“I confess, that in America I saw more than America;
I sought the image of democracy itself, with its inclinations,
its character, its prejudices and its passions, in order to learn
what we have to fear or hope from its progress.”
Tocqueville had a deep attachment and admiration to the Americans’ love for associational life, that is the enthusiasm of participation, whether it is in elections, movements, or any groups. This for Tocqueville, was why he thought that there would be a “democratic revolution” in which the world would become more and more democratic.
Yet to achieve a functional democracy is rather tiring. It requires participation, and only works best when there is participation. The more the better. Yet in America today, the scope of participation is seemingly in decline, or in some ways manipulated.
Just over a decade ago, "Citizens United v. FEC" (2010) gave first amendment rights to corporations to spend unlimitedly on elections, despite wealthy donors already having an outsized and distorting political influence. This skews the election system and legislative favours towards such minorities, and in an era of historic wealth inequality and stagnant wages, racial biases & wealth gaps would only be prolonged.
More recently, voting rights legislation and reforms have been in deadlock in Congress. Republicans have worked very hard to suppress voting requirements by implementing stricter registration laws. Despite agreeing with Democrats over voter ID requirements, Republicans are still purging further restrictions on which kind of ID are valid. And in the recent Supreme Court decision (July 2021) along ideological lines, the Arizona state laws regarding voting restrictions were upheld, writing that no unequal impacts were imposed on minorities. As Justice Alito commented, just because voting may be “inconvenient for some”, doesn’t mean that access to voting is unequal.
Relating to the idea (mentioned in Pt.1) about “surface volatility”, despite both Democrats and Republicans voicing passionately with the issues they deem salient, seemingly nothing has changed, apart from injecting more instability into an evermore divided society. Despite the US's high emphasis on “The Equality of Conditions”, nothing new or significant has been brought out: Voting Rights reforms have not succeeded, immigration problems have not been solved, the filibuster problem... (though that is not to say nothing successful has been done). Yet, does this signal an unimaginative society? -- Hence the other dangerous side of majoritarian tyranny.
Crucially, we are witnessing how the 2 ideas of surface volatility and underlying stability are falling distant from each other. As Trump emerged from America’s partisanship with the notion of “America First” which spurred the discussion regarding US populism. Regardless of whether the 2020 Presidential Election was fraud or not, the January 6th Insurrection (2021) was no better demonstration of volatility as the ultimate attack on democracy. Similarly, whereas the 4th July (2021) Independence Day should be a celebration for all Americans, the country was swarmed with over 400 cases of gun violence with at least 150 dead. Ironic.
Biden’s re-entry into the White House may have given some people the hope that the underlying stability can reposition itself strongly in a fractured US society. But as for now, hyper-partisanship remains, the Trump “cult” still exists, and the ideological division does not seem to be showing signs of reconciliation.
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