SerpApi.Org
Is American democracy worth keeping? It hasn’t seemed like a great bargain lately.
It’s certainly not producing any lions. Most politicians these days seem more like cheerless chimpanzees hopping about, pointing and screeching at each other.
Is there a better system out there?
An authoritarian government has its attractions: speed, efficiency, and—often—clarity. But historic experiments with it have almost always gone spectacularly wrong. Forget Hitler and Mussolini, and look around today. We can see how corrupt dictators recently kneecapped countries like Russia, Belarus, North Korea, Syria, Cambodia, Venezuela, Nicaragua and around two dozen African countries. Life in these places has been—not so good.
America’s tip toward authoritarianism isn’t looking too promising either. As Donald Trump has accumulated more power, executive branch corruption has reached previously unimaginable levels. You know it’s bad when even the guy running the president’s teleprompter was cashing in—using his advanced knowledge of Trump’s speeches.
But if a strong man isn’t the answer, what’s left? Rule by the rich? Some say we’re already ruled by the rich. Nobody likes the idea. A hereditary aristocracy is not likely to catch on soon, either. Neither is monarchy, theocracy, or anarchy.
And yet our democracy seems so unsatisfying. Why?
Perhaps it’s because of the weakening of the three principal pillars that hold a democracy together: the rule of law, educated voters, and a free, ethical, and competitive press.
The rule of law maintained by an independent judiciary is necessary to guarantee that citizens get the leaders they vote for. Both parties have been undercutting judicial independence lately by imposing partisan litmus tests on judicial nominees and by threatening judges. A nonpartisan Department of Justice is also critical—but now has vanished.
Legal rules are also needed to prevent powerful interests from limiting the choice of candidates we can vote for. Yet the Supreme Court has allowed states to draw contortionist congressional districts and condoned cataracts of corporate campaign cash. It seems the Court is undercutting elections at an accelerating pace even while encouraging the lawlessness with which the president runs things—as if the government were Trump’s toy balloon to float or flick, kick or pop at whim.
To spot the danger from all of this, democracy demands an educational system in which citizens can learn how democracy works, but also in which they can learn to distinguish truth from lies. Rather than talking about any of this, extremist Democratic politicians demand schools demonize the white man, while extremist Republican politicians foam at the mouth about boys in girls’ sports. It’s so much easier!
Meanwhile, more than 43 million American adults are functionally illiterate. No wonder millions of them don’t know how to use reason and their five senses to find truth. Instead, they fall back on blind, deaf, and dumb belief. In a political atmosphere choked with lies. They simply pick a side and don’t think for themselves: Trump does no wrong. Trump does everything wrong.
Americans also can’t find the truth if they don’t have all the facts. A free and competitive press, rooted in ethical practices and defamation laws, offers you the data. Our press has become less free and competitive because there are fewer news gatherers out there. The Trump administration recently approved a merger that, if it withstands court challenges, will leave CNN and CBS both controlled by one pro-Trump billionaire: David Ellison.
Other previously independent news sources have also been devoured by conglomerates that have strangled original reporting by cutting staff, leaving much of the news media chewing over the same cud of stories with talk, talk, talk.
Our media sources are also less ethical. Some are simply partisan. Worse, social media sludge is now the dominant news source for most Americans. It’s wildly biased and utterly unvetted. Government should encourage additional reliable news sources instead of approving corrosive consolidations, cutting subsidies for public radio and television, and leaving the curious to the tender mercies of TikTok.
If you want to keep our democracy, strengthen these three pillars. By weakening them, we are accelerating our crisis of confidence in our institutions, in particular, and in democracy in general. If we’re going to stick with this attempt at rule by the people, we’re going to have to act soon. After all, what’s the alternative?
Thomas G. Moukawsher is a former Connecticut complex litigation judge and a former leader within the American Bar Association. He is the author of the book, The Common Flaw: Needless Complexity in the Courts and 50 Ways to Reduce It.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.
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