True democracy suffers under ‘minority rule’

 

Bill Knight column for 11-26, 27 or 28, 2020

 

The old saying – from backyard football rules to United Nations measures – is “the majority rules!”

But some say that’s a myth, at least in the United States now.

“In America today, the majority does not govern,” wrote political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt, authors of “How Democracies Die.”

Most recently, the myth took graphic form, as media showed maps with election results depicted as red or blue states illustrating Electoral College votes for Trump or Biden. They imply overwhelming Republican support, but they’re misleading. People vote, not acreage.

Before Nov. 3, some commentators reminded people about reality.

“In our political system, the majority does not govern,” said Levitsky and Ziblatt in The New York Times. “Constitutional design and recent political geographic trends – where Democrats and Republicans live – have unintentionally conspired to produce what is effectively becoming minority rule.”

Roadblocks to a genuinely democratic republic include the Electoral College that skews presidential results, a Senate structure that grants all states the same representation regardless of population, voter manipulation and suppression, including gerrymandering that essentially lets politicians choose their voters instead of vice versa, and the outsized influence of money in campaigns.

Electoral College: Republican presidential candidates failed to win the most votes in seven of the last eight races, winners instead depended on the Electoral College to prevail. (The Electoral College is made up of appointees equal to the number of states’ congressional delegations.)

“This is a side effect of the Founders’ desire to, among other things, keep a geographically disparate nation united by giving less-populated areas an audible voice,” wrote Philip Bump in the Washington Post. “Now, though, it’s become a cudgel for a political minority to continue to wield power.”

 Levitsky and Ziblatt said, “Normally, political parties change course when they lose elections. But in America today there is a hitch: Republicans can win and exercise power without building national electoral majorities.”

Senate. The U.S. Constitution was written to favor low-population states – small states (especially slave states, influential in the 18^th century) demanded representation to compete with large states. But over the centuries, the South and states with fewer people gained not equality but superiority, a huge overrepresentation of rural areas. Wyoming (pop. 580,000) has two Senators, as does California (pop. 39.5 million).

Both major parties once had urban and rural bases for decades, but now Democrats are concentrated in big metropolitan centers – where most people live. In the Senate, the GOP since 2014 has controlled the chamber although Republican Senators altogether represent less than half the population.

“Democrats easily won more overall votes for the U.S. Senate in 2016 and 2018, and yet the Republicans hold 53 of 100 seats,” Levitsky and Ziblatt wrote. “The 45 Democratic and two independent senators who caucus with them represent more people than the 53 Republicans.”

Gerrymandering/Suppression. On state levels, Republicans have taken control of enough legislatures to create districts that favor them, not their constituents. Michael Schmidt in the Wisconsin State Journal reported that state legislative races there this month had Democrats getting 46% of votes cast for Assembly seats but winning just 38 of 99 positions.

The problem is made worse nationwide by GOP efforts to suppress votes, especially younger, lower-income, senior and Black and Brown voters. Suppressing votes isn’t new. Republican Paul Weyrich (the arch-conservative who helped launch the Heritage Foundation) in August 1980 said, “I don't want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of the people. They never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.” But suppression has increased

Starting with the problem of money in politics – the influence of the 1% in campaigning and governing – advocates to restore “the majority rules” ideal say the Republic needs Americans to enact campaign-finance reform to distinguish between people and money, defend and expand the right to vote, eliminate the Electoral College, and require independent redistricting commissions to draw congressional maps.

Opponents may claim such changes would establish a “dictatorship of the majority,” discriminating against rural residents or maybe white male billionaires. But individual liberties and civil rights are protected by the Bill of Rights and judicial review.

“For Democrats today, winning a majority of the vote is not enough,” Levitsky and Ziblatt wrote. “And a political system that repeatedly allows a minority party to control the most powerful offices in the country cannot remain legitimate for long. Democracy requires more than majority rule. But without majority rule, there is no democracy.”