Back in 1787, as the Constitutional Convention ended, a woman came up to Ben Franklin and asked him what we got. He replied, "A republic, madam, if you can keep it.” After this election, it looks like we can’t.
It doesn’t matter whether Biden wins (as is looking more likely, Trump’s threats to sue notwithstanding). It doesn’t matter if we get the Senate (looking less likely, though still possible). What matters is that Trump and the Republicans, who ran a profoundly anti-democratic campaign, lied repeatedly, and openly cheated everywhere they could, were not severely punished for it.
What matters is that the lies worked.
A functioning democracy (Franklin’s republic) depends on an educated citizenry who understand reality and work within it. What we saw last night is that close to half of the votes were cast by people who denied reality. The reality of the pandemic and Trump’s totally incompetent handling of it. The reality of climate change. The reality of GOP corruption and authoritarianism.
Too many people believed the lies. Too many people voted for what they were deliberately misled into believing was their own self-interest. Too many people wanted an authoritarian ruler who would bring back their fantasy world where N---— knew their place, where Jews faced quotas, where women were obedient to the men in their life, where gays and lesbians hid for shame, where the Bible was the moral and legal rule.
This was an election where a determined minority tried and largely succeeded in imposing its will on a majority that sees the world as it really is. It was an election where fantasy beat out reality, where greed defeated compassion, where patriotism was defined by religion and skin color, and by loyalty to a man, not to an idea.
Reactionary forces from Republicans to the oil interests to fundamentalists have been working hard for the last half-century to kill public education in this country. Education teaches people how to think rationally, how to examine issues critically, how to appreciate facts and to apply reason, how to debate properly, how to respect diversity of opinion, of culture, of belief. In short, how to deal with reality. Education is the means by which the less fortunate in life can achieve equal standing in the world. It is the guarantor of a true democratic republic.
A true democratic republic depends on rational debate, on acknowledging facts, on respecting other points of view, on following conventions that have the majesty though not the force of law, on sharing power and on the peaceful transfer of power. All of that was on the ballot last night, and lost. Regardless of the outcome in the next few days, the fact that it was even close means that far too many citizens have not been educated, and will not be educated, in their responsibilities as custodians of the American experiment.
You are welcome to talk me out of this. I hope you succeed.
Thursday, Nov 5, 2020 · 1:54:53 AM +00:00 · Dan K
I've changed the title now from “The American Experiment is Over” after reading a lot of the comments here and taking some time to calm down. It is possible that the American experiment will continue. But it depends on several things:
The “American experiment” is a quintessential Enlightenment product: the idea that people can govern themselves through reasoned debate. Both parts of this concept are in terrible jeopardy. The attempts, which are ratcheting up even now, to use the (stacked) courts to reverse the vote, as well as all the voter suppression tricks, the outright lies intended to mislead or scare people out of voting, the gerrymandering of districts, all are deliberate attacks on the people’s ability to govern themselves.
That has been going on for decades, often openly. But the second part of the attack has been largely undercover under recently: the attack on reasoned discourse. We marvel all the time at how “fringe” beliefs are suddenly mainstream. This is what broke through the surface, as it were, when Obama was elected, and right-wing media and politicians legitimated racist political attacks. There has always been an undercurrent of racism in American politics, but for the past few decades, until Obama, it was more discreet, slightly embarrassing, and not so open outside of the fringe. The GOP, for political reasons, made attacks on Obama for his politics into attacks on him for his race, because they had no intention of engaging in reasoned discourse with him.
Trump used that racism, and other resentments of the thinking class, to mainstream hatred and distrust of all rational thought, partly because he is too lazy to do much thinking, partly because he has no rational response to make, but mostly because it got him enough votes to win the White House and, it now appears, almost but not quite enough votes to keep it.
It is those voters, more than Trump, more than the GOP, that lead me to say the American experiment is in grave danger.
Your mileage may vary.