How Could This Happen?

I was working at my desk four days after the election when I heard noise on 16th St a few hundred feet from our apartment.  I knew what it meant — the networks had called the election for Vice-President Joe Biden.  My wife Marja and I began walking down 16th toward the White House.  It was a carnival!  People cheered, cars honked … for hours.

We walked down to Black Lives Matter Plaza, the half-mile portion of 16th St leading to the White House that was renamed by the mayor during the George Floyd protests.  People filled the streets; the crowd seemed huge.  (Almost everyone was masked.) We walked back home up 15th St and people were pouring past us going downtown.

We were celebrating and with good reason.

But through my head runs the repeated question: How could this election have been even close?  Switch 100,000 votes in a few swing states, and Donald Trump would be president for the next four years.  How could this not have been a landslide for Biden?  How could such large numbers of people have voted for a person who

• refused to (and continues to refuse to) commit himself to accepting the results of any free election,
• encouraged violence among his supporters,
• labeled the free press the “enemy of the people,
• attacked political opponents as “treasonous” and threatened to “lock ‘em up,”
• told well over 20,000 lies, many despite incontrovertible proof, and
• expressed admiration for some of the world’s worst dictators.

After four years as president, Donald Trump has proved that he has no commitment to democracy or to the Constitution.  

How could so many people not care about that?

I am not writing here about issues or policies.  They’re bad enough, but I can imagine that sincere people would have different opinions about immigration, race, court appointments and so on.  But how is it possible to want as a leader of our democracy a person who is indifferent to democracy?

My shock over the election is about what it portends for our democracy.  It’s not merely that all the other issues that compose our divisiveness outweigh the concern for American democracy.  My shock is that democracy doesn’t seem to matter much at all.

In the election exit polls the impact on our democracy isn’t even mentioned as important … whether on either side.  In the coming weeks the pundits will most likely discuss the Hispanic vote, the less-than-expected Black vote, Trump’s extraordinary ability to convince others that the COVID-19 epidemic has almost passed, abortion, the country’s worsening financial inequality and so on.  Those are those crucial discussions.  But so far, I haven’t read a single article, seen an opinion piece, or heard any public discussion about how unimportant democracy has become to vast portions of the American electorate … right or left.

I suppose all this should come as no surprise.  I have written before about studies that reveal the stunning American indifference to democracy, especially among younger people.  I am 75-years old.  The polls indicate that over 70% of my generation finds democracy maximally “essential” But one reliable study, confirmed by several others, less than one-third of Americans millennials believe that democracy is essential to their lives.  Other studies show that if the US government weren’t working well (as it isn’t currently), over half of Americans would support one of the following:      

• military rule,
• a strong leader who does not have to bother with Congress and elections, or
• another form of non-democratic rule.      

Right now, I don’t want to think about how to respond to all of this.  It’s just too difficult for me to understand.

It is important, of course, that Joe Biden won this election.  It will give us a breather, opportunity to understand and respond.  We can celebrate … and get back to work.