Of Course Democracy Is on the Ballot
Giving more power to an authoritarian party is dangerous.
Over the
past few days, conservatives thrilled to Elon Musk’s attempts to make Twitter’s
content-moderation policies more friendly to the Republican Party, then
agonized as a slew of corporations — fearing the site would no longer provide a
congenial environment — withdrew advertising. In retaliation, a series of
leading Republicans threatened to punish those firms. Advertisers leaving
Twitter “are begging to sit in front of a House panel next year to discuss
their company’s participation in leftist corporate extortion,” warned Josh Holmes, a lobbyist and adviser
to Mitch McConnell. “Major corporate advertisers ought to think twice before
entering the political arena,” added Senator Tom Cotton. Mike Davis, a
conservative activist, proposed that an offending firm “should
plan for intense congressional oversight in January, when Republicans reclaim
the House and Senate.”
The
episode illustrates two important things about the election. The first is how
deeply illiberal ideas about government have
penetrated the Republican Party. Not long ago, it would have been considered
axiomatic that private firms have the right to spend their advertising dollars
where they see fit. Now many conservatives believe the government can bully
them into subsidizing friendly platforms. To be clear, they don’t believe the
government has a general right to do this — they would respond volcanically if
Democrats tried it — but instead believe their party does not need to follow any
shared set of rules or norms. Davis, the former chief counsel for nominations
to Charles Grassley (i.e., not some random crank), was asked what crime they
would be answering for and replied menacingly, “That’s how principled
conservatives (who love to lose) think. New Right plays by the Left’s rules.”
The
second and more immediate ramification of this little set piece is a practical
one. As Holmes and Davis note, it’s not until January that Republicans would
not have the ability to punish firms that withdraw advertising from platforms
controlled by their allies. As most observers expect, the midterm elections
will hand Republicans control of one or both chambers of Congress, giving them this
power. This is merely one very clear and immediate way in which the elections
will help either stave off or advance the rise of authoritarianism.
The
Democratic Party’s pleas that “democracy is on the ballot” has provoked a fair amount of sneering, including from conservatives who
oppose Donald Trump. (It has also drawn eye rolls from Biden supporters who object that it’s an
ineffective message. While I concede that it is, my job is not driving messages
but describing reality as I see it.)
And it is
true that democracy is not on the ballot in the sense of the election being a
yes-no referendum on democracy versus dictatorship. But this is because the
binary construct between democracy and dictatorship is a figment of the popular
imagination. These forms of government exist on a continuum. And it seems
highly obvious that the Republican Party’s success in the elections will push
the country further along the continuum toward authoritarianism — perhaps just
a little or, depending on the unpredictable course of events, perhaps
decisively.
The most
obvious ramifications for democracy lie in those races where Republican
candidates for governor and secretary of state who openly support Trump’s
election claims are vying for direct control of the election apparatus. It is
difficult to predict the effect on 2024 of, say, a Doug Mastriano or a Mark Finchem having legal authority over
the elections, but the downside risk is enormous.
The
“democracy is on the ballot” skeptics are generally ignoring these contests and
instead referencing races for Congress. But here, too, the elections pose a
significant peril. The most obvious is that the 2024 election may again come
down to a congressional vote to authorize the results of the Electoral College
or to pick between competing slates of electors. In 2021, that vote was a
formality, but a Congress controlled by Republicans would likely offer a
Republican election challenge more than gestures of support.
More
broadly, the split in the Republican Party right now is between candidates who
loudly endorse Trump’s claim to have legitimately won the election and those
who refuse to take any position on the issue. It is the nature of political
parties to seek internal unity. They may not necessarily be controlled by their
most extreme elements, but they are influenced by them and need to placate
them. Over the past two years, the Republican Party has grown significantly
more radical on the issue of democracy. The Trumpian belief that Democratic
election victories are inherently illegitimate is now a foundational element of
party doctrine.
Conservatives
have become increasingly fond of repeating some version of the old reactionary
formulation that the United States is “a republic, not a democracy.” Senator Mike Lee, for instance, has explicitly
stated his belief that democracy is dangerous and bad. Lee happens to be up for
election in Utah this year. At minimum, the skeptics ought to concede that
democracy is on the ballot in the election pitting a democracy activist against a man who says,
“Democracy isn’t the objective,” and warns that
“rank democracy can thwart” liberty and prosperity.
Yet
conservatives are somehow managing to simultaneously sneer both at democracy
and at the notion that giving them power poses any threat to democracy. At a
rally this weekend, Arizona attorney-general candidate Abe Hamadeh — an open
supporter of Trump’s election lies — mockingly cited a Los Angeles Times story
warning that the state was on the cusp of authoritarianism. “Good!” shouted one supporter. This kind of
doublethink is a familiar element of the authoritarian style.
It is
obviously true that politics won’t end if Republicans win the midterms. Nor
will it end if they gain control of the government in 2024 and carry out their
Orbanist blueprint. Yet sliding down the path to authoritarianism is nonetheless a
horrifying prospect. And to fail to see how handing more power to an
authoritarian party can pose a threat to the republic takes an almost willful
blindness.