I was thinking just this morning that some basic tenets of democracy are already in the rear view mirror. Think of how often it seems that ONE person seems to have the power to change the country's direction or change legislation or put a stop to any sort of progress. Trump. McConnell. Manchin. Sinema.
Yes, we often refer to the entire executive branch of government by invoking the name of the president, as in Biden's Build Back Better bill. But that is a rhetorical shortcut that we understand involves dozens, hundreds, and maybe thousands of individuals, all working on different aspects of the legislation.
I often think of how key one guy -- Senator John McCain -- was in maintaining the Affordable Care Act. Of course, in THAT case, one party lauded the wisdom of that one vote. Authoritarianism isn't so bad if you get what you want, I guess.
And we should not forget that 48 of 50 Democratic senators have chosen to NOT become one-person power brokers. Do you ever just shake your head at how irrational and self-destructive our system has become? You would think having 96 percent might be enough, wouldn't you?
One result of all the one-person power plays is that representative democracy is pushed to its limit. Has Joe Manchin, for instance, exhibited enough wisdom and intelligence and morality to be able to make the call on ANYTHING that affects over 300 million Americans? More to the point: is there ANYONE who could honestly claim that their one vote is the only one that matters?
A second unintended consequence of authoritarianism is that 60 percent of Republicans say in surveys that they believe the last election was fraudulent and that the current administration is, therefore, illegitimate. Well, maybe that was the intention of Trump and the rest of the cult, but if a huge chunk of Americans has decided, without any evidence beyond repeated misinformation from a few media outlets, that they can't trust elections, what should we expect?
The most powerful lever for authoritarians is always the mass media.
Logic says that most of those Rs won't bother to participate in future elections. After all, why bother joining in a process that is rigged by some invisible group of power brokers? If they DO end up voting, that means that our worst suspicions about our fellow citizens are true, and that they have bought into the anti-democratic language of the ultra-right. A Republican who SAYS elections are all suspect, but who votes anyway, is betting that his side is doing the rigging.
I am not very good at predicting the future, but here are a couple that may hold up: for years to come, Manchin and Sinema will be models of disloyalty and egotism; and Trump and McConnell will never be forgiven for their blatant authoritarian actions.
And, really, is there that much difference among the four?
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