President Biden’s effort at a statesmen-like warning of imminent threats to U.S. democracy was well-intentioned. Yet his important appeal was sullied by conflating millions of voters with the GOP politicians and their media/social media perpetual grievance machine and by touting his own political agenda, veering into the partisan lane.
For starters, when 250 election deniers (a sad euphemism for embracing a self-serving political fiction over hard factual evidence) win GOP primaries, Biden’s fear of a polarized, tribalized America heading off a cliff can’t be dismissed. The Founding Fathers would be scratching their heads at how the leaders of a major political party could consciously reject facts, embrace what they know to be lies and then base “reform” of the election process on that fantasy.
Biden would have done well to remind Americans of the overwhelming evidence: Trump filed and lost 61 lawsuits, and many of the appeals were rejected by GOP-appointed judges, the conservative Supreme Court and Republican state election officials. That would be one heck of a conspiracy.
The peaceful transfer of power is a fundamental principle of democracy. It is what separates democracy from autocracy. That core principle is what made the first attack on the nation’s capitol since 1812 by a Trump-inspired insurrectionist mob so disgraceful.
But democracy requires a shared national purpose and a common set of facts. Without facts, democracy is not possible. Yet many Republican legislators in the House, the Senate and state houses reject factual evidence and base their politics and identity on a contrived fiction invented by a narcissistic ex-president who can’t accept losing.
This is where Biden’s partisan detour begins. It is one thing to criticize the leaders – ambitious, opportunistic GOP senators and representatives, many with Harvard and Yale law degrees – for denigrating the rule of law and deriding institutions, from the electoral process to the FBI. But it is quite another to place tens of millions of Trump voters in that category.
An appreciable number of those voting for Trump previously voted for Obama. The numbers are estimates, but upwards of 40 percent of voters are independents, center left to center right. The failure of the political class to address the nation’s major problems has led to growing disaffection and alienation.
To lump these millions of voters together as “MAGA Republicans” is too simplistic, not to mention politically unwise. It is reminiscent of Hillary Clinton’s dismissive comment during the 2016 campaign that many Trump supporters were “a basket of deplorables.” In contrast, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wy.) argued that Trump and his congressional acolytes “misled millions of voters” by lying about the 2020 elections.
In any event, the point is that Biden’s partisan rhetoric tarnished the credibility of his “soul of the nation” theme that was otherwise well argued. It would also have strengthened his case had he referred to authoritarian tendencies of some on the left in the Democratic Party as well.
Biden’s listing of his administration’s legislative achievements and his agenda added to the speeches unnecessary partisan tinge. It’s not that Biden doesn’t have a compelling list of legislative achievements but rather that they belong in a separate speech.
These flaws notwithstanding, the evidence of imperiled democracy mounts in at least 19 states that have changed the electoral process, making it more difficult to vote and passing new laws potentially enabling state legislators to overturn election results. The evidence mounts of threats and attacks on election workers and even Republican state officials from Arizona to Georgia who defied the “Big Lie.”
Perhaps most troubling is that the drumbeat of lies about alleged rigged elections and purported fraud are destroying faith in the election process itself. Call it what you will, but assaults on reality and efforts to delegitimize institutions are the classic preludes to authoritarian rule, from Putin’s Russian and Erdogan’s Turkey to Orban’s Hungary.
For as one Russian author, explaining Putin’s methodology, has put it, if “nothing is true, then everything is possible.”
Robert A. Manning is a Distinguished Fellow at the Stimson Center. He was a senior counselor to the undersecretary of state for global affairs from 2001 to 2004, a member of the U.S. Department of State policy planning staff from 2004 to 2008 and on the National Intelligence Council strategic futures group from 2008 to 2012. Follow him on Twitter @Rmanning4.