Is American democracy really in deep trouble?

By Kenny Bruno

Yes. Here’s why.

For all the flaws in US democracy over nearly 250 years, a few things have been nearly constant:  belief in free and fair elections, acknowledgement of losing, and peaceful transfer of power.  The US system replies on two major political parties to run elections with a commitment to those tenets. One of the two parties has reneged on that commitment.

Donald Trump and his followers do not acknowledge that they can lose an election legitimately. They deny that any US election is fair, and they deny any result they don’t like. They do not commit to accepting a loss. The do not respect facts, evidence and truths.  This set of beliefs we can call Election Denialism.

In 2022, Election Denialism is energetic, motivated and united.  On Jan 6, 2020, we saw the toxic combination of political violence and clever quasi-legal approaches to sabotaging and overturning the national election. People died. More people, even including the Vice President, were in serious jeopardy.

Since then, the commitment to election denialism has actually intensified. The Republican party has nominated election deniers to be the chief election officers in many states. Election Deniers are also running for governor and many other offices down the ballot.

The Election Denialism movement has lawyers who have carefully studied the Constitution and the Electoral College Act and have found vulnerabilities and ambiguous phrases, which, they argue, allow state legislatures to choose electors for president. The legislatures have been primed for radical action through gerrymandering and the election of the most extreme candidates. They are planning for election chaos, which favors the candidate with loyalty of state legislatures, whether that candidate wins or loses.

This movement, while not representing anywhere near a majority of Americans, does represent a sizeable minority.  That minority has been led by clever political strategists who have invested unimaginable amounts of donor dollars in appointing sympathetic judges and electing sympathetic legislators.  This movement, energized by the raw belligerence of its leaders, and amplified by social media, is poised to rule all three branches of the US government, eliminating the checks and balances needed to rein in abuses. Already we have seen that the legislative branch has been unwilling to hold the executive branch accountable, and as of late 2022 neither has the judicial branch.

So yes, American democracy is in serious trouble.

All Americans who care about democracy must take a stand and make the defense of democracy a part of their lives.