Democracy Is Not on the Ballot

Don’t despair for democracy, fight for it.

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People wait in line for early voting for the midterm elections. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

Dear Reader (Including those of you who dropped your lattes),

You’re all losing your frickin’ minds. 

Okay, maybe not you, specifically, but a lot of people are. 

Look, I think my record over the last seven years or so of arguing that politics in general, and right-wing politics in particular, is going in a bad direction is pretty solid. Heck, now that I think about it, my record for arguing that left-wing politics is going in a bad direction is pretty stellar. 

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  1. Dcurtiss63

    I agree that Beschloss’ comment was over the top hysteria.
    But your comments are under the bottom (sic) whistling past the graveyard.
    Saying not much will change because you will still have the same family, friends, and job is particularly fatuous.
    Would you have said to the German people in 1932 or Russians in 1917 not much will change if the Nazis/Bolsheviks come to power cause you will still have the same family, friends, and job?
    Saying the GOP is not a threat to democracy because when they try to steal an election they want people to believe they won is also fatuous.
    The Nazis/Bolsheviks also wanted people to believe they were the choice of the people.
    So, no threat to democracy there?
    And NO, I am NOT equating the GOP with Nazis or Bolsheviks.
    But come on, after 6 January how can you deny that trumps GOP is a threat to our democracy?
    I expect better from you.
    Are you trying to endear yourself to your old colleagues at National Review by engaging in NR style denialism? Or have you “lost your fricken mind”?
    Articles like this are why the Dispatch is my 2nd go to for political news and commentary and why the Bulwark is my 1st go to.

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  2. Avatar photo
    Ben Connelly

    All great points, and ones more Americans should take to heart. Democracy isn’t on the ballot. People need to calm down.

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  3. Drewgrif

    Today was probably the most I've ever written in candidates or voted third party on one ballot, which I did in a various races involving election denier and crackpots. The races that gave me the most heartburn where when a Republican who flirts with election denial and other conspiracies, but whom I suspect are cynical panderers instead of a true believers against Dems I despise.

    Like Jonah said, Democracy is not on the ballot. I think Trump and his acolytes will try to steal the 2024 election, and frankly, they should've faced severe consequences for their 2020 actions. I do believe it will be harder for Trump to pull off now that he's not the sitting president and I have faith in our courts. And I naively hope that most of the election deniers, who can spout conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory while they have no power will have a crisis of conscience when it becomes real, as what happened with Mike Pence.

    Back to my issues with Democracy on the ballot. The GOP has become a not so subtle authoritarian party, they don't even pretend that it's about anything other then pleasing Trump and owning the libs. I'm very close to being completely sick of them. But I really can't see my self going over to the Democrats, because while they may not be as bad as the Republicans when it comes to "ending Democracy," I don't really trust the Democrats to actually preserve Democracy. They seem more interested in the "battle to save democracy" as a political weapon, and while they rightfully point out the tin pot dictator style authoritarianism of MAGA, they still seemed moored to their own soft authoritarianism where abusing authority is okay if it's for the "greater good". The following causes me to be distrustful of the Democrats on this:
    1. Insisting that the rules need to be changed if they don't win/get their way. They win the "popular vote," vote but lose the Electoral College, they say the EC needs to go. They lose the Senate, welp, time to discuss admitting D.C. and Puerto Rico as states for the sole purpose of adding four Dem senators (there is a policy argument for this, though I disagree with it, but the Dems rarely pretend it's for anything more then gaining power).
    2. Similar to the above, the Supreme Court makes a ruling the Dems disagree with, the court is illegitimate and packing the court needs to be considered. Another thing where the Dems rarely try to pretend that it's anything more then removing the Supreme Court as a check on the executive branch and legislative branch by ensuring judges are appointed who won't rule against their laws or actions.
    3. Meddling to prop up MAGA candidates against guys like Peter Meijer. Enough has been said on this since it's the clearest example of the Dems talking the talk, but not walking the walk. This certainly doesn't absolve Republican primary voters, as they are the ones that decide these primaries, but it certainly was ugly. It's probably going to work for Democrats in Michigan as it appears that a Democrat in all likelihood be replacing Peter Meijer in DeVosland, but I guarantee it will backfire in some races and the Dems will have to take some responsibility.
    4. Pressing the idea that Pro-Democracy/Anti-Trump Republicans aren't "Pro-Democracy" unless they drop everything they believe in. In their minds, you're either a Democrat or a Trumper. It reminds me of a piece I read in The Bulwark (a site of good intentioned people who are usually wrong) where one of the writers (I think JVL) was absolutely perplexed that Marc Elias was blasting Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger on Twitter. Both of those two are a bit more Bulwark then Dispatch for my taste (Kinzinger has been a lost cause for awhile and Cheney seems to be trending that way. I wish both would've stayed and fought in the conservative movement, but I digress), but they're two people who took a brave stand at great cost to them. But it makes sense. Elias masquerades as a "pro-Democracy" election attorney, but in reality, Democracy is only of value to him when it helps Democrats win (and a hinderance when it gets in their way). He, and many other Democrats, don't want pro-Democracy/Anti Trump Republicans to succeed because that might lead to a harder to beat Conservative coalition with appeal to the middle.

