Evolving democracy
Representative democracy in the USA has been in trouble for a long time. Since the beginnings of the nation 250 years ago, wealth, racial hatred, and private interests have dominated its development.
It has taken massive movements of people over extended periods of time to expand the ideas of whose lives matter, whose voices count, and whose interests should be protected.
It has only been 60 years since the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965. That Act ensured that the 15th Amendment, itself the product of a civil war, and the 19th Amendment, the result of nearly 100 years of organizing, would become real. It was not until 1975 that Section 203 was added to the law “to require that all voting and election materials be provided “in the language of the applicable minority group as well as in the English language.”
That is the same year the USA ended the Vietnam War, and put congressional limits on the spying roles of the FBI and the CIA.
It is also the same year that the right wing found its way to mass mobilizations. The expansion of voting rights, the military defeat in Vietnam, the scandal of Watergate, busing to establish integrated schools, and the moderation of Gerald Ford all combined to give new energy to right-wing, fascist movements in the USA. The Conservative Caucus emerged. Phyllis Schlafly brought mass organizational skills to block the ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment, and the desire to make the American Military great again was launched.
Ultimately, these forces found their way to the election of Ronald Regan, who began the long dismantling of the New Deal and Civil Rights era policies. These right-wing efforts are rooted in a commitment to restore the USA to the pre-Civil War era, where everyone knows their place and is kept in it. They recognized the power of hate and fear to mobilize people.
In drawing a long line on the rise of the right, Daniel Schlozman and Sam Rosenfeld, authors of The Hollow Parties: The Many Past and Disordered Present of American Party Politics (Princeton, 2024) bring the consequences of this political thrust up to date, saying:
“Perhaps the signal moment for the impulse that began to break down the traditional controls on American politics in the 1970s came with the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. With mob violence, the right all-but-openly declared that electoral victories by the enemy did not count and countenanced any measures necessary to stop them. The fundamental criterion of democracy, that the losers accept their losses and fight again, no longer holds.”
Long before the refusal to acknowledge majority votes, right-wing elements have been orchestrating policies to control elections. In 1976, in Buckley v. Valeo, the Supreme Court equated money spent to influence voters as protected speech. This laid the groundwork for the 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, allowing unlimited corporate donations, introducing “super PACs. The Brennan Center concluded:
These trends reached new heights in the 2024 election. Billionaire-backed super PACs helped the winning presidential candidate close a substantial fundraising gap. These groups also went beyond just running supportive ads. A group funded by Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, took on core components of the winning campaign, including voter outreach operations. And dark money from groups that do not disclose their donors topped $1 billion.
The Callais decision, nullifying Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and eliminating majority Black and Latino districts, should come as no surprise. Southern States have jumped into redistricting, making it almost certain that millions of voters of color will no longer have representatives of their choice.
None of this has happened by accident. Nor did it happen quickly. But increasingly, people are recognizing that this system of so-called democracy is broken beyond repair.
It is now up to us to decide what will take its place. This is more than a question of policies. It is a question that goes to the heart of the kind of people we wish to be and to become.
Every day around the country. People are stepping forward in ways that are evolving the contours of a living democracy. They are organizing toward a vision that encompasses respect for human beings and for life-affirming ways of living. They are gathering at Delaney Hall in Newark to demand the end of detention centers. They are organizing throughout the Midwest to stop massive data centers. They are organizing people to register and vote for progressive candidates. They are creating the values and practices of a new democracy being born out of courage and a recognition of our interdependence.