Republicans Are Suddenly Afraid of Democracy - The Atlantic
Category: News & Politics
Via: john-russell • 4 years ago • 73 commentsBy: George Packer (The Atlantic)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Fearing defeat at the polls, the GOP is laying the groundwork to delegitimize the results, and to block an electoral majority from governing.
12:24 PM ET George Packer Staff writer for The Atlantic 
Brendan Smialowski / AFP / Getty
"We're not a democracy," Republican Senator Mike Lee tweeted in the middle of Wednesday night's vice-presidential debate. He was reacting to something he'd heard onstage there, in his home state of Utah. Another tweet: "The word 'democracy' appears nowhere in the Constitution, perhaps because our form of government is not a democracy. It's a constitutional republic. To me it matters. It should matter to anyone who worries about the excessive accumulation of power in the hands of the few." Hours after the debate Lee was still worrying the thought: "Democracy isn't the objective; liberty, peace, and prosperity are. We want the human condition to flourish. Rank democracy can thwart that."
Why did Lee choose this moment—less than four weeks before an election in which his party seems likely to suffer defeat—to make the familiar, even pedantic, point that we live in a republic rather than a pure democracy? Why did he insist on the point so vehemently that he neglected to mention that power in the American system ultimately lies with the people, which means that our system could also be called a representative democracy? Did he mean rank as in "foul," "rancid," or "outright"? If the last, does that mean the tyranny of the majority leading to perverse rule by "the few"? What did this short, misleading course in Civics 101 have to do with anything?
My guess is that Lee wasn't just being pedantic. Worried about an election in which the people can express their will, Lee was laying the groundwork to contest the results or block an elected majority from governing.
The Trump administration is using the last weeks of the campaign to soften up the country for a repudiation of democracy itself. This project will take some doing. Getting rid of checks on presidential power in the form of inspectors general, congressional committees, special counsels, and nonpartisan judges might drive pundits and experts crazy, but such moves don't hit home for many citizens. The post-Watergate norms established to preserve the Justice Department's integrity are not widely understood. But voting is something else. Your vote is your most tangible connection to the idea of democratic government. It's the only form of political power most Americans possess. It's proof that government of, by, and for the people hasn't yet perished from the Earth. Your vote is personal. For a president to throw it out would be an audacious undertaking.
Trump keeps promising to try. Every time he talks about "massive fraud" and sending the election to a Supreme Court with a conservative majority, he's preparing you to have your vote taken away—to make that shocking prospect a little more normal, even inevitable. Each new controversy, each norm broken, each authoritarian pose makes Trump's intention to nullify the election results clear.
In just the past two weeks, Trump's children, his entourage, and the president himself engaged in ostentatious rule-breaking at the presidential debate. The president refused to condemn white supremacists or promise a peaceful transfer of power. Vice President Mike Pence engaged in less aggressive but more persistent interruptions and lies in Wednesday's debate, and gave his own nonanswer to a question about accepting election results. Trump's contempt for health protocols at a White House event introducing his new Supreme Court nominee led to the viral contagion of his staff and much of the executive branch's senior leadership. The president's flight back from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Marine One ended with a climb up the White House steps and a dramatically lit self-unmasking and salute, like a winded Mussolini. Attorney General William Barr rescinded Justice Department rules in order to be able to investigate supposed vote fraud just before an election. Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe released tricked-up evidence of a Barack Obama-Joe Biden-Hillary Clinton conspiracy against the Trump campaign in 2016. Trump expressed annoyance with both Barr and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for taking too long to produce more "evidence" that could undermine Biden in the election's final days. When the FBI broke up a plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer by right-wing extremists of the kind the president won't renounce, Trump hurled insults at their intended target.
These incidents, coming faster than anyone can absorb, are all expressions of raw, undemocratic power—of might making right. They signify that Trump and his enablers will trample on any rules, and finally majority rule. Senator Lee made a constitutional case on Twitter for what President Trump will try to do by chin-jutting fiat. What Lee calls "rank democracy," Trump calls a "rigged election." Later, Lee explained that he's concerned about the protection of minority rights from a coercive majority. That sounds like a hedge against an election blowout.