    I know this was a long one, but Jonah expressed several thoughts that I've thought for awhile, but hadn't expressed and now I felt ready to express them. When I was a young college student, getting ready to vote for President for the first time, I truly believed that if Obama got elected, it would be the end of the world. Instead, we got eight years of a mediocre president who spent two years pushing polices I don't like, and then 6 years of pouting, with the occasional executive action pushing policies I don't like. And after those 8 years, Obama was gone and the country was still standing. And then after that, we did survive 4 years of a failed businessman and game show host who honest to god tried to steal an election. It was bad, it was a blackmark on our nation, but we survived it.
    I hate how every two years, it's the "most important election" ever. The 1860 election precipitated the Civil War. And then the 1876 election just a few short years later, where the Republicans actually might've stolen the election for Rutherford B. Hayes (They got a lot further then Trump and his minions) and the Democrats made a deal to let them do it in exchange for getting to roll back the rights of African Americans. We survived the apex of the imperial presidency under Woodrow Wilson and FDR (Thank goodness that Trump isn't as smart as either of these two). We'll survived whatever this election brings and then two years later, the average voter gets to regret their vote as they do every two years.

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  4. Slowdave1

    My nutjob Trump worshiping brother was convinced that 2020 was the election that would continue or end democracy. So when Biden "stole the election," he went out and bought guns "while you still can." I told him I guaranteed him he would still be able to buy a gun on Biden's last day in office and he laughed at my naivete.

    Yes there are some horrible Republicans on the ballot and yes they'll say (and to a much lesser extent DO) horrible things. But they are part of government and they are also greedy, power-hungry pigs. And as soon as they step over the line of public opinion and are risking their re-election chances, they will spring back as though they just touched s white hot piece of steel. But more importantly, the institutions will hold, as they have.

    Do your part, vote for NO election deniers, and then have a nice dinner tonight with the tv off. The Union will be fine.

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  5. Matt

    Without engaging in depth with all the points here (It's late and I'm tired, maybe tomorrow), I found it interesting that this headline appeared directly next to "‘Do Your Job or You Will Hang’ - Election officials grapple with continuing distrust and threats ahead of Tuesday’s midterms." The Republican party might not be the end of democracy, but given the level of support election conspiracies have in the party they're certainly not what I'd call friendly towards it at the moment.

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  6. BenP

    It's fair to say that, right now, the Republican party has a lot more people in it who pose a threat to democracy than does the Democratic party. But I'm not so sure the same holds for the bases of the respective parties.

    After the 2016 election, a change.org petition calling for Trump electors got about 5 million signatures and a slick endorsement video made by Martin Sheen and a bunch of B- and C- list celebrities. And this was despite Clinton conceding. This got a bunch of mainstream media coverage, none of which called it anti-democratic or dangerous or a sign that liberals were the sorts of people who don't respect elections. And contra Jonah, this effort didn't even *pretend* to be pro-democracy. There was no claim of fraud. They didn't justify it on the grounds of Russian interference. They just said Trump is horrible and we need to stop him from becoming president.

    The important difference between then and now is that Democrat leaders did not endorse this. This is why I think the Republican party is more dangerous. It isn't that Democrat voters have a strong and principled commitment to accepting electoral defeat. It's the their leaders do.

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    1. Slowdave1

      But their leaders are actually followers so the real problem is that their CONSTITUENTS do. At least the very loud minority of them.

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  7. Ds.Don.Schwab

    No Jonah, We're all losing are frickin’ minds for good reason. In Wisconsin it's likely your Republicans, thanks to gerrymandering, will likely win a veto proof majority (mind you, with a minority of the total votes). They are similarly likely to let the legislature determine the voting outcome, they are busy working on it. So, in 2024 Wisconsin voters can provide a majority to a deeply flawed but nevertheless democracy supporting Democrat. But, the gerrymandered legislature sends its electors to the narcissistic, incestuous, sociopath who can no longer communicate beyond a hate filled message. You're telling us Democracy isn't on the balance? I like most of your political policy recommendations Jonah, but you are, as (was it Stalin who said), a useful idiot.

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    1. Dcurtiss63

      I think it was Lenin, but I agree Jonah is playing the useful idiot.

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  8. Ken Motamed

    "Most of those in the mob thought they were fighting for democracy."

    I have to disagree. Jonah said it himself: Trump could care less about democracy. So why would his goons? Much more than an end result, democracy is a process. Believing in democracy means we have faith in the processes that are in place to assure that end result. Perhaps the most important part of the democratic process is elections. And we also have processes in place to ensure the integrity of those elections. Those who don't believe in our democratic processes don't believe in democracy.

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    1. Slowdave1

      " Jonah said it himself: Trump could care less about democracy. So why would his goons?"
      Because Trump TOLD them he cared about democracy and they of course believed him. They are the real useful idiots.

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    Dr. Livesey

    So if Trump's the losing nominee again, and the vote is close in enough states to put him over the top so long as certain state officials cook the books or ram some kind of craziness through their state legislatures (by not certifying the actual winner), how is that not a threat to our democracy? Because the new GOP majorities in the House and Senate won't rubber-stamp Trump's victory?

    Maybe it just can't happen that way. Maybe we'll pass laws that make this impossible or at least terribly unlikely.

    Until then, I'm not less worried now than when I started reading this piece.

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  10. Harbage6179

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