How Democracies Are Damaged
Doing Damage to Democracy is Way Easier Than You May Think
It’s Time to Change Our “Democracy Paradigm”
For most Americans, it’s a reasonable bet to assume that most of us think of our democracy as fairly impenetrable. That is, it will always stand, even against the most severe assaults and challenges. After all we think, it’s gone through a Civil War and other tests and survived. It has lasted over two centuries. And what about the January 6, 2021 insurrection? Our democracy survived that, right? Plus, we have all those “checks and balances” that we were taught about in our high school civics class that our founders so wisely put in the Constitution to protect our democracy.
First of all, a very strong case can be made that the January 6th insurrection came much closer to success that many Americans realize. That is, success measured from the insurrectionists’ viewpoint. It is only now that the Congressional Committee that investigated this event has issued their report and criminal charges from that event are underway in Georgia and Washington, D.C. that we begin to see just how precarious our democracy was on that day.
Still, most of us likely believe our democracy is safe from most, if not all threats. We tend to think nothing could cause its demise. That paradigm even extends into how we view the scenario of when democracies do actually fail. We think democracy could not fail here, it only fails in those unstable “banana republics” that do not have our deep “democratic traditions and history”.
Guess again grasshopper! That paradigm and the assumptions on which it is based is deeply flawed and not rooted in reality. Reality can be such a “bummer”, but it is time we came to terms with it as it relates to our democracy. Our democracy is at risk and under assault almost constantly. Today it is under its greatest threat and assault since the Civil War.
Yet, most of those assaults and threats are not readily apparent to a majority of Americans. Sometimes they are almost invisible. However, as famed New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra once said, “You can observe a lot by watching.”[1] If we “wake up”, we can begin to watch for and observe the threats that are all around us as well as the damage they are doing to our democracy.
Waking Up- Common Threats Our Democracy Faces
We tend to think of democracy being damaged and eroded by major events, especially something violent such as a government overthrow, a coup d’état. While that occurs to democracies at times, democracy expert Professor Larry Diamond has a different view:
“Over the years, I have found that the greatest damage to democracy is done where it is least visible: in the culture. When democracy withers it often has a lot to do with what citizens, think, believe and value. Pervasive greed, opportunism, and corruption shatter trust not only in government but in our fellow citizens as well. Society then fragments as the poor cling to their local power brokers and try to capture the crumbs that fall from their political tables. No one expects anyone else will behave honestly, so nearly everyone demands or pays bribes, buys or sells votes and watches their backs.”[2] (emphasis mine)
Ziblatt and Levitsky, in their book How Democracies Die, offer their description of the often invisible and gradual nature of damage and erosion to democracy. They explain it this way:
“But more often the assault on democracy begins slowly. For many citizens, it may, at first, be imperceptible. After all, elections continue to be held. The erosion of democracy takes place piecemeal, often in baby steps. Each individual step seems minor- none appears to truly threaten democracy. Indeed, government moves to threaten to subvert democracy enjoy a veneer of legality…”[3] (emphasis mine)
Some Examples of How Democracy is Slowly Damaged
Levitsky and Ziblatt was well as Diamond are correct. Perhaps many of us are too complacent to see our democracy being damaged. Or, perhaps sometimes it is so slow and fragmented that is almost imperceptible to most of us. Yet, the “slow descent” of erosion and damage to United States’ democracy is happening all around us every day. It is going on in plain sight, right before our very eyes. What are some current examples of this democratic erosion and why do they matter?
Example Number One- Political Debates: One of the most recent examples of something that has damaged and thus is a threat to our democracy has been the presidential election process. Specifically, it has been the Republican presidential primary candidate debates leading up to next year’s presidential election.
You may have noticed what a circus these so-called debates have become. You may have noticed that they have been nothing more than a grandstanding opportunity for candidate pontifications, finger pointing, name calling, and other types of ridiculous and childish behavior. All the while these candidates have offered no evidence of presidential leadership ability nor have they effectively articulated a clear vision to move our country forward or how they would tackle the many significant issues facing this nation.
While you may have noticed the degeneration of these debates into nothing more than a clown show, have you noticed how they are damaging our democracy? Have you noticed how these farcical debates inflict damage upon our democracy? The reason they are so damaging to democracy is because they do not fulfill the intended purpose of political debates. That purpose is very basic- to provide the American citizenry with information from which to make informed decisions about which candidate to support. This is a fundamental requirement for Americans to properly exercise popular sovereignty in a democracy as We the People, also called the consent of the governed.
However, if these debates do not provide this important information, the informed consent of American voters (We the People) cannot be properly carried out. The result? Democracy is eroded, weakened, and damaged. Certainly the entire time these GOP primary candidate debates have been underway they have been subject to much sarcastic evaluation by political pundits, commentators, and comedians (and deservedly so). But little, if any, discussion has occurred as to how these “debates” have damaged our democracy. Why not?