Lee's contortions recall the antidemocratic arguments of Senator John C. Calhoun of South Carolina, whose theory of nullification by concurrent majorities claimed constitutional grounds for the slave states to defy federal authority. History rendered a negative verdict on Calhoun's theories and the evil system he defended to his last breath. Like the antebellum South, today's Republican Party is composed of a demographically and economically weakening population. It appeals ever harder to an ever-shrinking base of older, white, male, rural, less-educated Americans. And, like the antebellum South, the Republican Party holds on to power by exploiting the Constitution's unrepresentative features—the Senate, the Electoral College, and unelected justices with lifetime appointments. These institutions have concentrated outsize power in a minority party that doesn't hesitate to break the rules for maximum advantage. Its skill in drawing inside straights and turning weak hands into political domination has been impressive. But next month's election seems poised to begin the return of majority rule.
If so, then Republicans who trashed checks and balances for four years in order to consolidate conservative power will suddenly rediscover them. Not to constrain presidential abuses, but to thwart the popular will—first by trying to send the election to legislatures and courts and then, failing that, by blocking every move of a Democratic president and Congress. We'll hear a lot of talk about the rights of minorities, the importance of separation of powers, and how America isn't really a democracy. Last night Senator Ben Sasse released a statement warning that Biden intends to "effectively kill two of our three branches of government by abolishing the Senate and packing the Supreme Court." Sasse was referring to the prospect of newly empowered Democrats ending the legislative filibuster and adding justices to the court.
Both of those possibilities deserve to be debated, before the election as well as after. Biden and his vice-presidential nominee, Senator Kamala Harris, should remind voters that Republicans, not Democrats, have turned the Senate into a body that produces no legislation but simply functions as a conveyor belt to cram every level of the judiciary with partisan conservative judges, filling seats that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell forced President Obama to leave empty. The goal of this strategy is to seize control of the third, unelected branch of government and use it to prevent the elected branches, if they ever return to majority rule, from governing. What we're hearing now from these latter-day Calhouns is fear of representative democracy.
Having chained their party to Trump, Republicans will follow him in his frantic effort to delegitimize the coming election. But I don't think it will work. The vote remains too powerful an idea in the minds of Americans. They are already standing in long lines to cast the ballots that Trump claims are fraudulent. The word democracy might not be found in the Constitution, but Senator Lee is right to be frightened by it.
We want to hear what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor or write to letters@theatlantic.com.
George Packer is a staff writer at The Atlantic . He is the author of Our Man: Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century and The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America .
Tags
Who is online
407 visitors
Because he's a Tea Party nut case.
A teabagger nut case.
This is the most important part of this article-
The Senate has had to move for cloture more during the Trump Presidency than in all other Presidencies combined. If the Republicans have time for nothing other than confirming executive nominees, it's because the Democrats have broken it with unprecedented obstruction. They've done nothing but gum up the Senate. And now, should they win the Presidency and Senate, they will remove the check they used to curb executive power and use their own breaking of Senate norms to justify gutting the Senate.
We have had enough of the minority party obstructing the people's business. The Republicans are right now the minority party in terms of how many Americans their senators represent. We have gone along with 'minority rule' long enough. I believe they will end the filibuster because they will have no other choice if they want to keep campaign pledges.
how many people each senator represents us irrelevant. as it is set at 2 per state.
why do so many Democrats want to abandon the way we do things?
Why would the number of people being represented in congress by the two parties be irrelevant?
When we had a Congress that acted in a bi partisan way (or if you prefer, when there were more moderates in Congress) the number of Senators from which states was not very relevant. But when you have senators and congresspeople who almost always vote a party line, the fact that the Republicans represent a minority of the American people is very much relevant. We are having minority rule.
because the number of Senators isn't based on population.
therefore. the number of people they represent us irrelevant
Because we often outgrow the way we do things.
This is why Democrats are PROgressive, and Republicans are REgressive.
I drove to an event a couple weeks ago, about an hour through rural areas with a couple towns along the way. Where I live you don’t see any Trump signs, but as you get further into the sticks they start showing up here and there. In 2016 it was much more prevalent, and where you saw Trump signs you simply didn’t see any Hillary signs. Now it is different - you see Trump signs in the sticks but they are interspersed with Biden signs. In the urban areas there is no sign of Trump. I was passing through Ohio a few months ago and took a detour near Youngstown, and drove by the massive shuttered Lordstown GM plant. The roads were intensely potholed, the area was completely falling apart, and there were zero Trump signs but many Biden signs. There’s no question in my mind that the only way Trump “wins” this time is by subverting our democracy.
