‘A republic, if you want to keep it’

Kenneth M. Manusama

The good vibes of the new Kamala Harris campaign for the presidency of the United States cannot hide the fact that democracy and democratic culture in America has been challenged, damaged and remains under threat, not only in America. The Transatlantic community is supposedly a community of values, but with democracy under siege on both sides of the Atlantic the question is what those values are exactly. Is it still democracy and the rule of law, when the belief in democracy is waning? And if the values have changed, are they still shared?

The political storm that started with the disastrous debate of incumbent US President Joe Biden has spread quite an amount of democratic magic fairy dust. From the moment Vice President Kamala Harris was handed the torch as the Democratic Party’s candidate for president, her campaign was light on substance but ruled by good old-fashioned American optimism. For a few weeks, the Harris-campaign rode a wave of good vibes fueled by newly released energy among Democratic voters after Joe Biden announced that he was withdrawing as a candidate for a second term as president. It was energy pent up by sheer anxiety about the dismal prospects of the Biden campaign against former president Donald Trump. Moreover, the Biden-campaign had been a gloomy one.

As in the 2020 presidential campaign, Biden had focused on the dangers of a second Trump administration for American democracy. A narrative of doom and gloom, even if justified. It had proved to be a successful strategy and in the intervening years, Donald Trump’s authoritarian tendencies – buttressed by a revealing policy agenda called ‘Project 2025’ – have only become more clear and more radical. But in the hands of a flailing Biden, the strategy was falling flat. The American audience seemed exhausted from eight years of political chaos and ugliness. The democracy argument and the warnings of another but successful January 6th failed to grasp the public’s attention or imagination.

With the switch from Biden to Harris, there was a clear change in strategy as well. The Reagan-esque optimism and positive energy of the Harris-Tim Walz ticket is reminiscent of the excitement of American election campaigns in previous eras, but did not match the democracy doom and gloom of Biden-Harris. While riding the Good Vibes wave, the Harris campaign stole even more from the conservative Ronald Reagan. In the blink of an eye, Democrats stole Republican campaign pillars such as ‘freedom’, ‘future’ and ‘limited government’. The ‘Trump is an existential threat to the nation’ mantra is still there, but has taken a backseat, to ‘mind your own damn business’, the freedom to be save from gun violence in schools, and helping out the middle class. Democrats have now linked Trump to Project 2025, the recycled (from the Reagan years) and radicalized conservative program for governance, and threats to democracy are part of it.

Howard Chandler Christy, Scene at the Signing of the Constitution of the United States, 1940 (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Democratic culture

While there is an immediate threat to democracy in the US and elsewhere, it is the democratic culture that has been degrading long before that. Alexander de Tocqueville, in his early 19th century sojourn through the developing nation, observed and praised the democratic spirit in which Americans organized and tackled societal problems. The plethora of civic associations, fraternities and assemblies was illustrative of an emerging democratic culture; a culture in which there is a “desire and ability of individuals in a population to participate actively, individually and together, to the government of public affairs affecting them.” But that kind of democratic culture, with those requirements for a healthy and peaceful democratic discourse, has arguably faded.

First of all, people are comparatively out of practice. Direct participation in the formal governance of society through voting for political offices is still low, although it has been ticking up in the last ten years. The atomization of American society (and Western societies at large) has led to a significant decline in civic engagement and participation. Less and less people are involved in associations such as parent-teacher associations, professional associations such as unions, and other organizations in which Americans participate voluntarily to govern their respective communities. Secularization and participation and engagement in religious communities is also on the wane.[1] Some will even argue that participation in family structures is in decline. And civic education – on why we have democracy and how it works – as well as the practice of democracy in US schools has largely disappeared.

Secondly, the loosening of the ties that bind has led to less interaction among different people and communities. It is a truism that individual, group and community differences have been exploited by political leaders, leading to a polarization and demonization of the other that has been the main theme of politics for about thirty years now. In political terms that in turn is reflected in ‘negative partisanship’: the hostility towards the other party is bigger than the loyalty towards one’s own. Obstructing the other party in government is more important than actually governing.

But it also now commonly accepted that, thirdly, the non-responsiveness of democratic governments to the challenges of globalization has only furthered the alienation between the people and their governments, as well as among the people themselves. As a result, it is democracy in itself that has increasingly come into question. In a survey of twenty-four countries, Pew Research polled that 66% of Americans is dissatisfied with how democracy is functioning (59% being the median), although 77% still finds it best form of government.[2] The displeasure with democracy is most prevalent with younger generations. An Open Society Foundations survey of thirty countries found that only 57% of 18-35-year-olds consider democracy a better form of government than any other.[3] In the Pew survey support for rule by experts or a strong leader is on the rise. In the US, 15% believe military rule would be a good idea. In other words, a significant portion of people in democratic countries is willing to set aside democratic governance.

