The Challenge to Diverse Democracy
When the United States was founded in the eighteenth century as a self-governing democratic republic, it was “a time when similar undertakings had miserably failed in every country where they had been tried.” So wrote Yascha Mounk in The Great Experiment: Why Diverse Democracies Fall Apart and How They Can Endure.
From the outset the enjoyment of promised freedoms in the new United States was not shared by all. The country’s practices have not always been consistent with its principles as stated in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution. Individual freedom and fundamental rights of free speech, freedom of religion and assembly, and due process of law have been denied to minorities, and expansion of voting privileges to all citizens took over a century. Nearly 250 years later the fulfillment of the great experiment is incomplete.
In a sense, the United States is presented with another great experiment: A globalized world has delivered a highly diverse population that challenges the democracy’s commitment to provide fairly distributed opportunity to all its citizens.
Unfortunately, rather than embracing diversity, an us-versus-them mindset has emerged. Fear of being replaced by successive waves of immigrants, specifically “people of color,” has gripped a large share of the U.S. population. The growing minority populations, projected to surpass the white population by 2045, is regarded by some as an existential threat. At the same time, shifting cultural norms are a source of distress for sectors of the population.
A previous Fifty Year Perspective post quoted Columnist Jamelle Bouie’s views on conservative electorates’ “anxieties, fears, anger, resentment, rage, about changing cultural and demographic facts about the country.” Bouie suggested that populist anxieties can only be calmed by Republican politicians, identifying them as “the only actors on this stage who have the agency to do something.”
However, results of 2022 mid-term elections suggest a different path may emerge. Election officials oversaw an efficient and peaceful election. Widespread challenges to election results did not occur. Candidates embracing conspiracy theories over the 2020 presidential election received solid rebuke. Voting on abortion issues reflected the 60% majority of Americans who favor legalization. Voters generally swung to more moderate candidates, both Democratic and Republican.
Eight days after the mid-term elections, the Senate advanced a bill protecting same-sex marriage, with bi-partisan support. A similar bill had passed the House of Representatives in July, also with bipartisan support, a recognition that seven in ten Americans support same-sex marriage.
Given recent political history, it would be unwise to believe the 2022 mid-terms foretell depoliticization. Nevertheless they were a refreshing bit of good news. Just possibly, the mid-term elections may launch a period of political moderation and bipartisanship.