Was America a democracy from 1877-1965? We systematically denied the vote to people who were constitutionally guaranteed a right to vote. You could argue that Jim Crow made at least part of the country undemocratic.
It is not surprising that the Neo-Calhounists in the Republican Party have also adopted anti-majoritarian policies. As this post lays out, we have a situation where the quirks and oddities of our political system tilt one way in our partisan divide. Every non-majoritarian feature of the Constitution is now an advantage for the GOP.
Because of this, as the piece notes, the GOP is insulated from the negative consequences of being bad at government. The raging dumpster fire of Trumpistan does not matter to them electorally. Their voters will stick with them, and the system preferences their voters.
I'm don't know if we can survive ANOTHER minority presidency. The first one botched 9/11, invaded Iraq and allowed a housing bubble to form that nearly destroyed the global economy. The second one botched the pandemic, abused the powers of office and tried to launch a coup.
It would be really cool if we didn't have to worry about whether we were a democracy or not.
No comments:
Post a Comment