyhan believes there is now a “significant risk” that the 2024 election outcome will be illegitimate. Even Frantz, who has been more optimistic about America’s democratic resilience in the past, doesn’t have a particularly reassuring retort to the doom-mongers: “I don’t think U.S. democracy will collapse, but just hover in a flawed manner for a while, as in Poland.”
We may not be doomed. But we should be honest: The optimistic assessment from experts who study authoritarianism globally is that the United States will most likely settle into a dysfunctional equilibrium that mirrors a deep democratic breakdown. It’s not yet too late to avoid that. But the longer we wait, the more the cancer of authoritarianism will spread. We don’t have long before it’s inoperable.
Email me at: WritetoDougPorter@Gmail.com