The Threat Is Real
It really is stunning, not to mention how brazen, the Republican Party is in trying to suppress the democratic process throughout the nation. The GOP leadership has proven itself unwilling to step up to the democratic plate because a broken democracy works in their favor. But the long term viability of this strategy is very questionable.
The Electoral College controversy is probably the single most powerful example of how fiercely the GOP will fight to preserve a terribly undemocratic voting mechanism in this country. The Electoral College is the only instance where “We the People” do not directly elect the President of the United States. The reason it exists is because the framers thought ordinary people—largely farmers and uneducated city dwellers, a numerical majority in the 18th century—couldn’t cast an informed vote ; that a super body of electors needed to keep things on an even keel.
Though it has happened five times in American history, in the seven most recent presidential elections (since 1992), a president who lost the popular vote was installed in the White House—twice—both Republicans—or to put it another way, 28% of the presidential elections since 1992 got it wrong—if votes by the people count.
We used to have state legislatures “elect” Senators (as per the Constitution) but we changed that with the passage of the 17th Amendment, which mandates senators to be directly elected. Yet, the the Electoral College system persists (for just one elected office), even in the face of wrongly decided contests. And already twice in this century this has happened.
More importantly, it is the consistent and unified attempts of a numerical political minority in this country to preserve power and its apparent willingness to set aside notions of “one person, one vote” in deciding who our political leaders should be. In an important post here at the Daily Koz, writer Stephen Wolf illustrates the rising resistance to Republican attempts to pas any laws to open up the voting process to any and all Americans, whether it has to do with the creation of paper trails of how a vote proceeded; by enacting reforms to laws which suppress voting by poor people, people of color; enacting the institutional equivalent of poll taxes; or the now well established statewide political gerrymandering (and supported by the Supreme Court recently) the votes of non-whites, leaving them powerless—not to mention Citizens United which declares money is free speech (providing you have it!).
It is an established fact that foreign intrusion into the American electoral system occurred in 2016 on behalf of Donald Trump, and that the upcoming election in 2020 will see not only renewed, but expanded intrusion into the process. The entire American intelligence community has been warning us for months. Yet, neither the Senate majority nor the President has lifted a finger to correct the problem. Do you think they know something we don’t know?
The Federal Election Commission, charged with seeing that elections are conducted “fair and square,” has been absolutely rendered powerless by unfilled resignations of its members over time, to the point that with only 3 remaining members of 6 member commission, it can no longer muster a quorum to do its business. Not that it ever could, with a mandated make-up of 3 Democrats and 3 Republicans. Even Obama passed on naming a pick during his administration, which may have pointed out the flaws in a commission with no tie breaking mechanism.
At the end of the day, Republicans understand that their brand of conservatism, where heads I win, tails you lose and couched in “flag and country” paeans are not winning strategies. They are not winning strategies because the political makeup of the United States is changing, first of all; and second, the much promised prosperity that Republicans have preached to working people has simply not happened. It is wistful and wishful thinking. The former Obama voter who turned out for Trump in 2016 is having serious misgivings about the wisdom in voting against his own interests. (The 2016 political campaign icon of American industrialism, the G.M. Lordstown, OH plant, which Trump claims to have saved, is now shuttered once again, likely permanently. 4,500 jobs are gone.
Fear as a tool
Rather, there is a nagging worry among ordinary conservative Americans that the days when a man or woman could work and make a good enough wage to be middle class, are simply gone. In the face of a globalism which pits American industrial workers against foreigners who make a 10th of what the American made, and in the face of computerized robots who do work formerly done by a human, millions of well paying jobs have simply vaporized in he face of those two events.
This fear is being exploited by the GOP and Trump by their blaming hordes of non-white immigrants for their problems. We’ve seen is all before. With Chinese, Jews, Afro-Americans, Irish, Italians….ad nauseum.
And those same Americans are now angry. It appears “Make America Great Again” simply doesn’t work anymore. The Trump voter of 2016 in Michigan is having serious 2nd thoughts. The reality of what a a $15/hr job buys a family of four is setting in. The consequences of allowing a philandering, misogynistic, sociopath and liar the presidency is setting in.
What do the Republican bigwigs do to shore up the flagging membership? Crush the vote, that’s what. Do what you need to do to keep power. Even to the point of stealing seats on the Supreme Court or not allowing even senatorial discussion of legislation to clean up the problems.
The New Wave
2016 should prove either a turning point or a further drift away from the democratic ideals this nation purports to hold dear. Trump and his supporters in the (almost entirely mute) Senate majority will now be presented with the bill for almost 40 years of uninterrupted bobbing and weaving to be politically relevant. We will find out if the small majority of people of great wealth and power can continue to persuade enough voters that no government is better than a government working for fairness and equality for all. There are signs aplenty that the American electorate for positive change may be building to a tsunami ever greater than in 2018. The signs are there. This vote will be as important as the Election of 1932, which ushered in the New Deal. (Yes, there isn’t 25% of us out of work but the richest 1 percent in the United States now own more additional income than the bottom 90 percent.
Just prior to President Obama's 2014 State of the Union Address, media[7] reported that the top wealthiest 1% possess 40% of the nation's wealth; the bottom 80% own 7%; similarly, but later, the media reported, the "richest 1 percent in the United States now own more additional income than the bottom 90 percent".[8] The gap between the top 10% and the middle class is over 1,000%; that increases another 1,000% for the top 1%. The average employee "needs to work more than a month to earn what the CEO earns in one hour."[9] Although different from income inequality, the two are related. In Inequality for All—a 2013 documentary with Robert Reich in which he argued that income inequality is the defining issue for the United States—Reich states that 95% of economic gains went to the top 1% net worth (HNWI) since 2009 when the recovery allegedly started.[10] More recently, in 2017, an Oxfam study found that eight rich people, six of them Americans, own as much combined wealth as half the human race.[11][12][13]
Finally, what we need most is a conservative party which is concerned with fiscal prudence and social justice. We need two political parties in this system of government. In an age of incredible changes in the life of the human species we will either lead or be led as one among nations. Folding our tent is not the answer. It’s never been the answer.
###
