Democracy: Can We Keep It?
What will today’s election results indicate? Will we keep our democracy?
Today is Election Day, and no one, least of all the expert pollsters, has any idea whether Democrats or Republicans will sport the biggest smiles the day (or days or weeks) after. The predictions range from a Republican wave to the Democrats clinging to small majorities in both houses of Congress, with plenty of other scenarios in between.
One thing is clear though: As I have written before (several times), the continuation of American democracy — imperfect as it is — is on the ballot in 2022. If enough election-denying Republicans win in enough key states, it is entirely possible that today’s midterms will be the last free and fair election in the United States. Republican governors, secretaries of states, and state legislatures in closely contested states — Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin, and others — could manipulate subsequent elections in myriad ways to insure that Donald Trump, or some other far-right presidential candidate, wins the presidency in 2024, regardless of the will of the majority.
The stakes are so high, and the dangers so palpable, because one of the two major political parties in this country is no longer committed to democratic norms. Far too many Republicans have stated that they will accept the results of elections only if they win. As Kari Lake, the Republican gubernatorial candidate in Arizona, said, “I’m going to win the election, and I will accept that result.” If Lake’s statement is not a clear enough indication of Republican intentions, then consider this from “Stop the Steal” organizer Ali Alexander: “Any election I don’t like is stolen…. If I don’t like it, it’s stolen. If I like it, it’s not stolen. If you win, it’s stolen.” No pretense, no artifice, just a clear signaling of right-wing resolve. We cannot pretend we were not warned!
The peaceful transfer of power — initiated by George Washington when he declined to run for a third term as president and gracefully turned over the government to his successor, John Adams — has been the bedrock of American constitutional democracy for more than two centuries. The exceptions have been few: Most notably the slavocracy’s refusal to accept Abraham Lincoln’s victory in 1860, Democratic former Confederates’ violent overthrow of Republican-dominated governments in the South during Reconstruction, and sporadic incidents such as the coup in Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1898 staged by the then-segregationist Democratic Party to oust a legally elected, racially mixed local government. Contemporary Republicans are treading in the footsteps of treasonous secessionists and violent opponents of democratic rule!
It will not be surprising — for, again, we have been warned (they do say the quiet part out loud) — that before all the returns are counted many Republican candidates will scream “Steal!” Unproven and unprovable accusations of voter fraud will only serve to destabilize further American politics. Voter fraud is exceedingly rare in the United States, but that has not stopped Trump’s continuing invocation of the “Big Lie” about the 2020 presidential election nor will it stop Republican losers from imitating him this time around.
At the least, defeated Republican candidates will cause turmoil in the coming days. Victorious Republican candidates will cause further damage to the American constitutional system by enacting measures that limit the vote of electoral groups likely to vote Democratic. Republicans will do what they falsely accuse Democrats of doing: Rig elections. As Jim Marchant, the Republican candidate for top election official in Nevada, promised: “When I’m secretary of state of Nevada… and when my coalition of secretary of state candidates around the country get [sic] elected we’re going to fix the whole country, and President Trump is going to be president again in 2024.” (They do say the quiet part out loud!)
Gerrymandering (already a serious problem) will become an even graver issue as gerrymandered super-majorities in state legislatures carve up districts to guarantee Republican victories (Democrats gerrymander too, only they are not as effective at it and do not have as much power in state legislatures). Republican-controlled state legislatures likely will pass laws curtailing early and mail-in voting, limiting polling places, requiring ID’s that often are inaccessible to the poor and minorities, and other restrictive measures to suppress the vote. Finally, if the Supreme Court — which has lurched to the far right after Trump’s three appointees were elevated to the bench — accepts the constitutionally dubious “independent state legislature theory,” then state legislators would have carte blanche — without any oversight from the courts — to suppress voting, draw absurd boundaries for legislative districts, and refuse to accept electoral returns. In essence, state legislatures, not the voters, would decide the winners. Several justices have signaled support for the doctrine.
It is no surprise that Republicans have nominated candidates unworthy of the offices they seek. If a political party is not committed to democracy and seeks only power for the sake of power, then the quality of candidates is irrelevant. The only thing that matters is the willingness of elected officials to follow the “party line” and/or the dictates of cult leaders like the former president. So, a deeply flawed candidate like Herschel Walker — who is running for a Senate seat from Georgia — is perfect for today’s GOP because he will do what he is told. No one who supports him pretends that Walker has the intellectual acumen to understand the intricacies of legislating nor is anyone on the right particularly troubled by Walker’s unsteady relationship with the truth. Whether he paid for a girlfriend’s abortion matters little as long as he promises to vote the “right” way on abortion.
Nor does anyone care that candidates like Lake and J.D. Vance — the Republican nominee for the Senate from Ohio — are recent converts to the MAGA world. Lake’s colleagues at a local television station in Phoenix told The New York Times that she donated to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign and expressed liberal opinions on guns and immigration despite her current pro-gun and anti-immigrant rhetoric on the campaign trail. As for Vance, it was only six years ago that the venture capitalist pondered whether Trump “is a cynical asshole like [Richard] Nixon… or that he’s America’s Hitler.” Apparently, Hitler is no longer a problem for Vance!
The Walkers, Lakes, and Vances make a mockery of democracy. They also pose a threat to the continuation of democratic rule. Let us all hope that as the returns are counted from today’s election that the Walkers, Lakes, and Vances are returned to private life. And, let us hope that the losers go quietly.
Posted November 8, 2022