Q re: Threats to Democracy
A's from Conservatives, Moderates and Liberals
Question
Do you perceive current threats to democracy in the US? If so, what are some of the threats that concern you.
Answers
Carl (conservative): I think the conversation today regarding the immediate "threats to our democracy" are largely hyperbolic and fed to us by a media that is creating a crisis where there isn't one - driven by a political agenda and a desire for clicks. That said, I do have a more fundamental concern, and at the risk of sounding elitist, I feel like the longer-term threat to our Democratic Republic comes from the public's ignorance of our system and how it was designed to function. As for our political leaders in D.C., I think that too many of them also don't understand our system, or if they do, they don't care because they just want to maintain power.
I am reminded of a few nuggets which may be germane:
1) It has been observed that a pure democracy if it were practicable would be the most perfect government. Experience has proved that no position is more false than this.
— Hamilton
2) Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.
— H.L. Mencken
3) Authority has always attracted the lowest elements in the human race. All through history mankind has been bullied by scum. Those who lord it over their fellows and toss commands in every direction and would boss the grass in the meadow about which way to bend in the wind are the most depraved kind of prostitutes. They will submit to any indignity, perform any vile act, do anything to achieve power. The worst off-sloughings of the planet are the ingredients of sovereignty. Every government is a parliament of whores. The trouble is, in a democracy the whores are us.
— P.J. O'Rourke
4) Some will respond that big government is what the majority of voters want, and that in a democracy the majority rules. But America’s Founders didn’t found a democracy, they founded a republic. The authors of The Federalist Papers, arguing for ratification of the Constitution, showed how pure democracy has led historically to tyranny. Instead, they set up a limited government, with checks and balances, to help ensure that the reason of the people, rather than the selfish passions of a majority, would hold sway. Unaware of the distinction between a democracy and a republic, many today believe that a majority consensus establishes morality. Nothing could be further from the truth.
— Walter Williams
5) 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. It is not true, in fact, and nowhere appears in history. Those passions are the same in all men, under all forms of simple government, and when unchecked, produce the same effects of fraud, violence, and cruelty. When clear prospects are opened before vanity, pride, avarice, or ambition, for their easy gratification, it is hard for the most considerate philosophers and the most conscientious moralists to resist the temptation. Individuals have conquered themselves. Nations and large bodies of men, never.
— John Adams
6) There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.
— Isaac AsimovScott from Rochester, MI (conservative): I will not vote for Trump because I am 100% convinced that he is only focused on himself:
1. I would have loved to see the results of the January 6th trial. Facts come out of our judicial process. It would have been nice to see the facts coming out of the trial and not the partisan spin.
2. Our Supreme Court has shifted too far right. We need a balance between conservative and liberal voices.
3. The principle of our country is that nobody is above the law. Including our President.
4. I would love to see the investigation on how the Trump family made $$ from foreign governments during his Presidency.
Joe (conservative/moderate): Threats to our democracy: the deep state.
Example: right before the last election, 51 senior intelligence officials signed a letter saying that the Hunter laptop story is Russian disinformation. They lied as anyone who has looked at the content of the laptop (which was published online) would have realized that there is no way to create all of this content. This letter gave Joe Biden an out: every time he is asked about the laptop, he would reference this letter. This letter also gave the media and social media the excuse not to cover the story. Keep in mind that Biden won the election by a total of 40,000 votes in 3 states: Arizona, Wisconsin and Georgia. If 20,000 votes across those states were to change their vote, Trump would have won. Post election surveys show that, had people known about the laptop, they would have changed their vote.
The other threat is early voting and ballot harvesting. In the last Pennsylvania senate race, as an example, over a million votes had been cast even before the debate. The number one Googled item after the debate in that state was "can I change my vote after I cast it". Ballot harvesting should be illegal as once someone collects ballots, we do not know what they will do with these ballots.Liz in VA (moderate): Yes absolutely. Having read more than 50% of the Project 2025 materials, if any of this goes into place (and part of it did with the Chevron decision), you would see our country will end its experiment in self-governance. Yes, when I see the efforts by Republicans to roll back personal liberties and the right to vote. Look at the gerrymandering by Red states and how whole groups of people are now disenfranchised (Tennessee and Ohio are prime examples). Looking at the 10 Commandments forced display in Louisiana, and the forced inclusion of the Bible in every Oklahoma classroom. This is not separation of Church and State--this is the State forcing one religion and directly against the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
Nina (moderate): I see multiple threats to our government. Trump embodies several of these, including abuse of executive power, purposeful poor selection of leads for departments reporting to the executive branch, and threats to change process he doesn’t want. But other threats include congresspeople and judiciary who refuse to do their jobs or endorse bad actors/actions based on political ideology (examples -Democrats helping a far-right candidate win a primary for the purpose of bettering chances for the general election, or Republicans refusing to enact border policy until after the election, or SCOTUS refusing to weigh in on executive immunity until it benefits them to do so). I believe that the only viable solution will involve dissolution of both political parties.
