Is American Democracy Happy?
And how can we save it?
The United States’ system of checks and balances between the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government is brilliant and flawed. That there’s just one leader at the head of the executive branch who’s elected by the citizens means that person has to be the leader for all. It’s only logical then that the president should be a centrist who can speak to, and earn the respect of a broad swath of the citizenry.
Instead, over the past four years we’ve been living with a president who caters only to his base. Even in the midst of great crises, he alienates those in blue states and “Democrat cities” on purpose. This is a dangerous culmination of a much longer slow-drift to the right of center such that moderate Democrats like Joe Biden, the Clintons, and Barack Obama who once would have been considered moderate Republicans are now called Socialists by mainstream Republicans: “What Happened to America’s Political Center of Gravity?”
Let’s unravel this use of the word Socialism. Harry Truman put it well in 1952 when he said:
“Socialism is a scare word they have hurled at every advance the people have made in the last 20 years. Socialism is what they called public power. Socialism is what they called social security. Socialism is what they called farm price supports. Socialism is what they called bank deposit insurance. Socialism is what they called the growth of free and independent labor organizations. Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people. When the Republican candidate inscribes the slogan ‘Down With Socialism’ on the banner of his ‘great crusade,’ that is really not what he means at all. What he really means is, ‘Down with Progress …’”
I think we can safely add public schools, libraries, first responders, and roads to Truman’s list; so many of the things that actually “make America great” then, now, and hopefully well into the future.
Why then has Socialism been allowed to become such a smear against the public good? I don’t have a good answer, except that there has been a successful, long-term campaign to shift lower- and middle-class support away from the common good, toward the idea that the rich and powerful know what’s best and that their wealth and power will trickle down to the rest (Reaganomics). That message has succeeded in convincing working folks to vote against their own interests, even though a quick glance at the charts below from the Pew Research Center clearly illustrate the rich getting richer while leaving the rest behind over the last half-century.
The right wing has led working folks to believe that “big government” and taxes are bad while privatization of public institutions and corporate deregulation are good for the economy. This messaging has succeeded in part because of increasing stock prices and rising GDP. In reality, working folks’ fortunes have declined on an inverse path to increasing wealth among the richest.
But the left wing also needs to take some blame for this shift. As Michael Sandel argues in his book The Tyranny of Merit, Democrats have been promoting the idea that educational attainment and career ladder-climbing are of the highest value to society, and that those in traditional working-class vocations have only themselves to blame for falling behind as globalization passes them by. This has generated a deep resentment, among working people, of elites and their cosmopolitan culture. Even if Democrats do have working folk’s best interests at the heart of their platform, their messaging is more than falling flat.
The downward trend of middle-class buying power is only one indicator that our American greatness is slipping away. In fact, the greatest democracy on earth is losing its grasp on democracy itself. The Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index—a measure of where countries sit on the spectrum from democracy to authoritarianism—has the U.S. at number 25, behind countries like Uruguay, Mauritius, Costa Rica, and Chile. Topping the list are countries like Norway, Iceland, Sweden, Finland, New Zealand, Canada, and Denmark. Perhaps we should look to them for inspiration.
Now let’s ask a larger question: what’s the point of wealth and democracy without happiness? Shouldn’t that be the most important metric of all? The United Nations World Happiness Report has the U.S. at number 18, behind—you guessed it—Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, New Zealand, Canada, and Costa Rica.
What are some of the things that these happy and democratic countries have in common? Income equality, freedom, social trust between citizens, and access to quality public healthcare and education. These are all things for which America was once an inspiration to the world, but has allowed itself to slide away from.
Disingenuous scare-tactics about Socialism aside, it’s clear that we as a nation—red states and blue states—need to come together as united citizens of America to shore up our democracy, bolster the middle class, and increase trust in public institutions. Making these changes will not be easy. We can begin by truly listening to and understanding the needs of working folks and then designing policies to support them, which democrats already tend to do. These policies will be stonewalled though unless political platforms are not tone-deaf in their messaging. A big shift in public perception will have to happen in order for citizens to get behind the structural changes that lawmakers need to make for the next era of American greatness.
Let’s get to work. We’ll all be happier for it.
Further Reading
Why Democrats Keep Losing Rural Counties Like Mine
How Joe Biden’s Digital Team Tamed the MAGA Internet
