As President Biden affirmed in a recent prime-time address, American democracy is in deep trouble. Many Americans are questioning the health and legitimacy of the electoral system itself. A recent Quinnipiac University poll revealed that 69% of voters in both parties fear that democracy is “in danger of collapse.”
The list of issues is grimly familiar: gerrymandering; voter suppression; the Jan. 6 insurrection; the general rise in political violence; abuse of the filibuster; the power of social media to propagate disinformation, false news and extremist opinions; the ability to overturn voter preferences in the certification process; and the unwillingness of candidates to assure voters that they will accept election results. Responsibility for practically all of these concerns can be laid at the door of Republicans.
To this woeful catalogue may be added the fact that more than 300 midterm candidates agree with former President Trump that the 2020 election was stolen. Their endorsement of the “big lie” undermines public trust in free and fair elections.
Recently, there have been alarming reports of nationwide efforts by Republicans to get conservative candidates elected to offices where they will be in a position to certify state elections. The New York Times editorial board noted, “Rather than threatening election officials, they will be the election officials.” Democrats seem to have only just woken up to this stealth initiative, which encompasses even low-level poll workers.
Other problems stem from the Constitution itself. The two-senators-per-state rule, which ignores population, strongly favors rural states that tend to be conservative. The fact that congresspeople have to run for office every two years is also problematic, because it forces them to devote enormous amounts of time to fundraising, increasing their vulnerability to corruption.
What about the Supreme Court? The parity the Founding Fathers aimed to establish between the three branches of government has now tilted in favor of the Supreme Court. The recent Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade, is just one example of Supreme Court rulings that have dramatically changed American life. In theory, Congress can check the power of the court by passing new laws. But our current congressional gridlock means that new laws can take years if not decades to pass, and many die before ever reaching a vote.
What can be done to alter this dismal picture?
A list of the most impactful changes would begin with modifications to the Senate: Eliminate the filibuster – this would require only a change in Senate rules. More radically, remove the Senate’s right to veto legislation; the analogous step (involving the House of Lords) was taken by the United Kingdom decades ago.
To ensure fair elections, replace gerrymandering with a system in which a bipartisan state commission fixes congressional districts after each new Census. Work to ensure that elections officials, from poll workers to secretaries of state, are elected or appointed openly and fairly.
Finally, place limits on the tenure of Supreme Court justices. Given time, a term limit of 18 years, for example, would allow for the nomination of at least two new justices during each four-year administration. The United States is the only major constitutional democracy in the world that has neither a retirement age nor a fixed term limit for its high court justices.
Winston Churchill once remarked that democracy is the worst of all systems of government – except for all the alternatives. Churchill had a poor view of the average voter’s ability to understand the issues of the day. The major concern of those assessing democracy today is the legitimacy of the mechanisms by which we elect government – and thus our trust in election outcomes. Focusing on the full range of shortcomings our democracy is currently suffering from is long overdue. We can only hope that successful candidates in the coming elections will see this as a challenge worthy of their urgent attention and efforts.
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