By Cory Doctorow / pluralistic.net./ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
If you aspire to be a Very Serious Person (and whomst amongst us doesn't?) then you know why we can't have nice things. The American people won't stand for court packing, Congressional term limits, the abolition of the Electoral College, or campaign finance limits. Politics is the art of the possible, and these just aren't possible.
Friends, you've been lied to.
The latest Pew Research mega-report investigates Americans' attitudes towards politics, and honestly, the title says it all: "Americans’ Dismal Views of the Nation’s Politics":
The American people hate Congress. They hate the parties. They hate the president. They hate the 2024 presidential candidates. They *loathe* the Supreme Court. Approval for America's bedrock institutions are at historic lows. Disapprovals are at historic highs.
The report's subtitle speaks volumes: "65% say they always or often feel exhausted when thinking about politics." Who can blame them? After all: "63% express not too much or no confidence at all in the future of the U.S. political system."
"Just 4% of U.S. adults say the political system is working extremely or very well": that is to say, there are more Americans who think Elvis is alive than who think US politics are working well.
There are differences, of course. Young people have less hope than older people. Republicans are more reactionary than Democrats. Racialized people trust institutions less than white people.
But there are also broad, bipartisan, cross-demographic, intergenerational *agreements*, and these may surprise you:
Take Congressional term-limits. *87%* of US adults support these. Only 12% oppose them.
Everyone knows American gerontocracy is a problem. I mean, for one thing, it's *destabilizing*. There's a significant chance that *neither* of the presumptive US presidential candidates will be alive on inauguration day.
But beyond the inexorable logic of actuary science, there's the problem that our Congress of septuagenarians have served for decades, and are palpably out-of-touch with their constituents' lives. And those constituents know it, which is why 79% of Americans favor age limits for elected officials *and* Supreme Court justices.
Not all of this bipartisan agreement is positive. 76% of Americans have been duped into favoring a voter ID requirement to solve the nonexistent problem of voter fraud by imposing a racialized, wealth-based poll-tax. But even here, there's a silver lining: 62% of Americans support automatically registering every eligible voter.
Threats to pack the Supreme Court have a long and honorable tradition in this country. It's how Lincoln got his anti slavery agenda, and how FDR got the New Deal:
The majority of Americans don't want to pack the court...yet. The race is currently neck-and-neck - 51% opposed, 46% in favor, and with approval for the Supreme Court at lows not seen since the 2400 baud era, court-packing is an idea with serious momentum.
66% of Democrats want the court packed. 58% of under 30s - of every affiliation - favor the proposal.
And two thirds (65%) of Americans want to abolish the Electoral College and award the presidency to the candidate with the most votes. That includes nearly half (47%) of Republicans, and two thirds of independents.
Americans believe - correctly - that their elected representatives are more beholden to monied interests than to a sense of duty towards their constituents. Or, as a pair of political scientists put it in their widely cited 2014 paper.
Economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence.
So yeah, no surprise that 70% of Americans believe that voters have too little influence over their elected lawmakers. 83% of Republicans say big campaign donors call the shots. 80% of Democrats agree.
Which is why 72% of Americans want to limit political spending (76% for Democrats, 71% for Republicans). The majority of Americans - 58% - believe that it is possible to get money out of politics with well-crafted laws.
Americans truly *do* have a "dismal view of the nation's politics," and who can blame them? But if you "feel exhausted thinking about the nation's politics," consider this - the majority of Americans, including Republicans, want to:
abolish the electoral college;
impose campaign spending limits;
put term limits on elected officials *and* Supreme Court justices;
put *age* limits on elected officials and Supreme Court justices; and
automatically register every eligible American to vote.
What's more, packing the Supreme Court is a coin-toss, and it's growing more popular day by day.
Which is all to say, yes, things are *really* screwed up, but everyone knows it and everyone agrees on the commonsense measures that would fix it.
Reassuring to know that we really do agree on most things that matter and it's the corporate press, politicians, and monied interests who emphatically agree that it's their way or the highway. Rise up, people! There's more of us than them!