One could argue that the damage to democracy is even greater because the GOP presidential candidate leading in the polls has not bothered to attend these debates. It could be counter argued that we already know him as a candidate from his previous presidency. But, the issues have changed, evolved, and new challenges exist than when he left the presidency in 2021. How would he address them? How would he lead? He is older now. Could he handle the increased stress that the volatile world situation with wars in Ukraine and the Middle East now present a U.S. president? All we know is what we hear from his rallies which are every bit as clownlike as the debates he has refused thus far to attend. These rallies consist of name calling and demagoguery. Democracy is damaged even further. Did we notice?
Example Number Two- The Creation of an “Alternate De Facto Oath of Office”: All members of the United States’ Congress must take an oath soon after their election. That requirement is in the Constitution’s Article VI, Clause 3, which says:
The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.[4]
It is interesting to note that with all the discussion now underway about Christian nationalism’s influence on our government, our Constitution expressly prohibits a “religious test” as a qualification for office or public trust.
According to the U.S. House of Representatives’ official home page, “…The founders decided to require an oath for federal and state officials—absent a religious test—in the Constitution, but the specifics—such as the wording of the oath—were left to the First Congress (1789–1791). In its first act, Congress specified the wording: “I, A.B. do solemnly swear or affirm (as the case may be) that I will support the Constitution of the United States.”[5]
The House of Representatives’ web site further explains that “…The form of the oath has changed several times since that first act of Congress. During the Civil War, Congress mandated that the oath bar from office anyone who had been disloyal to the Union. Eventually, those elements of the “iron-clad” oath were dropped during revisions in 1868, 1871, and 1884. The oath used today has not changed since 1966 and is prescribed in Title 5, Section 3331 of the United States Code.”[6] The current oath for House members is as follows:
“I, AB, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”[7]
It should be noted that the phrase “so help me God” has been part of the official oath of office for non-presidential offices since 1862.[8] It bears emphasizing this oath is to “support and defend” our Constitution. It is not an oath of allegiance or loyalty to any individual or political party.
When the recent new House Speaker Mike Johnson was elected by the Republican House majority, something interesting happened. This is a major point in light of all the requirements in our Constitution and Federal Code regarding a House member’s oath of office. However, what came to fruition was major disagreement amongst House Republicans about who should serve as Speaker. As they went through consideration of several possible candidates from their ranks, it became apparent that another requirement was being added besides the oath of office- it required being a denier as to who won the 2020 presidential election.
This was an unambiguous “bow of the knee” of fealty to former president Donald Trump, leader of the Republican Party. While this was not a formal oath, it was a “de facto” one. As various Republican House candidates put themselves forward for consideration as Speaker, this became more and more apparent, to the point no one could deny that one had to be an election denier to get elected as Speaker. Those who had not gone on the record publicly denying Joe Biden’s 2020 election win figured out they “need no longer apply” because they had not taken what amounted to an amended oath of office. Those Republican candidates simply did not have the votes to become Speaker. Mike Johnson (R- Louisiana) ultimately won out. Johnson is a clear an election denier who led the fight in late 2020 to try to keep Donald Trump in office against all the facts and evidence that Trump had indeed lost the election. In effect, Johnson took this de facto “add-on oath” by his willingness to be an election denier.[9]
The counter argument here is to take the position that determining if a House Speaker candidate is an election denier is part of ascertaining their policy stances and political ideology. But, is being an election denier the same as being a conservative, liberal, or whatever one’s political stance or ideology is? They are not the same. What is going here is very dangerous. The basis for wanting a House Speaker that is an election denier is that it creates the “next bridge for them to cross” which is to believe the January 6th insurrection was justified because of “election theft”. And, if one believes Trump lost because of election theft, he did not actually lose. One believes he should still be president. That is the dysfunctional logic in play here. Creating an “alternate de facto” oath of office does significant damage to democracy.
Did you notice this? The radicalized Republican Party now controlling the House of Representatives added, from a practical standpoint, to the oath of office for the House Speaker. This “oath addendum” requires blind loyalty to a person (the GOP leader, former president Trump). The GOP leader demanded a House Speaker willing to pledge loyal to him via the denial of the 2020 presidential election, overriding the Constitution’s oath of office for elected officials, an oath to the Constitution alone. While one could argue being an election denier hurt Jim Jordan’s (R-Ohio) chances to become House Speaker, eventually those who did not agree with this “de facto oath”, gave way. Other candidates who were not election deniers never had a chance. Mike Johnson became the new House Speaker.
Score one for the opponents of democracy. Democracy is damaged.
