I Have Good News and I Have Bad News

American Democracy is Conflicted, Clumsy, Inefficient – That is the Good News

That’s The Good News?

Yes, it is – and the results are largely what the Founders intended – for good reason.

It is worth recalling that those who first organized this country brought some very through research and reflection to the task, framed by their own experiences.

The thought was to form a democratic republic, for several reasons too long to articulate here. Know that they worked this hard. I often marvel in reflection that we were at that time a tiny group of Europeans, located in what seemed to be a wilderness, sparsely populated by people who left Europe for a variety of reasons.

Yet, in this small, isolated group we had people who, because they were interested in the prospects of democracy, read as much as they could about the ancient Greek democracy and read it in the original Greek. Imagine that today. They had an historical and intellectual grounding to build upon.

Their thinking was also formed in great part by their own experiences. They had come from a world wherein a king had nearly unlimited power, with no way to limit or offset a bad one, or even a bad decision by a normally good king. They also had suffered at the hands of a parliament that thought little of them as citizens. And they had seen how the merging of church and state corrupted both institutions.

So, What Came of All This?

The primary result of all this was, in essence, the system of checks and balances that we all learned about in grade school. The Founders recognized that power corrupts and that good people were capable of bad decisions. With that in mind, they set up a system wherein no one part of the government nor one level of national life could act indefinitely with impunity and wherein change was possible, albeit slowly and messily.

To obtain that balance, to keep open the options for change when a part of the system ran off the rails, a model was built that was sure to generate frustration, require compromise, take more time to get anything done. It was built to be, in short, long on safety and adaptability, short on efficiency and smooth functioning. Some sacrifices were built in to prevent worse outcomes.

Therefore, This Is The Way It Should Be?

Not quite. Some parts of all this have proven over time to be badly flawed and others have not adapted to the modern environment.

First on this list would be the Electoral College. We all may understand why this odd duck of an institution came about, but it has more than outlived its usefulness. Today it is clearly an undemocratic entity that neutralizes one person, one vote. It has happened too often that someone ascended to the presidency who was not chosen by the people.

This  abberation happened early, with John Quincy Adams, and twice more in the 1800s. The bad result is more frequent now, with George W. Bush and Donald Trump both moving into the White House without a majority vote. This is an institution that should be put to rest immediately.

Second on the list might be the requirement to have 60 votes to get almost anything done in the US Senate. It has been quite a while since any party had 60 seats in the Senate and we are unlikely to see such a count in the foreseeable future. One understands the value of a check on a majority party running roughshod, but the current rules make governance a rare occurance.

Better to very narrowly define what requires 60 votes, kill off the filibuster (or make those who claim it actually do a physical filibuster), and hold the majority party responsible for what follows.

Third on the list would be the gutting of political parties by the wealthy and out of government actors. The Founders knew little of parties; Washington specifically spoke out against them. It is one area where I think the Founders missed the call. Parties today in the US have no real authority. The result is efforts driven by extremists, those who welcome chaos and governmental failure, and no mechanism to mentor and grow new national leaders.

There are lots of other shortcomings of course, but you get the point. Governance in the modern era (heck, in any era) is tough work under the best of circumstances. It requires constant tuning to meet new challenges and opportunities.

That’s The Bad News, These Shortcomings? Nope.

Remember that a certain amount of frustration is always present, as insurance against totalitarianism and abuse of power. Problems and shortfalls are part of the ticket we buy to have a functioning democracy.

The bad news is that two types of people are in evidence who simply no longer want a democracy. They are unwilling to accept the shortfalls and irritants. They reject the whole package.

Some of these are people who feel left out, marginalized and attacked (whether they are or not). They are angry and feel too much is changing in some areas, and not enough is changing in others. This makes them low hanging fruit for the other troublesome bunch of folks.

This refers to those who absolutely understand how government works, and they want nothing less than an autocracy at best, a dictatorship at worst. They want above all the power to do what they want and to preserve their privilege. They do not see democracy as in need of a tune up – they see it as a fatally flowed model that needs to be killed off.

Lucky for them they have the means of communication and manipulation to use the aforementioned angry people to support the nondemocratic model. They have people fired up to vote against their own, and the nation’s, best interests.

Choose Carefully, America

I can honestly state that I know of no modern American election that has so much at stake, with so many complex risks foreign and domestic, as the one we will hold in about 100 days. Large countries and democracies have a way of healing over time, even if not always smoothly. Whatever happens in November, the US will likely change further at some point. But I expect not in my lifetime. What we choose this time around is the very definition of a cornerstone event.

We get this one wrong at great peril. Pay attention America. It is not just about you or me, and not just about the next few years. Much hangs in a delicate balance. Choose carefully.

When someone tells you they can run the entire government more smoothly, that any elected official has a mandate from the country to do everything they want to do, know that you are being lied to on every level. We can do better than this.

Bill Clontz

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