Can Democracy Survive Today’s American Public?

Our democratic institutions are fighting to survive, but we are no longer a democratic people

Declaration of Independence, by John Trumbull, 1819, depicting the Committee of Five (John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston) presenting their draft to the Second Continental Congress on June 28, 1776, Wikipedia, public domain. Plus: January 6 insurrectionist walks out with Nancy Pelosi’s lectern, Washington Post.

Where We Stand Today

Commentators tend to talk about democracy in America as if it is something we have now but we are about to lose. I propose we look at the question differently:

Is America still a country capable of sustaining a democratic form of government?

I believe the America that exists today no longer has this capability. Although we have not yet officially abandoned our democratic institutions and legal framework, we are no longer a democratic people. Too many of us have become too bigoted, too hateful, too uncompromising, and most importantly, too dumbed-down to sustain a democratic form of government.

So at least in the short term, the Republican Plan to Destroy American Democracy seems to be working. The cake is baked, they are simply adding the icing and candles in 2022 and 2024.

Let’s review a little history (a history Republicans are in the process of trying to bury). American-style democracy (a constitutional republic, to be specific) was designed to solve the fundamental problem of political power…