There's an old story that in 1787 at the close of the Constitutional Convention, a woman asked Benjamin Franklin if the Constitution would produce a republic or a monarchy. "A Republic, if you can keep it," replied Franklin.
A 2014 Northwestern University study concluded that the United States is not a democratic republic but an oligarchy of economic elites: "Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organised groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on US government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence."
"When a majority of citizens disagrees with economic elites and/or with organised interests, they generally lose. Moreover, because of the strong status quo bias built into the US political system, even when fairly large majorities of Americans favour policy change, they generally do not get it."
I've discussed at length in this series how big money interests have subverted democracy in America, but there's an elephant in the room I haven't talked about yet. Republican voter suppression tactics aside, it's for the most part the American people themselves who have forfeited their own rights by either not voting or by electing Republicans. The US has a two-party political system. One party, the Republicans, has for the past several decades sought to curtail voting rights, workers' rights, immigrants' rights, minority rights and just about every legal right afforded to human beings in favor of the power of the economic elites commonly referred to as the "1%". The Democratic party, by contrast, has tried (often not hard enough, granted) to protect people power.
So why have Americans allowed this to happen? I think there are three reasons.
1. Apathy
Only about 6 in 10 Americans vote in Presidential election years, and about 4 in 10 in the midterms. Research shows that a majority of young people don't think voting is an effective way to change society. Republicans have few qualms perpetuating those feelings among young voters, as nonvoters more likely to be poor, young, Hispanic or Asian-American and more likely to align with the Democratic Party.
2. People vote against their own interests
Non-college-educated white voters have gone all-in for Donald Trump and Republican politics. And what have they gotten in return? American workers are among the hardest working and most productive in the world, yet find themselves commonly living below the poverty line, denied healthcare, and denied basic benefits they would be guaranteed in other leading nations such as paid vacation and maternity leave and a retirement pension at a reasonable age.
Roger Ebert discussed the strange phenomenon of people voting against their economic interests in in a great 2011 article entitled, The One-Percenters. The article noted that Wall Street duped investors and wrecked the economy during the Great Recession, all while voting itself record bonuses. And the public's response?
"What puzzles me is why there isn't more indignation. The Tea Party is the most indignant domestic political movement since Norman Thomas's Socialist Party, but its wrath is turned in the wrong direction. It favors policies that are favorable to corporations and unfavorable to individuals. Its opposition to Obamacare is a textbook example. Insurance companies and the health care industry finance a "populist" movement that is manipulated to oppose its own interests. The billionaire Koch brothers payroll right wing front organizations that oppose labor unions and financial reform. The patriots wave their flags and don't realize they're being duped.
Consider taxes. Do you know we could eliminate half the predicted shortfall in the national budget by simply failing to renew the Bush tax cuts? Do you know that if corporations were taxed at a fair rate, much of the rest could be found? General Electric recently reported it paid no current taxes. Why do you think that was? Why do middle and lower class Tea Party members not understand that they bear an unfair burden of taxes that should be more fairly distributed? Why do they support those who campaign against unions and a higher minimum wage? What do they think is in it for them?"
Similarly, Thomas Frank wrote in the political study, What's the Matter with Kansas, "Out here the gravity of discontent pulls in only one direction: to the right, to the right, farther to the right. Strip today’s Kansans of their job security, and they head out to become registered Republicans. Push them off their land, and next thing you know they’re protesting in front of abortion clinics. Squander their life savings on manicures for the CEO, and there’s a good chance they’ll join the John Birch Society. But ask them about the remedies their ancestors proposed (unions, antitrust, public ownership), and you might as well be referring to the days when knighthood was in flower."
3. Racism
2020 will mark the Quadricentennial celebration of the arrival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock. For 400 years old, white, wealthy, "Christian", allegedly heterosexual men have run everything in this country. Because white people have always been the majority, unless you count the Native Americans, which White America seldom has. But not for much longer. By the year 2045, America will become minority white. This is a prospect that terrifies white America. And I think it's the biggest reason why more white people are voting Republican, and voting for xenophobic white supremacists like Donald Trump.
Just this past week, economist Paul Krugman commented on this in the New York Times. Krugman noted that President Trump's economic policies are clearly terrible for rural America, and asked: "Why, then, do rural areas support Trump? A lot of it has to do with cultural factors. In particular, rural voters are far more hostile to immigrants than urban voters — especially in communities where there are few immigrants to be found. Lack of familiarity apparently breeds contempt."
Krugman has hit the nail on the head: a lot of Americans are prepared to keep an insane, lying criminal with no respect for democratic institutions in the White House, as long as he speaks to their fears of a browner America.
