The 2024 campaign has just begun, but President Biden Already framed As a fight to save American democracy. That's the same no matter who wins the Republican presidential nomination.
If it's Donald Trump, the threat to democracy is clear.he has already provoked Coup attempt failed oncehe will not hesitate to reject the voters' verdict if he loses again in November.
And if he wins, Trump vowed: Because the Department of Justice about his political opponents, and Please forgive the rioters of January 6th.defines treason against future insurrectionists.
But even if Biden wins, it will only be a relief from our deeper dilemma: that public trust in democracy is eroding.
Last week, the Gallup organization report The number of Americans who say they're satisfied with the way our democracy is working has fallen to an all-time low of 28%.
This national alienation provides fertile ground for President Trump to cynically cultivate “deep state” paranoia among right-wing populists. But Americans other than Trump admirers seem to be more upset about the government's withering power to solve their problems.
The ineffectiveness of this system leaves the Democratic Party facing an unavoidable dilemma. As believers in active government, they need to prove to skeptical voters that they can make government more responsive and effective. But to do so, he will need to confront key party constituencies, including public sector unions and progressive activists bent on making government bigger rather than better.
Why does American democracy seem so broken? One answer comes from Philip Howard, a lawyer and author whose books explore the causes of today's public sector dysfunction. Masu.
In his latest work, “everyday freedomHoward pointed out that since the 1960s, laws and regulations intended to ensure procedural fairness have accumulated, but in practice they have whittled away at officials' authority to do their jobs.
Modern law, he said, has created an “elaborate system of precautions aimed at preventing human error.” Public servants learn that it is safer to hide behind highly prescriptive laws and regulations than to risk using their judgment, moral intuition, and common sense to solve public problems. It has expanded.
No government can codify the “correct” answers to life's myriad problems and puzzles. Citizens have conflicting interests and demands. Public authorities are hired to reconcile these interests and make rational trade-offs that weigh individual claims against the common good.
But instead of protecting individual rights, modern laws weaponize them to prevent such compromises, Howard said. “America is suffering from a crisis of human disempowerment.”
He gives many examples. Classroom teachers without authority to deal with disruptive students. Police departments cannot fire or discipline unscrupulous officers because of their contracts with labor unions. Environmental reviews are intended to create multiple vetoes for opponents and indefinitely delay the issuance of permits to upgrade the country's energy and other infrastructure.
I'd add to his list the larger systemic failures that make people increasingly frustrated that they'll be stuck forever in a government that can't do it.
A dramatic example is the turmoil on the southern border.There was almost 250,000 illegal crossings One month record for December.US authorities announced the following 2.3 million immigrants at the border since President Biden took office three years ago.
The federal government's chronic failure to secure our borders, enforce laws prohibiting the employment of illegal aliens, and welcome more willing workers through legal channels is negatively impacting our nation's democratic capacity. It's affecting me.
The proliferation of large-scale homeless camps in our nation's major cities symbolizes the government's failure to fulfill its fundamental responsibility to provide public order and safety. Last year, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development It was reported that there were 650,000 people He was homeless.
This is partly due to the housing crisis, the economic crisis, and mental health crisis. Most shamefully, our society, in the name of individual rights and “freedom,” puts hundreds of thousands of mentally ill people (many of whom are unable to care for themselves) on our city streets. I threw it out in the park.
Another example is the state's failure to modernize America's outdated K-12 public school system. We are stuck with his early 20th century model of providing one-size-fits-all schools micromanaged by local bureaucrats whose hands are tied by strict union contracts.
Our traditional public school system fails many black and brown students in low-income neighborhoods. Chicago, for example, spends $18,000 per student per year; only 15 percent The percentage of high school students is proficient or better in reading and 14% in math.
American students who attend supposedly “good” suburban schools don't have immediate success.Latest international comparison of student academic performance rankings They rank 28th in math proficiency.
While Howard's book focuses on replacing human judgment with rules and legal procedures, these three examples reduce America's common ground, narrow America's common ground, and undermine the nation's points to new political dynamics that make the position difficult: the rise of cultural politics, identitarian ideologies, and partisan versions of reality. We elected leaders to build consensus on everything.
Nevertheless, both lines of analysis agree that ineffective governance undermines the social trust necessary to maintain a healthy democracy. People who don't believe government can solve their problems are less likely to trust or cooperate with others, and the influence of populist strongmen who promise to help them regain power in their lives. It becomes easier to receive.
American democracy once seemed capable of great things. He defeated fascism and Japanese imperialism, put men on the moon, removed barriers to equal rights for black people and women, and built international alliances and economic institutions that allowed democracy to thrive and prevail in cold climates. . war.
The challenge for Biden and Democrats this year isn't just keeping Trump out of the White House. It's also about getting government working again and working to restore America's reputation as a “can-do” democracy.
Will Marshall is the founder and president of the Progressive Policy Institute.
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