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.
— John Adams
The Supreme Court’s decisions last month reminded me of John Adams’ prophetic observation. To put it as bluntly as he did, the United States has long wasted and exhausted our precious democracy and it is now on the verge of committing suicide.
There is no consensus on the genesis of this demise. But there is widespread agreement, except for our country’s tragic history around race, that a great pride in our country occurred in the near two decades following our victory in World War II.
But it would all change in the ’60s. While Lyndon Johnson’s “Great Society” and civil rights accomplishments were lauded widely, the government’s consistent mistruths about our real circumstances in Vietnam triggered significant erosion in support of and belief in our government.
The Watergate scandal and President Nixon’s clumsy and illegal attempts to cover it up exacerbated matters further. More scandals followed in both Republican and Democratic administrations from Iran-Contra to Monica Lewinsky.
The pervasive lies and government deception continued as the new century began. The Congress and the American people were told by those at the highest levels of government that Iraq had developed weapons of mass destruction that were targeted on us. As with our experience in Vietnam, the government relied on massive deception about the progress of our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as these military operations bungled along for two decades leading to an embarrassing and ignominious withdrawal of our last troops in Afghanistan much as we experienced in Vietnam nearly 50 years ago.
There has been an acceleration of our democracy’s demise over the past two decades due to the confluence of many disturbing factors:
- With one exception in 2004, Democrats have won the popular vote in every presidential election in this century, but Republicans have occupied the White House for 12 of the last 22 years.
- Gerrymandering in virtually every state has reduced the number of competitive congressional seats to about 35 or 10 percent of total membership.
- As a result, the primary elections have become far more important than the general elections, giving the base of both parties arguably greater power than they have ever enjoyed in history.
- That has led to a dramatic increase in partisanship in the closely divided state legislatures and in Congress. Compromise, the oxygen of democracy, is now increasingly viewed as capitulation.
- Congress is now so dysfunctional that virtually none of the major issues of the day from climate change, to immigration, to trade, and to technology have been addressed. Even Congress’ most basic responsibility to fund the government has been relegated to emergency measures and patchwork extensions.
- Much of what has occurred in politics and government in the past two decades can be attributed to the transformational change in technology. Cable news has literally become entertainment. Ideologically motivated cable news channels have further exacerbated a growing and pervasive political polarization that has infected the entire country.
- Misinformation and disinformation on social media has become one of the greatest threats to democracy in all of American history. Today truth is merely an option. With the aggressive use of algorithms on every social media platform, the lies spread faster than a wildfire. This has clearly served to intensify tribal politics, corrupt our civil discourse and significantly reduce the prospect of elected leaders reaching principled compromise.
- The lack of cybersecurity has also become a major threat to democracy both in the United States and in countries around the world. China, Russia, Iran and North Korea continue to become even more sophisticated in their use of technology, the Internet and social media to threaten the integrity and functional capacity of this democratic republic.
- Donald Trump’s “big lie” about the results of the 2020 election has had a devastating impact on the American people’s views of elections and our democracy. More than 40 percent of all Americans do not believe that Joe Biden won the last election.
- Trump’s rampant desecration of the office of the president with his persistent violation of both laws and norms may have done more to accelerate bringing the country to precipice of democratic suicide than anything that has occurred since the Civil War.
- The remarkable obsequiousness on the part of the vast majority of Republican officeholders in spite of Trump’s behavior is both disheartening and dangerous.
When one adds all of this to the problems of race, income inequality, inflation and the COVID-19 pandemic, democracy in America is approaching a precipice, and the current trend is both ominous and extremely disconcerting.
In addition to its rulings on guns and climate, the Supreme Court’s decision last month to remove what has been a constitutional right of all women to have control over their own bodies, a right supported by the vast majority of the American people, may not be the final blow, but it is yet another deeply troubling indication that this democracy is near extinction.
While American democracy has lasted longer than all of the others, unless there is a genuine realization that we are experiencing what John Adams foresaw two centuries ago, the American people will witness the suicide of its democracy within our lifetimes.
Former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) is one of the longest-serving Senate Democratic leaders in history and one of only two to serve twice as both majority and minority leader. Daschle is the founder and CEO of the Daschle Group, a public policy advisory of Baker Donelson.