Example Number Three- Replacement of Key Democratic Norms: Our democracy, in addition to the Constitution and our laws, relies on unwritten norms and values to act as “guard rails” to help keep our democracy functional. Levitsky and Ziblatt argue that democratic norms and values are more than someone’s personal disposition or reliance on personal character, they are:
“…shared codes of conduct that become common knowledge within a community of a society- accepted, respected, and enforced by its members. Because they are unwritten, they are often hard to see, especially when they’re functioning well. They can fool us into thinking they are unnecessary. But nothing could be further from the truth. Like oxygen or clean water, a norm’s importance is quickly revealed by its absence. When norms are strong, violations trigger expression of disapproval, ranging from head-shaking and ridicule to public criticism and outright ostracism. And politicians who violate them can expect to pay a price.”[10] (emphasis mine)
This is all past tense now. Those who violated our democratic norms and values used to pay a price for not observing them. But, they do not pay much of a price anymore. Today usually no price is paid at all for their violation. Perhaps no greater damage has been done to our democracy by the violation of the democratic norms of mutual toleration and forbearance. Levitsky and Ziblatt believe these two democratic norms have done more to “undergird” our democracy than any democratic norm.[11]
Mutual toleration is the understanding that competing parties accept one another as rivals. Forbearance rests on the idea that politicians should exercise restraint in deploying their institutional prerogatives, even when they have the right to do so.[12] How these two norms work is fairly simple. They are an acknowledgement by those in our political arena that their political opposition, while still very much disagreed with, deserve, and must have a place at the table of governance.
Instead, today political adversaries are often treated as enemies. As such, the replacement political norm for mutual forbearance and mutual toleration is to believe that one’s political opponent must not only be defeated electorally, they must be destroyed. They now are scum. They are, as former president Trump has stated recently, vermin.[13] Not only is there no mutual toleration or forbearance, there is now only political attacks and vitriol. This is more than political polarization, as harmful as that has been to democracy. It is political warfare of the gravest kind. It will be left up to the reader where they believe this intolerance has come from, although it is fairly easy to identify. But, make no mistake, without political parties that can “disagree agreeably”, democracy suffers immense damage. Have you noticed this damage?
Is Democracy Sliding Away?
Many more examples of often little noticed democratic damage and erosion occurring “in the light of day” could be cited. But, at this juncture, it is likely the reader is getting the point. The question then becomes for us, do we love our democracy enough to save it? Do we love it enough to put aside political differences to come together to prevent further damage to our democracy in order to prevent its collapse into oligarchy, autocracy, authoritarianism? Can we prevent it from being converted into a fascist regime?
It is important to point out that far more often democracies fall because those that have taken them over utilize the structure of democracy to achieve power. We have seen this done most recently in Hungary and Turkey. Democracy is first used by these leaders to get elected. Once elected they go to work using democratic institutions and structures to dismantle democracy to stay in power. What they replace democracy with is some form of strongman, authoritarian rule. The concept of self-government, of popular sovereignty by a civically informed We the People providing the consent of the governed is jettisoned. Democracy vanishes. All decisions are then made by the strongman’s autocratic regime. Citizens no longer are involved in their government. They become the ruled.
But ultimately, the damage to democracy, as slow as it may be, is done by us. Diamond describes how we allow it to happen:
“Slow descents have a way of lulling us into complacency. Things aren’t so bad, we tell ourselves, they’re just slipping a bit. But we ignore gradual decay to our peril. In Ernest Hemmingway’s The Sun Also Rises, the freewheeling, hard-drinking Mike Campbell is asked how he went bankrupt. “Two ways,” he says. “Gradually and then suddenly.” The demise of democracy is often like that too.”[14] (emphasis mine)
Start noticing democratic erosion and damage, and when you do, ask yourself this- what can we do about it? Can we afford to do nothing?
Stay tuned…we will continue exploring topics like this one that are not given near enough time and emphasis in our civic education efforts, if they are even taught at all.
Democracy is so important. But it’s hard to keep, and it’s easy to lose. It’s up to us, and only us, to protect it.
[1] Yogisms: Yogi Berra's best sayings (mlb.com)
[2] Ill Winds, Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency, by Larry Diamond, Copyright 2019, pp 22-23, Penguin Press, Penguin Random House LLC
[3] How Democracies Die, by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, Copyright 2019, pg. 77, Penguin Random House LLC, New York.
[4] The Constitution, The Essential Users Guide, pg. 106, Copyright 2016 Time Inc. Books, Published by Liberty Street, an Imprint of Time Inc. Books, 225 Liberty Street New York, NY 10281
[5] Oath of Office | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives
[6] Oath of Office | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives
[7] Oath of Office | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives
[8] Oath of Office | US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives
[9] Election Denialism Is the GOP's New Litmus Test, by David A. Graham, The Atlantic, October 25, 2023.
[10] How Democracies Die, by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, Copyright 2019, pp 101-102, Ibid
[11] How Democracies Die, by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, Copyright 2019, pp 8-9, Ibid
[12] How Democracies Die, by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, Copyright 2019, pp 8-9, Ibid
[13] “Trump’s Fascist Rhetoric Only Emphasizes the Stakes in 2024, by John Cassidy, November 14, 2024, The New Yorker, https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/trumps-fascistic-rhetoric-only-emphasizes-the-stakes-in-2024
[14] Ill Winds, Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition, and American Complacency, by Larry Diamond, Copyright 2019, pg. 288, Ibid.