Democracy's opponents control enough votes to meaningfully roll back civil and electoral rights. It will take a generational shift in civic and democratic culture to defeat them.
Great article! My conclusion a year after January 6th, is that maybe half of America doesn't want democracy. The threat of a multiethnic democracy scares too many people and people who do support democracy either don't understand the threat or can't agree on a solution. It's very unlikely that we will reform our institutions due to the fact amending the Constitution is too hard. Americans either want democracy or they don't. I don't know if we have an enough time to change people's mind before we lose our democracy.
Thanks much for this essay. Very important work and thought here that is so clarifying (if quite alarming). I think the focus on hostility to a multicultural polity is right on the money.
I believe that what we will experience over the coming decade or more is a devolution or shifting of political (and regulatory) power back to the states. We Dems usually think of this as reactionary, and it can and will be for those people in states monopolized by the ultra-conservative. But in fact, especially when you layer into the equation the really reactionary current (and long into the future) Federalist Society affiliate: SCOTUS, having the Dems and pro-multi-ethnic democracy people and organizations proactively working to manage this shift of power to the states through a super-charged version of what you describe as a focus on asserting and growing democratic engagement, civic-mindedness, building strong democratic practices and institutions, and so forth, may be the only way to stave-off the worst aspects of the current anti-democratic takeover of our country, including the likelihood of violence. Of course this will also need to be combined with equally strong efforts to protect, preserve, and where possible, strengthen, the federal laws and institutions that have been the focus of Dems to date.
We need so much more thought and action around how to stave off the worst of the imposition and normalization of anti-democratic policies and practices that now seems inevitable over the coming years. Your essay and the work the you cite, along with that of many others (like Corey Robin, David Shorr, for instance) is so important. I hope you will make this essay available to the public so that it can be shared as broadly as possible. Thanks.
Thanks for this detailed, clarifying article, Elliott. To iterate with the Arbery case, the killers gave their video recording of their murder of a black man to a radio station in the belief that the recording would exonerate them in the eyes of their community and that what they did was legal and proper under the laws of the state of Georgia and of the United States. That was their true, heartfelt belief. And that's one of our problems. They weren't taught civics, social studies, or the laws of the USA in K-12. We might be able to rectify that as a nation someday, if we have enough days, which we don't, because of a much larger problem. Global warming. We don't have 50, 30 or 25 years to solve this problem. What to do? That depends on your age. No matter what, though, it does seem prudent to find another more climatologically, culturally, and politically safe place to live, and move there.
Hi Elliott,
Great article! My conclusion a year after January 6th, is that maybe half of America doesn't want democracy. The threat of a multiethnic democracy scares too many people and people who do support democracy either don't understand the threat or can't agree on a solution. It's very unlikely that we will reform our institutions due to the fact amending the Constitution is too hard. Americans either want democracy or they don't. I don't know if we have an enough time to change people's mind before we lose our democracy.
-Elliot
Thanks much for this essay. Very important work and thought here that is so clarifying (if quite alarming). I think the focus on hostility to a multicultural polity is right on the money.
I believe that what we will experience over the coming decade or more is a devolution or shifting of political (and regulatory) power back to the states. We Dems usually think of this as reactionary, and it can and will be for those people in states monopolized by the ultra-conservative. But in fact, especially when you layer into the equation the really reactionary current (and long into the future) Federalist Society affiliate: SCOTUS, having the Dems and pro-multi-ethnic democracy people and organizations proactively working to manage this shift of power to the states through a super-charged version of what you describe as a focus on asserting and growing democratic engagement, civic-mindedness, building strong democratic practices and institutions, and so forth, may be the only way to stave-off the worst aspects of the current anti-democratic takeover of our country, including the likelihood of violence. Of course this will also need to be combined with equally strong efforts to protect, preserve, and where possible, strengthen, the federal laws and institutions that have been the focus of Dems to date.
We need so much more thought and action around how to stave off the worst of the imposition and normalization of anti-democratic policies and practices that now seems inevitable over the coming years. Your essay and the work the you cite, along with that of many others (like Corey Robin, David Shorr, for instance) is so important. I hope you will make this essay available to the public so that it can be shared as broadly as possible. Thanks.
Thanks for this detailed, clarifying article, Elliott. To iterate with the Arbery case, the killers gave their video recording of their murder of a black man to a radio station in the belief that the recording would exonerate them in the eyes of their community and that what they did was legal and proper under the laws of the state of Georgia and of the United States. That was their true, heartfelt belief. And that's one of our problems. They weren't taught civics, social studies, or the laws of the USA in K-12. We might be able to rectify that as a nation someday, if we have enough days, which we don't, because of a much larger problem. Global warming. We don't have 50, 30 or 25 years to solve this problem. What to do? That depends on your age. No matter what, though, it does seem prudent to find another more climatologically, culturally, and politically safe place to live, and move there.