In the “Hostages” thread below, in response to a comment I made about Israel under Netanyahu, Adam outlined how healthy democracies take on authoritarian traits and/or devolve into illiberal, managed “democracies” (scare quotes mine):
(Israel) ceased to be a democracy when Bibi started pushing the reforms legislatively in the spring. Having hundreds of thousands of citizens in the street protesting, the bulk of the fighter pilots in the Israeli Air Force, and the bulk of the Israeli Special Forces resign in protest is not actually a sign of a healthy, vibrant democracy. They are the signs of a state that has crossed the threshold into authoritarianism because you have lost the ability to use the normal political process to achieve your goals. In this case blocking Bibi’s judicial reforms.
It is the same dynamic here. The fact that 6 JAN 2021 happened is the same type of indicator. As was McConnell’s blocking Obama from appointing a Supreme Court Justice. As is 30 states having GOP trifectas and, as a result, being managed illiberal democracies where the will of the majority of voters do not actually matter. As is having to get a court order to keep polls open in majority Black districts in Mississippi because they ran out of ballots within an hour of opening and still never had enough ballots for everyone to vote. As is every extreme gerrymander and extreme voter suppression scheme.
All the extra hard work everyone has to do to just barely eke out competitive victories in the US is not a sign of a vibrant liberal democracy. All of this extra effort and work and expense are signs that the US has already gone past the tipping point. Far too may people – elected officials, the news media, elites, notables – either refuse to recognize what has happened and continues to happen or refuse to admit it out of fear of what happens when they actually tell everyone the truth.
The US was an imperfect pluralistic liberal democracy from the late 1960s through to 2016. Prior to that at the municipal, state, and federal level it was an illiberal managed democracy. The backlash to the period that was the late 1960s through 2016 was strong, relentless, under reported, ignored, pooh poohed, and, as a result, succeeded in pushing the US back into what it has been for the majority of its existence. Which is not a liberal democracy.
I was unhappy with that response. Not because I don’t believe it’s true but because I think it is.
Later I read an essay by Josh Marshall at TPM that struck me as a piece of the same puzzle clicking into place. It didn’t seem that way at first because the topic of the essay is Elon Musk and his frivolous lawsuit against Media Matters.
But then Marshall mentioned how an agent of an illiberal state, the crooked attorney general of Texas, Ken Paxton, slithered forth to help Musk silence a media outlet. And how other agents of illiberal managed democracy states followed suit. That’s when it clicked:
This isn’t merely opportunistic. Of all the “ideas” and “policies” backfilled into the fetid carcass of Trumpism this one stands out. That is the belief that the marketplace of ideas or the literal marketplace can no longer be relied on to keep America pure and right. The ‘culture’ is slipping away. What is necessary is to gain state power and use that power to coerce culture and society back in a conservative direction. With all the Trumpite ‘think tanks’ and organizations popping up to support a second Trump term, this is the one overriding idea and aim: state power to change the direction of society and culture.
Certainly conservative principles to the contrary were as often as not in the past honored in the breach. But the change is real. It means new kinds of state action and a much more antagonistic relationship with major elements, though by no means all, of the business community. But most important. and underlying all the rest, it is premised on a basic belief that conservatism is not popular. Cultural and social change left to their own devices are running against it. State intervention is required to change it.
We’ll see that in abundance if Trump retakes the presidency next year. We’ll continue to see it at the state level even if he doesn’t.
In both scenarios, on every front, the hard-right is leveraging state power to undermine democracy. Speaking only for myself, I don’t think it’s too late to tip the balance back — to recover the imperfect pluralistic liberal democracy that prevailed from the late 1960s until 2016.
But I also don’t think it’s pessimism to acknowledge that it’s going to be a long, hard slog to do so and that the outcome is uncertain. In fact, I think acknowledging that is essential because if we can’t accurately define the stakes, if we treat this as business as usual, we’ve already lost.
I’m probably preaching to the choir here. I suspect most of us feel in our bones — and have for years now — that the country is on a knife’s edge. That feeling didn’t go away when Biden was inaugurated, and it won’t dissipate if, dog willing, he’s inaugurated for a second time.
Some of us are already living in authoritarian fiefdoms within a federal system where democracy is increasingly tenuous. If we can’t begin to turn that around at every level, the most chilling slogan from the flailing DeSantis campaign, “make America Florida,” may come true regardless of what happens to the ridiculous Pudd’n Boots himself. Let’s not let that happen, okay?
Open thread.
