I would like you to indulge me while I make a fairly boring case to you, the facts of which you are most likely familiar with. I will try to remain strictly factual.
Two or three of the past five presidential terms are considered illegitimate by half the population because the electoral college elected a president against the popular vote of the people. Bush’s (second term would very likely not have happened had the electoral college been abolished before he won the EC in 2000.)
As a result of 12 years of tainted presidencies and half a dozen supreme court seats that do not represent the will of the people, as defined by the popular vote here (and in the crushing majority of democractic countries). Had the EC been abolished in the 1960s, the supreme court would likely be at least 7 center left or liberal justices out of 9. Instead, there will be 3. The arithmetic is quite shameless.
The senate has become considerably undemocratic. This one is the oldest problem of all, and getting worse.
We are hard-wired to be overly optimistic. It helps us psychologically in this imperfect and sometimes brutally, soul-bendingly harsh world. So use that as a lens when you hear or think:
“It can’t happen here.”
“My country is different than those other examples because.”
“my fellow citizens are good people who’ll do the right thing.”
My question to ya’ll is: How bad do you think things truly are for democracy in America? What future do you predict.
All are welcome to answer. If you could, please identify your country of Origin when replying. Opinions from non-americans (who are less emotionally invested in this heavy topic) are of particular value to us americans so I thank you all in advance!
I don’t think your concern is at all misplaced. I’m seriously worried too. I don’t have an answer for you though. I don’t know if we can bounce back or if our slide is irreversible
On one hand things are weaker than they were in the 90s, on the other hand America’s claim to be a democracy has always been pretty weak, especially in the southern states. Prior to 1865, southern voters getting to add 3/5 of their slave population to their house numbers was not democratic, nor was forbidding the slave population to vote. From 1865 to the voting rights act of 1965 black votes were still heavily suppressed, and while that continues today (aided by convicting more blacks of crimes and imposing ‘unable to vote’ as a punishment for said crimes) it’s certainly not at pre-1965 levels. Women’s suffrage had to wait until 1920, and still faced obstacles for a while. Native Americans had to wait until 1924 for citizenship, and then for another 40 years before they were generally allowed to vote across the board.
Looking only at popular vote totals ignores that the popular vote traditionally excludes a large portion of the populous. While there are certainly some bad trends going on, the country has never really been democratic, and I suspect that it will get through this particular hurdle.
I disagree. Remember than during this same period we did nothing on climate change. Now that it has reached a tipping point, it will unleash challenges that we have no capacity to address. This chaos that we endure is the new normal.
I hope you’re right, but I’m not optimistic. I think that our best hope is to cut red state America out, they are a continual drag on our resources and retard our growth in the sciences, culture and social development and our actively hostile to development.
I am not really that optimistic either - in fact I’m often pretty pissy pessimistic. But if there’s absolutely no hope at all, what’s the point of anything except getting drunk on a nightly basis? There’s at least some hope, I would have to believe.
If a majority on both Senate and SC decides it, they can simply overrule the executive on everything. My republican friend has gotten quite comfortable saying “america is not a democracy, it’s a republic” which is basically code for “fuck democracy” which is quite amazing to me.
Even the house is undemocratic, thanks to gerrymandering. Another blatantly evil practice that the supreme court is 100% going to endorse now because it favors them.
We really, REALLY needed the supreme court to retain legitimacy.
I think the recent past has served to illustrate that our system of government is FAR FROM a participatory democracy - at least in the manner that a great many people would believe. 1 person - 1 vote, the will of the people, and all that. Not meaning to be cynical or snarky, but our government is a far cry from ancient Athens.
Sure, there are significant democratic elements, and intended precautions against abuse, but we are seeing the limits of those.
Further, our government has been an ongoing work in progress, for not all that long. The verdict is still out as to whether how far into the future it will last - at least without considerable changes.
So I don’t know that democracy has been weakened. Instead, I’d suggest the IMPRESSION of democracy has been weakened, or that significant flaws have been made more evident.
Ancient Athens was nothing like 1 person 1 vote either, unless you use a very specialized definition of ‘person’. The limits of no women, no slaves, no foreign residents, only property owners, led to only around 1/3 of the people actually getting a vote.