We have a strange democracy.
To defend this assertion, I hit the Internet for some common definitions of ‘democracy’:
• control of an organization or group by the majority of its members.
* The values of freedom, respect for human rights and the principle of holding periodic and genuine elections by universal suffrage.
* a way of governing which depends on the will of the people.
* According to the United Nations: democracy “provides an environment that respects human rights and fundamental freedoms, and in which the freely expressed will of people is exercised.”
* Abraham Lincoln: “Of the people, by the people, for the people”
* The meaning of democracy is government by the people; especially rule of the majority.
And I found this thought to consider:
* While often categorized as a democracy, the United States is more accurately defined as a constitutional federal republic. What does this mean? “Constitutional” refers to the fact that government in the United States is based on a Constitution which is the supreme law of the United States.
Take your pick of the definitions for democracy, or choose one of the other million or so others floating around. Most say something about ‘control by the majority and about ‘freedom or human rights’
The definitions I found all seem to me to be missing something extremely important: the rule of law. That this was missing from these common definitions found on the Internet was surprising to me. Thus I Googled “Is the rule of law necessary for a democracy?” And lo and behold I found a whole different set of definitions, many from law schools, all stressing the rule of law as a critical feature of a democracy. Here, for example, are some ideas expressed:
• Democracy cannot exist without the Rule of Law, especially the rule that dictates who should occupy public office given the results of elections.
• UN: constitutional limits on power, a key feature of democracy, require adherence to the rule of law.
• The purposes of law in a democratic society include maintaining order and protecting citizens, resolving disputes and conflicts, and promoting justice and equality.
• High-quality democracy requires a truly democratic rule of law that ensures political rights, civil liberties, and mechanisms of accountability.
• Courts have the responsibility to interpret the Constitution’s meaning, as well as the meaning of any laws.
I asserted at the beginning of this article that ours is a strange democracy. It is strange in several ways.
First, we do not elect Presidents by majority rule.
We have a weird way of electing Presidents. It’s not National, but state by state. States get “Electors” based sort-of in proportion to population, but the Electors (538) are not fairly apportioned. Small states have an advantage. The Electors meet and hopefully vote the way they are supposed to, though most don’t really have to. He or she who gets the majority of Electors wins. It’s actually more complicated than just described with lots of opportunity for skulduggery.
There have been 58 elections in U.S. history and in five of these, including two of the past three, the winner of the Electoral vote, and hence the election, was in fact the loser of the popular vote. Hillary Clinton received 2.8 million more votes in the popular vote, but lost the election to Trump in the Electoral vote. This is more likely to happen in close elections, like the one we are about to have.
A second strange thing about our democracy is the political nature of the Supreme Court, which makes all the important legal decisions.
This nine-member Court was once- upon-a-time apolitical because of the nature and quality of people appointed, but no more. For some time it leaned liberal, but now it is blatantly conservative due to Trump’s appointments ushered through by Mitch McConnell. By the nature of the way members are appointed (by the President), the Court has always been destined to be political. It was just a matter of time until some President openly took advantage of the gift.
The current stacking of the Court with conservative lawyers will have huge consequences for the next election. The Court will enable enough delay of Trump’s trials to get them postponed until after the 2024 election. The people will thus be deprived of the results when they vote. And Trump won’t be in jail. If he wins the election, which appears most likely, the cases will be cancelled after the election and he will avoid accountability altogether.
The Court will also allow Trump on the Colorado ballot even though he should be blocked by the 14th Amendment which says that an officer of the United States who takes an oath to defend the Constitution and then participates in an Insurrection can’t hold public office again.
A third strange thing about our democracy is the way our House of Representatives and Senate are immobilized by tribalism and partisan politics.
The Speaker of the House has and uses his absolute power to determine what gets voted on in the House. He can, and has, stopped bills that would have majority support if voted on. The Speaker combines several roles: presiding officer and administrative head of the House as well as the role of Leader of the majority party in the House. However, the current Speaker is always on thin ice; he can be removed by one unhappy member. It’s a strange way to run a railroad.
In the Senate, Mitch McConnell has for twenty years exerted control over the what the Republicans do and don’t do in the Senate. By his vote, he stopped the Impeachment of Trump, and he got Trump’s Supreme Court nominees (Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett) approved. He will be gone as Leader in November, but no doubt someone else will take the dictatorial role. It’s another strange way of doing things in a democracy.
We know how most of these strange things happened. The Constitution is a compromise between those who wanted a strong Federal government and those who wanted power vested in the States. Founders did well to get the compromises they did. Our Constitution has worked for over 200 years. There are some strong federal institutions that serve us well.
Part of the reason it has worked, though, is that people elected and appointed to high positions have been dedicated to democratic values. They haven’t pushed the limits, or tried to take advantage of opportunities to assert autocratic power. Alas, with a second Trump term on the horizon, we have no reason to hope or expect that that such restraint will continue.
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In a letter from John Adams to a friend: “Remember Democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a Democracy yet that did not commit suicide. It is in vain to say that Democracy is less vain, less proud, less selfish, less ambitious or less avaricious than Aristocracy or Monarchy.”
Yes, ours is a strange democracy, with weird elections, a very political Supreme Court, and a dysfunctional Congress. But it is our democracy, and we love it.
Somehow we will – we must –survive Trump and make it through the next election. I don’t know how, but I think enough little, normal people will step up so that we’ll muddle through. Enough MAGA Trumpers will finally see that their emperor has no clothes.
Just Sayin’.
March 7, 2024
John R. Dixon 