Recently, I read an interesting book written by two professors of government at Harvard U., Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt. The 2018 book entitled “How Democracies Die” takes a historical look at numerous democracies in various countries, including the U.S., which have at some point in time become more authoritarian, despite having strongly written constitutions. What’s frightening is their conclusion that the actions of elected leaders have often paved the road to democratic failure, and why the U.S. in now vulnerable to the same downward spiral. Shared beliefs and practices, beyond our formal constitutions, need to be restored. The attack by some factions on these values has been slowly evolving over several years in U.S. politics. One can go as far back to McCarthyism in the 1950s, ending in a witch hunt for communists in and out of government, ruining lives and bitterly dividing the country. Then there was the selection of Sarah Palin who, as John McCain’s running mate in 2007, became his attack dog against the Democrat’s Barack Obama. Politics has become increasingly personal, with attacks on the character and patriotism of opponents through mainstream media and more recently through social media. The arrival of Donald Trump on the scene and his subsequent Presidential stint firmly installed the current polarization of American politics and continuing campaigns of intolerance and misinformation.
Now, we have politicians like Wisconsin Republican Senator Ron Johnson who continues to spread conspiracy theories and disinformation, particularly now that Donald Trump is banned from social media and largely avoiding appearances on cable television. He reportedly spreads doubts about President Joe Biden’s victory, argues that the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol was not an armed insurrection, promotes discredited COVID-19 treatments, sees no need to get the coronavirus vaccine and declares that climate change was not man-made but instead was caused by “sun spots”. He is also one of those politicians who loves to spread his message through such outlets as Fox News and right-wing talk radio, especially in Wisconsin’s wide network of conservative talk-radio shows. The use of the media to disperse misinformation and fervently attack their opponents is a common practice among politicians today in several democratic countries.
Back when Spiro Agnew served as Richard Nixon’s vice-president, from 1969 until his resignation in 1973, he began a predilection for “anti-intellectualism” aimed at appeasing a certain faction of the American population. This attitude culminated in attacks on what Agnew referred to as the “elites” and on the “left-wing or liberal media”. Of course, Donald Trump’s rantings about the media’s unfair reporting of his administration’s policies (fake news) just continued the attacks on democratic institutions. The inability to establish respect and civility within our governing institutions is probably one of the primary challenges in the next few years. We need to have political entities promoting more partisanship in order to help make governing institutions work effectively and democratically.
As the above book points out, no democracy is immune to authoritarian actions which can help to diminish confidence in our democratic institutions at a perilous moment. This danger comes at a time when the health and economic well-being of nations relies heavily on mass vaccinations, the spread of misinformation and when one’s faith in democracy is being shaken by right-wing falsehoods about voting.
FROLITICKS 