There’s every indication that American democracy is definitely ill or even in a hospice. The reasons are complex and possibly insurmountable. Let’s consider some of them:
Flaws in the Constitution. Many people in the US nearly worship the “Founding Fathers.” For their time (note the emphasis), they managed to succeed well enough to get past the Articles of Confederation to a compromise about what’s included in the Consititution. But too many idiots—and that includes the fascist judges of SCOTUS—believe in an “originalist interpretation” that just adds another nail to democracy’s coffin. In brief, the Constitution those Founding Fathers came up with had many remaining flaws (creating the Electoral College is but one example), and fascist elements in our society have found these flaws and take advantage of them. (In other posts, I expound on these flaws a lot more.) And then there’s confusion caused by the vagaries of the colonists language: The Second Amendment does NOT give you the right to own a gun. It gives militias that right. Today they’re called the National Guards!
Incompetent leadership. We see it in every election: Candidates running for office who have no experience and even less intelligence. How often have you voted for the lesser of two evils? Or not voted for any candidate running for a particular office because no one appeals to you? Or, do yhou vote for the nicer gal or guy because they can talk a smooth line and have a toothy smile?
Whe a candidate runs for office, voters rarely know enough about them. That how you people like George Santos and AOC as your local rep, to name two who had no clue what they needed to do when elected and never will in AOC’s case.
Competency doesn’t eem to be a prerequisite to hold office in our democracy. That’s how we get terrible leaders from Chester Arthur to Huey Long and Donald Trump. Our history is riddle with these incompetents, and they’ve been a grave danger for our republic from day one and will continue to be.
Of course, incompetency breeds more incompetency. Too many voters aren’t sharp enough to tie their shoes properly, let alone decide on whether a candidate’s competent. As education levels continue to diminsish (thanks to an incompetent educational system filled with incompetent teachers!), so does democracy.
Lack of compromise. In a representative democracy, this is essential. It’s basically absent now, though. Compromise can sometimes lead to weak policies and even bad ones, of course, with unintended consequences, but it’s much better than the “my way or nothing” attitudes our extremist representatives often have, many like Santos and AOC in the US Congress who champion stalemate. Compromise must be accompanied by a will to make changes if corrections are needed. That lack has plagued our democracy since the Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution, Changes are much slower to come in government than in technology, and that slow correction also helps fascists grab a foothold.
We’re now facing a typical example: With a border deal ready to pass the Senate, fascist House Speaker Johnson is saying it’s dead on arrival there only because the Fascist Party of America’s (aka GOP’s) fuehrer (aka Narcissus le Grand) wants to campaign on immigration chaos. This is typical: Johnson et al don’t care about Ukraine because, like their fuehrer, they love Putin!
Flirting with fascism. And that’s a segue to what could be the sharpest nail in democracy’s coffin: How does fascism even get a toe inside the door of democracy? There’s one simple reason: Human prehistory! Ancient tribes, even countries, often temporarily prospered because they had one or a few very strong leaders, most of them cruel. Stupid people today are just like Ugh the caveman and his friends who admired a powerful leader who occasionally brought prosperity to the tribe via strong-arm techniques (like murdering while stealing from other tribes!). A fascist society often seems a lot more efficient because only a few are in charge and can tend to the chosen few. One can certainly imagine ET societies where democracy is never discovered. Smart members of a society, people of good will and moral backbone, must work hard to make a democracy successful. It’s not clear that Americans can do that job any longer. What do you think?