But the problem goes deeper than just a lot of Republicans and un-worldly rural people who believe a lot of lies about immigrant populations harming America. According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, 46 percent of white Americans fear that a non-white majority population in the US would weaken American "culture". Similarly, a 2014 New York University study showed that white people who read about the coming white non-white majority in America tend to favor more restrictive immigration policies.
So where does this all lead? Unfortunately, it leads us to even worse things than electing a white supremacist as President. The title of this NBC News article by Noah Berlastky says it all: The Trump effect: New study connects white American intolerance and support for authoritarianism.
According to Berlatsky, while many cite increasing partisanship as the biggest threat to American democracy, "A new study, however, suggests that the main threat to our democracy may not be the hardening of political ideology, but rather the hardening of one particular political ideology. Political scientists Steven V. Miller of Clemson and Nicholas T. Davis of Texas A&M have released a working paper titled "White Outgroup Intolerance and Declining Support for American Democracy." Their study finds a correlation between white America's intolerance, and support for authoritarian rule. In other words, when intolerant white people fear democracy may benefit marginalized people, they abandon their commitment to democracy."
"Based on surveys from the United States, the authors found that white people who did not want to have immigrants or people of different races living next door to them were more likely to be supportive of authoritarianism. For instance, people who said they did not want to live next door to immigrants or to people of another race were more supportive of the idea of military rule, or of a strongman-type leader who could ignore legislatures and election results."
So is there any good news? Yes. Time is on the side of democracy. And not because the country is becoming less white. Consider a recent article by Colby Itkowitz of the Washington Post entitled: The next generation of voters is more liberal, more inclusive and believes in government.
"Generation Z, defined as those born after 1996, is on the cusp of adulthood. The oldest are graduating college. By 2020, almost half will be eligible to vote in the presidential election, which means their values and opinions could soon help shape national politics.
According to (a recent Pew Center) survey, released Thursday, Gen Z teens and young adults have overwhelmingly adopted left-leaning beliefs similar to those of the millennials before them. They overwhelmingly disapprove of President Trump, believe the government should do more and reject American exceptionalism.
It’s not uncommon for young people to hold liberal views that moderate as they age. But Gen Zers grew up in a very different world than previous generations. The oldest among them was 11 when the first black president was elected. They became teenagers as same-sex marriage was legalized around the country. They also, according to Pew, will be the most racially diverse and well-educated generation.
This younger generation is much more likely to see climate change as a result of human behavior and to believe black Americans are treated unfairly."
And it's not as if the Republican party is attempting any kind of outreach to less-conservative, multicultural young people, as party leaders suggested after Mitt Romney's loss in 2012. Long-time Republican strategist and leader of the "Never Trump" movement Rick Wilson commented last year that, "Everything we Never Trump folks warned you of, including massive, decades-long downstream election losses, is coming. Alienating African Americans and Hispanics beyond redemption? Check. Raising a generation of young voters who are fleeing the GOP in droves? Check. Age-old beefs, juvenile complaints, and ego bruises taking center stage while the world burns? Check. Playing public footsie with white supremacists and neo-Nazis? Check. Blistering pig-ignorance about the economy and the world? Check. … Shredding the last iota of the GOP’s credibility as a party that cares about debt, deficits, and fiscal probity? Check."
You know the Republican party is in trouble with minority voters when the only minority candidates it can find to run for Congress are just as racist and crazy as Donald Trump. Just this week the GOP was excited to announce the congressional bid of Cuban-American Irina Vilariño in Florida. Ms. Vilariño is known for backing various bigoted conspiracy theories, and has refused to apologize for promoting a fake video which makes President Obama appear to say he was born in Kenya.
In conclusion, this is the thread that ties together everything I've discussed in this series on the many threats to America's democratic institutions: White, conservative Americans see that in their lifetimes people of color will become a majority in this country, and they consider that a threat to white dominance of American culture. They also see that the new multicultural majority is rejecting the neo-liberal politics of Ronald Reagan and those who came after him that seek to perpetually grow power for the wealthy while brutalizing the poor. And the old conservative white hegemony does not intend to let a little thing like democracy curtail their power, culturally or politically.
Jason Sattler, opinion columnist for USA Today recently observed, "Republicans have given up on voters. America's future depends on whether Democrats can expand voting rights faster than the GOP can restrict them."
Every day, the tide of population demographics shifts a little more against the Trump voter. Democracy in this country may last longer than they do. I think it will.
Thanks for reading.
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