In the past 30 years there has only been one Republican candidate that won the popular vote, George W Bush in 2004. They know that the demographic direction of the country will prevent them from winning it in the foreseeable future, so Republicans lack motivation to believe in democracy. Of course it is their own fault.
If we changed the way we elect Presidents, you might have had a point.
The Republicans won the electoral college like everyone else does who sits in the WH.
Whether they won the electoral college or not they are a minority party. Yet they try and rule in Congress as if the majority of Americans are on their side. People are sick of it.
I believe they are doing their best, you don't.
Simple as that.
The GOP won the WH and Senate.
Not too shabby, and I bet Dems would change places in an instant!
and now we have another election. Your time to say that the Democrats didnt accept Trump's victory is just about over.
A Republican minority prevented the California legislature from governing for a couple decades. The result was enduring Democratic super-majorities.
We may hope that the same thing happens nationally.
Well... there are the residents of California...
How delusional. I know quite a few people in CA. They have zero interest in leaving. I’ve seen countless people interviewed about losing their house to wildfires who show no interest in leaving their state. With those insights you must be a Libertarian.
California is a great state for the Rich and the poor. It’s the middle who leaves.
Anyone who wants to move - from California or from any other state - can do so.
Anyone who wants to vote against the party in power - in California or in any other state - can do so.
Californians may be unhappy with the Dems... but they clearly think the GOP would be worse.
Colorado is a good example.
well, 4 years later and I still see and hear lots of whining about 2016, so thats great if those folks will FINALLY stop
What has happened to Colorado?
According to the United Van Lines Annual National Movers Study, CA made neither the top ten inbound or outbound list, regardless of the fact that climate change is routinely burning large swaths of the state down. The way they get talked about by the right you’d expect them to top the outbound list.
What does that have to do with anything?
CA is going to loose a Congressional seat because so many are fleeing.
Could lose. the census hasn't been calculated yet. Read the article
They got a little more progressive over the years
Oh.
So fascist-fellow-travelers don't have anything specific to complain about? They complain because the state doesn't vote as they wish.... but they have no particular gripes?
... right...
My MIL doesn't like the Texans coming to Colorado and raising the cost of living. She doesn;'t say much about Californians, tho.
Californians can come to Arkansas! Let's make this state purple!
so who was governing California during that time period?
That makes a huge difference in the point of the article. 🙄 Do you understand what the point is?
Delete
C'mon Tex! I'm not your research assistant....
well, research isn't necessary to tell me someone was running the state.
And after all, I am not the one who claimed the state legislature couldn't do their duties for at least 20 years because of a conservative minority.
Do you?
The 'president' still can't get over those 3 million more votes cast for Hillary or the e-mails.
That's the only way they can win, by lying, cheating and stealing, voter suppression.
The 'president' said as much with mail in voting, when we all vote, republicans lose.
We first started hearing "The US is not a democracy" over a decade ago. Being a naive optimist, I thought it was just ignorance.
It was in fact a battle cry. America's fascists and their fellow-travelers were announcing their intentions.
That might be when you first heard it, but that is a failure of whatever education system you went through. We have been electing the president the same way for 230 years.
It is no wonder the once Grand Old Party of Abraham Lincoln is now known merely as "the damn gop"...
I thought the US was more of a representative democracy because we elect people at all levels to represent our interests. And when I say all levels I mean all the way from the White House to the local dog catcher
You thought right. But like children, even some adults will cry "not fair" when things don't go their way.
And at the end of the day, they expect both parties to work together to get the people's business done. What they don't expect is for one party - be it Republican or Democrat - to change the rules in the middle of the game so that they can make all the decisions while the other party is told to sit down and keep quiet. The American people want less partisanship in this town, but everyone in this chamber knows that if the majority chooses to end the filibuster - if they choose to change the rules and put an end to democratic debate - then the fighting and the bitterness and the gridlock will only get worse.
From one of those fascist enemies of democracy.
If and when the Democrats retake control of the Senate, they should end the filibuster rule. They will at that point represent far more Americans than the Republican senators will, yet without a "majority rules " Senate, the minority can block every piece of legislation that the majority prefers, and they will.
