Eclipse of Democracy? Or Worse?

Tuesday feels critical for our nation.

In my childhood, elections were civilized affairs in which we decided whether Eisenhower or Stevenson, Kennedy or Nixon, or Truman or Dewey should lead us. There were some shared basic principles: democracy, respect, freedom, determination that our country survive and prosper, and confront external threats, yet try to extend a decent quality of life to everyone.

Despite mutterings about dead people voting in Chicago, Nixon did not conspire to overturn Kennedy’s victory, or pretend that, as vice-president, he could decline to certify the count. Jimmy Carter didn’t encourage mobs to break into the Capitol threatening to hang the vice-president and the Speaker. Had partisans done so, no politician would have had difficulty pronouncing such violence (or Carter’s encouragement) absolutely unacceptable.

This year we vote in a climate of violence: Arizona has armed patrols “observing” ballot depositories; a crazy guy threatening the Speaker of the House breaks into her home, cracks her 82-year-old husband’s skull with a hammer, and Donald Trump suggests “there’s something suspicious” about the victim(!) Here, Conservation Voters of New Mexico recently received a package with threats against a Democratic legislator, anti-Semitic symbols, and some chemical substance; and Trumpists are training “more active” poll-watchers. It’s not Belfast or Israel, but it’s not real healthy, either.

The partisan violence recalls that of the 1850s. We know where that led.

Meanwhile, after much angst and some primary battles, the Trump-influenced Republicans have nominated an exceptional collection of scurrilous halfwits. (I think so; and that’s a fair extrapolation of what Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell must think, to complain publicly about his party’s substandard candidates.) They all spout the “stolen election” nonsense. All genuflect to Trump. One even smiles while Trump says the candidate is kissing Trump’s ass. Herschel Walker, nominated solely for his long-ago football skills, is running on a “No abortions!” platform while women show receipts for abortions he urged and paid for. Mehmet Oz is a TV celebrity, like Kim Kardashian (or that guy in The Apprentice), with no more political experience or wisdom than she.

This bizarre collection is so unappealing that, even though the President’s party usually loses the mid-terms, and Biden has not been popular in the polls, it seemed likely voters might reject most of them. Inflation intervened.

Presidents have little control over inflation, and rarely deserve as much blame or credit as they get. Our inflation was recently at 8.2%, while inflation was higher in most European countries, from Italy’s 8.9% o 14.5% in the Netherlands. Moreover, despite common belief, inflation has historically been worse during Republican presidencies than Democratic ones.

The main factor in current high inflation is Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and the decision to oppose him. (Ironically, the fellow propping up the halfwits also has expressed great admiration for Putin.)

Seen clearly, the electoral battle is not merely between parties, but pits those who deeply want our country to maintain its democracy, and win elections through persuasion rather than violence or chicanery, against those for whom it’s more important to elect Donald Trump. (It’s more important that Michigan State upset Michigan than it is to keep the stadium from falling on us!) Will Republicans and other conservatives step up?

Friends say it’s just a cycle. But, after failing to overturn the 2020 election, Trumpists set in motion procedures in swing states to stack the deck in favor of such an effort in the future.

                                          – 30 – 

 

[The above column appeared Sunday, 6 November 2022, in the Las Cruces Sun-News, as well as on the newspaper's website (sub nom, “Bizarre National Slate of Electors,” and KRWG's website. A related radio commentary will air during the week on KRWG (90.7 FM) and on KTAL (101.5 FM / http://www.lccommunityradio.org/) and be available on both stations’ websites.]

[By the way, I’ll be doing a book-signing at Coas Books Saturday, 19 November, of my novel, The Moonlit Path. That’s 10 a.m. to noon, at 317 North Main Street. That’ll be a great chance to say hello, take a quick look at the book, and buy a copy if the spirit moves you.]

[We voted, Saturday. I felt glad to live in New Mexico. I do suspect that Republicans will emerge with a majority in the House and a much smaller majority in the U.S. Senate. I think John Fetterman’s stroke could end up deciding the course of the next few years’ history. Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Fetterman seems a genuinely beloved political leader where he’s from, and also more genuine than most experienced politicians are. He had a healthy lead over Mehmet Oz that likely would have survived the late rightward swing because of inflation. However, his stroke changed him and the race. While he may continue to recover, and may be capable of being a fine senator even now, a debate played to all his weaknesses. He couldn’t respond quickly and wittily to Oz’s attacks. Even if many of those were bullshit, the independent viewer didn’t know that, and didn’t learn it from Fetterman in the debate. It likely cost him the race.

I don’t think the next couple of years will be pretty. I hope my friends are right that U.S. national politics may still be cyclical in the foreseeable future. Certainly the harsh, sometimes hate-filled actions of Republican national leaders have generated and will generate much opposition; but the rigged [by the imbalance between voters’ power in electing our senate and by the similar imbalance caused by the electoral college] system is being further rigged by Republican state leaders in swing states, and perhaps ultimately by the far right “U.S. Supreme Court,” such that popular sentiment may not matter nearly as much as it should.]