Geoff Wise (centrist): Polarization has gotten so extreme that many people would rather win at any cost, even at the sacrifice of republican democracy itself. Committing to preserving democracy is therefore no longer a prerequisite for winning an election. When these candidates win, we empower them to destroy democracy itself, ushering in an era where we have lost control of our government. On the right, beyond Trump's autocratic tilt, I see this most in terms of restrictive voting laws and legislative policies that are clearly minority viewpoints in their states. On the left, I am most concerned about pushy Get Out The Vote campaigns and abusing the Voting Rights Act to artificially boost Democratic seats.
John from Michigan (independent): I know that things haven’t always been rosy in the past, and that politics has always been a rough and tumble business, including a substantial amount of distortion from reality. Abraham Lincoln had to sneak into Washington after he was elected, for fear of being assassinated. Yet, the threat that Donald Trump poses to our country is frightening because of his selfish nature and because such a large percentage of the GOP seem to be with him. He has risen to prominence by motivating a disgruntled portion of the electorate, focusing on issues that divide us. We need politicians who look for common ground. Before Trump absconded with the GOP, I would vote for Republicans about half the time. Since then, I find myself voting against the GOP at almost every option, rather than for anyone. The four years he was President were exhausting, and if he is re-elected it will be worse.
Maggie Smith (liberal): Our democracy has eroded since the Constitution was signed. The constitution creators recognized that democracy is a messy business with the publication of the Bill of Rights and continued amendments added to the constitution. Recently, I have become more alarmed with the growth and strength of the judicial system. The Judicial system has clearly grown into a law-creating entity versus one that helps provide guidance on how laws are interpreted. The Federalist Papers, as written by Alexander Hamilton explains it best: In explaining the need for an independent judiciary, Alexander Hamilton noted in the Federalist No. 78 that the federal courts "were designed to be an intermediate body between the people and their legislature" in order to ensure that the people's representatives acted only within the authority given to Congress under the Constitution. If any law passed by Congress conflicts with the Constitution, "the Constitution ought to be preferred to the statute, the intention of the people to the intention of their agents." "Nor does this conclusion by any means suppose a superiority of the judicial to the legislative power. It only supposed that the power of the people is superior to both; and that where the will of the legislature, declared in its statutes, stands in opposition to that of the people, declared in the Constitution, the judges ought to be governed by the latter rather than the former. They ought to regulate their decisions by the fundamental laws, rather than by those which are not fundamental."
It is my belief that recent Supreme Court and Circuit court decisions violate this basic principle as represented by recent decisions by the courts (Dobbs vs Jackson Health and Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council) are two such examples of courts acting as law makers versus asking legislatures to do their job and clearly define laws.Dan Mariano (progressive-leaning liberal): I believe that the paramount threat to American democracy currently is the MAGA movement of former President Donald Trump, in that his appeals to his base supersede, or have no regard for, policy and are rooted in the “politics of grievance”. Demagogues since Ancient Greece have capitalized on this, and it is the most effective tactic to destroy a democracy. i.e. using the populist appeals that democracy by definition relies upon, but corrupts its reliance on popularity into what journalist Jeff Sharlet calls “the Undertow,” meaning the lowest instincts of human nature: tribalism, racism, misogyny, conspiracy-thinking, and permissions of violence.
Read more from Dan on this topic here → 1
This post is part of a Q&A series with voters who have volunteered
to share their perspectives leading up to the November 2024 election.
Back to INDEX of Questions and Answers
About the VOTERS we interviewed
Note: The views and opinions expressed by volunteer contributors are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the positions of The Union, a single-issue organization that welcomes all and is dedicated to protecting democracy.
The Union is a volunteer organization comprised of conservative, moderate and liberal voters who may not agree about everything, but they do agree on one thing; our democracy is worth defending.
If you’d like to help defend democracy in the US, we invite you to join The Union.
This movement has been further enabled by a Supreme Court which has faced no recourse or political check of balance upon its power, which is now established as a far-right branch of our government for the next generation, and has a vested interest in political alliance with executive power as public confidence in it continues to collapse. While not dissimilar from congressional MAGA republicans in its spread of anti-democratic philosophy, because the justices face neither threats of re-election nor a code of ethics from the legislative branch, it is likely to be the longest-lasting vestige of anti-democratic power in the government for decades to come.
And finally, one additional aspect that I believe threatens our democracy is that our culture is caught in a circular death-spiral of nostalgia and juvenile appeal. To be brief, because our films, television, music, and arts are constantly recycling the past, particularly childish and nuanced media, our culture has become ever more defined by simplistic and unoriginal understandings of the world. How can we expect people to understand the complexities of compromise, of relationships, and how progress is the pathway to perfect rather than its enemy, if everything in our culture is based on a dichotomy of good vs evil, winner take all, all or nothing that you see in superhero movies or television shows? How does this threaten democracy? Because it constantly reinforces the idea that the world is simply black-and-white. And that the necessary compromises for progress that are at the heart of our democracy are actually capitulation with “the bad guys.” We need a culture that embraces adult complexities, so that we can better understand the multitudes of others, including and especially those we disagree with. Only then can we restore a mutual respect for democracy as a means for everyone to make their voice heard: right, left, or center.