Monumental amounts of time have been spent by pundits and pollsters across the political spectrum in an attempt to understand what Democrats did wrong this election cycle. They have found reason after reason, each one assuming it was somehow a failure to reach out to the right demographic. However, It would be wrong to think of the phenomenon of Trump as simply the failure of one political party to reach one particular demographic. Instead, what we are seeing is the death of civic virtue in America.
The founding fathers made it clear that if America was to keep its democracy, it would have to find a way to ensure that its citizens believed in the common good. In order for a democracy to function it is necessary for enough of the electorate to be engaged and be willing to look beyond their personal financial interests to focus on the health of the community as a whole. This isn’t to oversimplify the problem by saying there is something wrong with the electorate, it is to say that one must approach the problem of Trump as something more than just one political party winning or losing an election.
If you look closely and listen hard, one theme emerges. Trump was voted into the White House by citizens who were disengaged, rarely voted and consumed very little news. Much of the news they were consuming came from“journalists” who traffic in conspiracy theories. These disaffected voters largely voted for Trump because they believed that his policies would benefit them personally, or because they found his toxic masculinity charismatic. For the most part, they were conned.
Over the years, there has been a slow wearing away of a truly engaged electorate, citizens who truly care about the wellbeing of others, who are voting the way they are for the right reasons. Democracies don’t work when all people ask is, “What’s in it for me?” Democracies need good journalism, critical thinking about the issues, and adept response from citizens when critical norms are violated. Democracy cannot thrive, or even survive, if too many voters vote on the basis of their attraction to toxic masculinity, or because they are working poor and have no time or energy to devote to really understanding the issues. The guardrails of a democracy ultimately do not reside within the judicial branch, or any other branch of government for that matter. The only real guardrails in a democracy are an informed and engaged electorate.
The MAGA movement has a vision for America–a scary, dark vision that must not be allowed to come to fruition. But the greatest problem America faces is a breakdown in the fundamentals of citizenship. The inability and unwillingness of the American people to cultivate civic virtue has eroded American democracy and left it open to attack from within. The only way out now is to galvanize a generation to be what the founding fathers knew citizens in a democracy need to be.
Progressive Without Apology 