This is not what functioning democracy looks like

The GSA has allowed the transition to begin. 

But let’s all be crystal clear- no one should be celebrating the outcome of the election as the victory of a democratic political system over a President who overstepped his bounds. Looking at you, New York Times.

A significant proportion of the political elite within or affiliated with the Republican Party (yes, including lawyers, donors and media figures) supported attempts to subvert the outcome of the election. Many of them are still supporting subversion, either overtly or through their silence.

They supported recounts, audits and legal actions despite no evidence of fraud- in places where the vote was not close and even in places where Republicans further down the ticket were elected by the same ballots they disputed. Just sit with that for a moment- in some cases Republican supporters argued to reject their own ballots and disenfranchise their own voters.

In contrast to all the fuss about non-existent fraud, the same people have long supported voter suppression efforts that target voters of color, particularly Black voters. In the run up to this election, Republicans closed polling places because they thought it would prevent Black people from voting. 

In the past few years they have challenged measures like same day voter registration and non-partisan election boards. They even opposed postal voting and tried to damage USPS, which, in theory, would hurt them just as much or more than Democrats. What are they afraid of?

Fundamentally, they do not believe that they can sell their ideals to a majority of American voters. Specifically, they do not believe they can win with non-white voters. 

That’s not surprising. The Republican Presidential candidate is aligned with white supremacists. He has publicly expressed racist views on many occasions. He supported state sanctioned violence against Americans protesting police brutality. 

Voters of color have diverse political views. But as rational human beings they are not going to vote for a regime that expresses hate towards them and poses a credible physical threat. The Democrats are not somehow destined to get these votes, they are a less bad alternative.

In this election, Republican allies championed anti-democratic ideas, including distinguishing ‘the republic’ from democracy, arguing that legislators should override the popular will to choose electors loyal to Trump, and supporting arguments that canvassers should refuse to certify election results. 

In case you think this is all rhetoric- In Wayne County, Michigan canvassers originally refused to certify the election. One offered to certify the election in parts of the county except (the majority Black city of) Detroit. If you are not from here and you don’t realize how insane and prejudiced that is, note that about 40 per cent of people in Wayne County are Black but that about 80 per cent of people in the Detroit subdivision are Black.

Michigan’s election certification system is designed on the principle of equal partisanship, with the two sides keeping each other in check. But what happens when one side refuses to play the game? 

Michigan has one of the tightest electoral laws in the US. It makes clear that state canvassers MUST certify the election if the counties certify. Yet one of the Republican canvassers still abstained. Now imagine this scenario in a different, tighter election, in a swing state with less clear electoral law.

Legislators in places like Michigan did not save democracy by doing ‘the right thing’. The right thing would have been to accept that Biden won. To publicly disagree, at an early stage, with those who were promoting baseless claims of fraud. The right thing would have been to isolate Trump within the party, not visit him at the White House.

Some (but by no means all) Republican allies changed their minds when it became clear that efforts to stall the election and loyalty to Trump were hurting more than helping their electoral chances (in Georgia and nationally in future races). They listened to donors who threatened to withdraw funding. They did not listen to voters. 

The smarter ones realized that discrediting the democratic system and stoking conspiracy theories is not a good move when you need the votes of conspiracy theorists in an upcoming tight election. They did not have a sudden change of heart and rush to the defense of democracy.

Nor did the courts act as a counter majoritarian power to the executive. Republicans’ claims were so baseless that their lawyers spent their time in court trying not to lie in front of the judge. That has not stopped them from lying to the media and the public. In a tighter election (which may well be the next one) this may have turned out differently.

And the Presidency is not necessarily as constrained by these other branches as some political scientists would like you to believe. The President has a lot of emergency powers and Congress has not acted to constrain them despite years of opportunity. 

Extreme loyalty to Trump across branches, a symptom of the nationalization of US politics, acts against the separation of powers. The President is only held in check by other branches of government IF they act to do so.

Trump has also demonstrated the extensive power of the President’s bully pulpit over the national discourse. As a President, he did not enact much policy. But he didn’t have to in order to be seen by supporters to deliver. He has defined a legacy without needing Congress very much at all. 

The same cannot be said for Democrats, who often have to rely on Congress to deliver for supporters by enacting and funding big programs.

Our political system continues to fail to curb the consequences of hyper-partisanship. A two party system with extreme partisan loyalty is degrading the fundamental consensus that should underpin democracy- the basic idea that power should regularly change hands via a system of mutually agreed upon rules and norms, without threat of violence or incarceration against political opponents.

When one party decides not to play by the democratic rules of the game, it empowers others to break the rules, including those who would use violence. 

If you’re thinking at this point ‘all this talk of violence is overblown’, tell it to Governor Whitmer, who was the target of a recent militia plot to carry out a public execution and sow political chaos. Tell it to the Michigan canvassers who have received threats against themselves and their families.

TLDR: Don’t be fooled by commentators who desperately want a transition to ‘normal politics’, whatever that means. The significant flaws in the US political system persist and until we fix them they will continue to cause suffering and uncertainty.

Disenfranchisement, state sanctioned violence, false claims, refusal to concede supported by a large part of a mainstream political party. This is not what functioning democracy is supposed to look like. You should be concerned.