Enough is enough. If there was reason to believe that bi-partisanship will be reborn sometime in the near future there might be a case to be made to keep the filibuster, but that is not the case. The Republicans have chose to govern by raw power , even though they represent a noticeable minority of Americans, and now the Democrats have to do the same.
I think what we may see over the next 25 years or so is more "liberals" being willing to relocate to red states and at some point they will be enough in number to turn these states purple or blue. And then the right will lament that they didnt try to be more bi-partisan when they had the chance.
It's hardly pedantic. Pedantry focuses on minor, unimportant details. The distinction that the USA is a constitutional republic as opposed to a pure democracy is a fundamental, defining characteristic of our country, and one that many Democrats have chosen to ignore for years.
As soon as Trump was elected, Democrats and liberal media were declaring that the event was a failure of democracy. It's not. Electing the President of the United States has never been a process of direct democracy, and as long as people claim it's supposed to be, educated people should point out how wrong that idea is. As for the timing, it's probably never more important to remind people of this than in the times near to an election. The implication that it's somehow inappropriate - or otherwise odd - to do so four weeks prior to the election is silly.
I am sympathetic to Democrats on several issues, but as an American who respects our laws and systems, I am offended every time they act like the Constitution is some kind of scam that is in their way.
Donald Trump has as much right to dispute the results of an election as anyone else. We should stop acting like something special, undemocratic, or even illegal would be happening if he sought redress in the courts. Here's a thought: do the election the right way, and he won't have a reason to go to court.
Well, I guess America is not much different from Belarus, on the basis that a majority of honest votes doesn't win an election. "Majority Rules"? Is that an American joke?
However, what made me laugh was this line in the article: "Trump and his enablers will trample on any rules". Of COURSE they will, because have they not already established that? Do thay obey laws - like stealing music from the musicians? Neil Young and the Leonard Cohen estate are suing because they outright denied the right for it being played at Trump events. Do they obey international rules and protocols? Like breaking into a foreign consulate seeking evidence of espionage which they didn't have, and still not finding any. Do they obey traditional rules like the Hatch Act? Like holding an election event on the White House lawn, or like Pompeo sending a message from Jerusalem to be read at a Trump campaign event. Do they even bother to obey election debate rules that were agreed to by their own committee? Like not just refusing to pay attention to speaking time limits, but ignoring the moderator entirely. Of course they will trample any rules, because laws, international protocols, the Hatch Act, agreed-to debate rules MEAN FUCK ALL TO TRUMP AND HIS ENABLERS. They are criminals, they have proven themselves to be criminals, and pity the USA if Trump is re-elected.
So if you think Trump's (and his Post Office boss buddy) are not successful in what they have been doing to suppress the ballots being counted, and Trump STILL doesn't win the election, I expect that what's going to happen in America will lead to a chaos like America has not experienced since the Civil War, and if he DOES win, I think that what we have been watching in Belarus on TV will be far exceeded in America. I will have to hope that my son and his family escape to back home and are allowed to do so as family reunification by the Canadian government (his mother and sister live in Toronto).
Well put.
Oh, add to my list of lawbreaking by Trump that the tariffs he imposed in 2018 and his bans on ByteDance's TikTok and on WeChat contrevene the rules of the World Trade Organization - LOL Mr. Law and Order, LOL.
I wonder if it was legal when he declared Canada to be a national security threat. He had to do that to assume authority to decree tariffs.
Of course Canada is a national security threat. The beavers, moose and polar bears are going to invade the USA if Trump is re-elected. And the Canadian air force of Canada Geese will bombard with their "droppings".
I do have a question. If the plural of goose is "geese", why isn't the plural of moose "meese"?
Funny you should bring that up, this is what is happening now here in Michigan. The immigrants from Canada flew in and now hardly even leave, other than the coldest part of winter do they leave, they nest, they eat, and they crap. They graze off our crops, they're almost worse than the deer, and you can't go to a beach without having to watch your step with all the droppings. There were beaches closed due to E.coli outbreaks and the blame was put on the farmers when all you had to do was go to the lake and see all these geese all summer long on the beaches and in the water with the stench of goose droppings. We need more snapping turtles.
Golfer pisses of Candian Goose, gets knocked out.
And the lesson is.......don't mess with the Canada Goose Force.