The nation’s mood about the midterm election and threats to democracy seems to have shifted in recent weeks.
“Democracy in peril argument fizzles as midterm issue,” The Hill declared in an Oct. 22 headline.
The short version is that many Americans don’t believe or don’t care that insurgents are jeopardizing our tradition of having voters decide who represents them in the White House, Congress and other offices.
“Threats to democracy highlighted by the House Jan. 6 select committee’s blockbuster hearings are fizzling as a midterm election issue, drowned out by inflation and other economic concerns that appear to be driving voters in the final weeks of the campaign,” reported The Hill, a political media outlet.
One would think the potential end of our nearly 250-year experiment in democracy would be a bigger deal, but here we are. We are so divided into partisan tribes that calling for free and fair elections is now seen as favoring one political party over another.
Too few seem to care that former President Donald Trump sought to remain in power after losing the 2020 election to President Joe Biden. The Jan. 6 committee’s work established that the violent mob that attacked the U.S. Capitol was one part of a wide-ranging scheme to overthrow our democracy.
Dozens of members of Congress went along with the scheme by refusing to certify electors for Biden. Ultimately the plan failed, but it’s looking more and more like insurgents might hatch a similar plot in 2024, or sooner.
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People who refuse to admit Biden won and who promote lies about widespread voting fraud could win offices as governor or secretary of state in swing states in two weeks. If elected, they would hold key positions and could refuse to certify results of the 2024 presidential race in their state if they disagreed with the outcome.
Perhaps more consequentially, the U.S. Supreme Court will decide a case originating in North Carolina that could give state legislatures power to choose electors. The so-called “independent legislature theory” in Moore v. Harper interprets the U.S. Constitution in a way that would give state lawmakers ability to reject what voters and even state courts decide.
The possibility is very real that one or two states could reject the will of voters and determine who is president.
State legislatures tend to be very partisan, thanks to excessive gerrymandering. Here in Illinois, for example, Democrats have supermajorities in the state House and Senate. In other states, Republicans have leveraged slim electoral advantages to create two-thirds voting majorities in state legislatures.
Mapmakers have repeatedly shown how easy it is to turn a 51-49 electoral majority into a representative advantage of 67-33, a difference of 44 percentage points. We know that Democrats do not outnumber Republicans 2-1 in Illinois.
The margin is 15 points, according to Pew Research. Pew found 48% of Illinois adults identified as Democrat and 33% identified as Republican with 19% having no lean either way.
Nationally, the prevailing sentiment seems to be that Americans are about evenly divided. Major media outlets seem hobbled by a perceived duty to give equal weight to both sides.
If one side says Jan. 6 was a violent attack that was part of a plot to steal power and the other side says it was nothing more than a bunch of lost tourists and people engaged in legitimate political discourse, Big Media tend to regard both possibilities equally.
Authoritarians tend to gain control of media to influence public opinion. In some former democracies, regimes used force to seize radio and TV stations. Here in America, the rich and powerful are more likely to buy out channels that allow and amplify voices of dissent.
Eventually we’ll end up with something like state-run media. The party controlling government will promote lies about immigration, crime and other wedge issues. Americans will become more like citizens in Russia, eager to believe invented tales about imaginary enemies.
NPR journalists in Bucha, a city in Ukraine that was liberated from Russian occupation, reported in April that surviving residents told them invading Russian soldiers wanted to know one thing.
“Where are the Nazis?” the Russian troops demanded.
The Russian government convinced its people that a lie was truth. We see the same dynamic in play here. We are led to believe political adversaries are somehow less than human. We’ve become numb to the use of degrading and uncivil language in yard signs and other political messaging.
Millions of Americans wrongly believe Biden stole the presidential election from Trump. Millions more in rural and suburban areas believe the centers of major American cities resemble the war-torn ruins of Aleppo, Syria. They’re convinced looting and rioting have continued nonstop since Blacks protested after a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd in 2020.
We have slid deep down a slippery slope. Trust in the press has cratered after Trump and others called journalists “enemies of the people” for years. We’ve grown increasingly accustomed to threats of violence to achieve goals, as if the ends justify the means.
The public library in Downers Grove recently canceled a Drag Queen Bingo event after receiving threats, including a bullet that a coward anonymously sent through the mail.
Orland Park Mayor Keith Pekau, the Republican nominee for Congress in the 6th District, spotlighted the library’s planned program by telling his supporters the show would have featured sexual content, which was false.
This is the future of America if we continue down this path. Voices denouncing hate, intimidation and violence need to be louder and more numerous. Elected officials at every level need to honor their oaths of office and do what is right instead of being swayed by corruption and populism.
Majorities on both sides of the political spectrum believe the other side is trying to destroy America, according to results of an NBC News poll released Sunday. The poll, like many others, showed Americans were sharply but about evenly divided. “Threats to democracy” was the No. 1 issue among likely voters, NBC reported.
“Yet beyond the horse race numbers and the high interest in the election, what stands out in the poll is the bipartisan anger among Democratic and Republican voters when they are asked what one message they’d like to send with their votes,” according to NBC.
America cannot sustain this level of tension. We are split 50/50 but act as if one side can impose its will upon the other with the slightest margin of victory. There is little appetite for compromise and negotiation. Instead, the growing sentiment seems to be “all or nothing.”
We’re going to remain just as divided in two weeks, after the midterm election. One key to watch will be how graciously the losers accept defeat.
Ted Slowik is a columnist with the Daily Southtown.
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