In a previous post I addressed societal illnesses in the US that promote out-of-control gun violence. There are numerous other problems we have, such as voting restrictions, control of government by moneyed interests, economic inequality, racism, extreme right-wing violent actions, poor public education, etc. Neither party—Democrats nor Republicans—has done much to deal with these problems, but it's safe to say that the Republican Party deserves far more blame for the sad state of affairs in this country.
Republicans have fought gun control, promoted fossil fuel damage to our environment, opened the door to our government being controlled by the rich, cut taxes that have thrust many people into poverty and decimated our infrastructure, interfered with the ability of our schools to adequately educate our children, gerrymandered and distorted state elections—so that many minority citizens struggle to be able to vote, created a hostile atmosphere in government, unethically skewed the US Supreme Court so that six of nine justices possess extreme views that are out of touch with the desires of citizens, and much more.
It remains a mystery to me why Republicans have been successful at degrading American democracy as much as they have. On most of the issues listed above, they are very much out of touch with the desires and needs of most of the country's citizens. They force agendas that the majority of Americans do not support. It is a measure of how US democracy has been damaged. By definition, a democracy is a system of government that provides for the needs and welfare of its citizens through their participation. If the government ignores or overrides the needs of the people, it's not a democracy.
Evidence suggests that the Republican Party seriously began its assault on the American government after Ronald Reagan was elected president in 1980. His predecessor Jimmy Carter spoke to citizens in 1979—declaring that the country faced many critical problems. It was dubbed his “malaise speech,” in which he stated that in the future the country faced deeper and more damaging problems than those being struggled with at the time; such as long lines as gas stations, energy shortages, or rampant inflation. He described a “fundamental threat to American democracy,” that was surfacing as a crisis of confidence in the “growing doubt about the meaning of our own lives and in the loss of a unity of purpose for our nation.” We had become a people that valued “owning things and consuming things.” He said that the federal government had become “isolated from the mainstream of our nation's life.” He stated that we must first “face the truth, and then we can change our course.” He went on to request that Americans must relinquish their current wasteful habits and conserve energy by cutting back on car trips, obeying a reduced speed limit, and setting their thermostats lower.
A little over a year later Carter lost his reelection to Ronald Reagan, who campaigned on the slogan “It's morning in America.” Reagan painted a very different picture from Carter—in which he claimed that Americans were embarking on a rosy future and there was no need to trim our appetites at all. It was a comforting message. People preferred Reagan’s slogan to Carter's admonition to face the truth, which was perceived a “fundamental threat to American democracy.” And over the 40 years since we have continued our reckless way, as the Republican Party has continued to push an agenda that denies climate crisis and has brought our democracy to a weakened state.
The party has gone so far that it ignores the will of the majority of citizens. We are in enough of a mess that Republican candidates for political office in November should be routed, but many prognosticators predict that the Republicans will take control of both the Senate and the House of Representatives. It is amazing how one party has derailed democracy and sold lies to Americans. If they are not routed in November, our future will look more like a strong-arm dictatorship than a democracy.
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