The signs are all around us. Something is not right in
America. The country is a traumatic place for
millions, triggering stress among wide swaths
of the public, as if the screws are being
tightened ever more excruciatingly. Democracy
is eroding, as people are losing faith in an
open society and a country that is not working
for them - and a government that is not
meeting their needs or serving their interests.
A November survey from the American Psychological
Association sounds the alarm, or more
accurately, reflects the sentiment that so
many have known personally or anecdotally.
Nearly 60 percent of Americans say today is
the lowest point in U.S. history. Moreover,
most respondents (63 percent) say the future
of the country is their most significant
source of stress, while nearly six in 10 are
stressed from America’s social division.
These concerns span all age groups and party affiliations.
Other issues causing people stress include
health care, the economy, trust in government,
crime and hate crimes, wars, terrorist
attacks, unemployment and low wages, and the
environment.
Young people are disenchanted with the
current system. A Harvard study from 2016 found a majority of millennials
- 51 percent - reject capitalism.
The U.S. does maintain some of the
trappings of democracy. However, the nation is
arguably a sham democracy, with important
rights enshrined in the First Amendment, but
with election integrity ranked
at the bottom of Western democracies and a right
to vote subjected to gerrymandering, voter
suppression, and massive disenfranchisement.
The land of the free has become a
punitive nation, where its policies do not
reflect efforts to build communities and
improve the lives of people, but rather foster
measures that encourage deprivation and
reflect a desire to inflict gratuitous
violence on the people. America is ruled by an
oligarchy in which a small, wealthy elite
dictates policy.
A Harvard Business School study declared that the U.S. political
system, designed not to serve the public
interest but to do the bidding of lobbyists
and private interests, “has become the major
barrier to solving nearly every important
challenge our nation needs to address.”
The U.S. Supreme Court decision in Citizens
United v. Federal Election Commission has allowed campaign finance to
metastasize into unlimited influence of money
in elections. A legalized system of bribing
politicians means the nation is unable to
address the worst poverty and most glaring
economic inequality in the developed world.
This, as the American middle class has died,
and most Americans have regressed to Third
World status, as one MIT economist has concluded.
This is why public consensus may favor or oppose a
particular policy, yet the legislation enacted
in Washington, and in Harrisburg and other
state capitals, may not necessarily reflect
the popular will. Consider the massive,
unpopular tax cuts recently enacted for the
wealthy and corporations, efforts to roll back
consumer protections and banking
regulations, the evisceration of civil rights
and environmental protections, and resistance
to addressing gun violence.
“We have a situation now where people who
are in power impose a lot of punishment on
unfortunate people,” said former President Jimmy
Carter. “We have seven times as many people in
prison now as we did when I left the White
House, for instance. We have got a much
greater disparity of income among Americans
than we have ever had before.”
“In fact, eight people in the world - six
of them are from America - own as much money
as half of the total population of the world,
3.5 billion people,” Carter noted. “In
America, we have the same problem, maybe even
in an exaggerated way. We have marginalized
the average person for the benefit of the
wealthier people in America.”
Even worse, some have sounded the alarm
on the threat of tyranny in America. Riding in on a wave of
faux populism, hate, and revanchism, the Trump
administration has embraced greed,
corruption, and self-enrichment. Gaslighting
the public and appealing to emotions to give
people a warped sense of their own best
interests, Trump acts in the long tradition of
propaganda
and deception employed by authoritarian regimes. Former
Deputy U.S. Attorney General Sally
Yates calls what is taking place a
“relentless attack on democratic institutions
and norms,” with an impact felt not only
during this presidency, but potentially for
years to come.
Authoritarianism is on the rise in parts
of the world, and it is important that we not
allow fascism to go unnoticed, warns former
U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine
Albright, who considers Trump the most
anti-democratic leader in U.S. history.
In the absence of civic engagement and an
informed populace, democracy dies. The U.S.
trails most of the developed world in voter
turnout, the public lacking in civic
knowledge of the Constitution, the workings of
government, and the structure of the three
branches. Civic ignorance and a lack of
critical thinking skills allow fake news to
prevail, and provide an opening for a would-be
dictator.
If true democracy - a relatively recent
phenomenon in America - is dying, the
prescription is a surge
of engagement. And that is what the country is
experiencing - unprecedented
activism after years of increasing economic
inequality and waning civic participation.
Inspired by the sad state of America, one
in five Americans has participated in protests or
attended rallies since 2016, and over half
have volunteered
or supported a cause. Protesting to restore democracy and
their psychic well-being, people are learning
government is not a spectator sport. The
armchair is the deathbed of democracy.
This commentary is also posted on WHYY.org.
