Partisan dysfunction in Washington is rapidly accelerating, placing enormous strain on the country’s democratic institutions and norms and endangering America’s global leadership.
In just the past few weeks, the U.S. Senate has scrapped a bipartisan agreement to address the crisis at the southern border and provide aid to struggling allies overseas to keep the presidential election on the table.The Senate’s standalone foreign aid bill passed, but essentially died. He was pronounced dead on arrival. By House leaders.
The Supreme Court did not hear a single case this month, but two Case This ties in with former president and likely Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and prevent a peaceful transfer of power. Despite bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress, I voted to agree with Given the fact that Trump incited an insurrection during his second impeachment, our democratic institutions seem paralyzed to do nothing about it.
By the narrowest partisan margin (214-213) and with scant evidence of a “high crime or misdemeanor,” the U.S. House of Representatives voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the first Cabinet secretary in 150 years.
All in one week.
This presidential election year is already showing signs of pushing our democracy to the brink, raising existential questions about the nature of our politics and governance.
How does a president who has shown contempt for the Constitution and the governing institutions that give life to its constraints remain a top candidate for re-election?
What is the origin of the cynicism so deep that it is accepted by many Americans that the president tried to overturn the results of a legitimate election through intimidation and violence?
We are so steeped in tribal hatred and distrust, and so disillusioned with our governing institutions, that authoritarian leadership threatens the checks and balances our founders created to survive and perpetuate the democratic experiment. Will they be willing to reciprocate?
Our greatest leaders foresaw the danger that is now gathering around us. Indeed, in him farewell addressFounding Father George Washington presciently warned that partisan tribalism could destroy a nation.
Washington warned “In the most solemn way against the pernicious influence of party spirit in general,” he said that party spirit “is rooted in the strongest passions of the human heart and is inseparable from our nature.”
“The alternating domination of one faction over another, driven by a spirit of revenge, is in itself a terrible despotism,” he continued.
Washington understood well that the tendency toward political tribalism is in our nature, and that great care must be taken to prevent democracy from being devoured by its destructive forces. He believes that extreme partisanship and division have paralyzed and rendered government dysfunctional, intensifying a downward spiral of public cynicism and disgust, and ultimately leading to the republican democracy that our Founding Fathers so painstakingly designed. It was foreseen that this could potentially damage the system.
“This ultimately leads to a more formal and permanent despotism,” Washington said, noting that the “resulting anarchy and misery” makes “the minds of the people safe in the absolute power of the individual.” He pointed out that there is a possibility that there is a tendency for people to seek rest.
He said, “Sooner or later, the leaders of a powerful faction, more able or more fortunate than their competitors, turn their nature to the purpose of exalting their own position in the ruins of public liberty.” said.
Every week in Washington DC presents further evidence that we are in a race against time to halt an irreversible decline into tribalism that extends beyond specific political figures. But progress has been made in reforming an electoral system that has fostered such cynicism and dysfunction by rewarding hyper-partisanship.
Some states are starting new implementations. electoral system It de-emphasizes or eliminates partisan primaries that allow the most extreme factions of our politics to have significant influence over election outcomes. Other states have changed their general election rules, requiring winners to receive support from their constituents. majority of voters, rather than relying on a simple and ideologically zealous plurality.Still, others are focusing on anti-gerrymandering reform Creating nonpartisan voting districts that do not give one political party an unfair advantage over another.
But those invested in the status quo, or enabled by partisan dysfunction and voter cynicism, continue to place obstacles in the path of reform. They are betting that if they can slow down the reform process, they can maintain a personal or partisan advantage. Sadly, it also means that the benefits will not be immediate enough to restore public trust and put democracy on a more sustainable trajectory in the short term.
In the meantime, we must refuse to succumb to the dark forces of human nature that our first president, George Washington, warned about, even if it means putting aside short-term tribal interests. not. As a people, we must rededicate ourselves to the hard work of reforming and strengthening our political institutions, thereby maintaining faith in our time-honored traditions of preserving the world’s oldest democracy and passing it on to generations of Americans. It doesn’t have to be.
Glenn Nye III is a former member of Congress and president and CEO of the Center for Presidential and Congressional Research.
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