Democracy of the Wild West

One slogan that has been repeated frequently the last eight years in the United States is that old answer of Founding Father Benjamin Franklin to the question he was asked after the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention in 1789 about the nature of the government that was just created: “A Republic – if you can keep it”. These days, it seems more like “a Republic – if you want to keep it.”

It is a familiar, and a mostly acknowledged but uncomfortable story. Since the Founding this group has slowly lost power; after the Civil War and the constitutional amendments that enshrined constitutional equality; after segregation was abolished by the US Supreme Court and Congress enacted civil and voting rights protections; and after the election of Barack Obama as the first black president that seemed to symbolize equal political participation of minorities. With every step towards equality, their resistance grew more intense and their attempts to use democratic manipulation more flagrant. This story ultimately resulted in unlawful attempts to reverse the legitimate results of the 2020 presidential election and the violent storming of the Capitol building in Washington D.C. on January 6, 2021, in order to prevent the peaceful transfer of power. And for what exactly? To make the United States into something that it never was: a mythical America, not unlike old movies about the Wild West where everyone knows their ‘place’, the federal government is nowhere to be seen unlike God, and people pull themselves up by their bootstraps.[4] Democracy and the rule of law are luxuries.

WASHINGTON, D.C. January 6, 2021: President Donald Trump supporters storm the United States Capitol building (Photo: Shutterstock / Thomas Hengge)

International Order

This MAGA and America First strain of American politics has several international implications. Going forward, should Donald Trump win the coming election, the first question is whether the United States will cease to be that self-proclaimed city on a hill that is considered by some to be a model to others. If not, what does that mean for the international order, the both formal and informal coalition of democratic states? In this magazine, the question whether the transatlantic community is a community of values has been asked before, precisely because of the spectre of a second Trump administration. And rightfully so. But such an administration would not be the only anti-democratic, authoritarian example. Viktor Orban’s Hungary is actually an example to the rightwing authoritarian forces in the United States, including Donald Trump and his vice-presidential candidate JD Vance. And in other European countries, such forces are also on the rise.

The second question in the event of a Trump victory is whether the country will be closed to the world under an America First policy reminiscent of the early 20th century, or whether it will still be a reliable friend and ally in a world of renewed Great Power competition. If the isolationist turn is completed, irrespective of America’s democratic credentials, the transatlantic alliance is in serious jeopardy. Donald Trump has already announced his abandonment of NATO and his general fondness of authoritarian leaders. The call for European members has therefore become increasingly louder to ensure that it can provide for its own security, as well as assistance to Ukraine, in a post-America era. To be sure, even under a Kamala Harris administration, the European theater is less important to the United States than the South East Asia theater and the Great Power competition with China. But a MAGA election victory will most likely bury the guarantee of mutual assistance under Article 5 of the NATO Treaty.

Donald Trump wearing a MAGA cap, 2016 (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

As it is within the United States, if the democratic ties that bind become loose, the transatlantic community may ultimately come undone. Moreover, a more isolationist America with little or not shared values with Europe will only intensify old-fashioned Great Power competition and leave Europe unmoored. And unattended.

The ties that bind

The story of America is that of a teenager constantly confronting its inner demons, while often seemingly unaware of its impact on the world. With the continuing erosion of its democratic culture, America is not only drifting from its own democratic foundations, but also from its community of democratic states. Its turn towards an anti-democratic and isolationist stance will jeopardize the transatlantic alliance and thrust the world even faster into a renewed era of Great Power competition. Europe will be holding the bag, so to speak.

Header photo: Shutterstock.com / gary718

Footnotes:

^[1] Peter Levine & William A. Galston, America’s Civic Condition: A Glance at the Evidence, September 1, 1997, https://www.brookings.edu/articles/americas-civic-condition-a-glance-at-the-evidence/; U.S. Chamber of Commerce, New Study Finds Alarming Lack of Civic Literacy Among Americans, February 12, 2024, https://www.uschamberfoundation.org/civics/new-study-finds-alarming-lack-of-civic-literacy-among-americans

^[2] Pew Research Center, Representative Democracy Remains a Popular Ideal, but People Around the World Are Critical of How It’s Working, February 8, 2024, https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2024/02/28/representative-democracy-remains-a-popular-ideal-but-people-around-the-world-are-critical-of-how-its-working/

^[3] Open Society Barometer, Can Democracy Deliver? September 2023, https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/uploads/e6cd5a09-cd19-4587-aa06-368d3fc78917/open-society-barometer-can-democracy-deliver-20230911.pdf

^[4] Kenneth M. Manusama, Democratie van het Wilde Westen – Recht, Racisme en Religie: een democratie onder druk (2024)

^[5] Council of Europe, Competences for Democratic Culture – Living together as equals in culturally diverse democratic societies, March 2016, https://rm.coe.int/16806ccc0c