Some Thoughts About American Governance

Evidence of democratic decay

“Three years into the Trump administration, American democracy has eroded to a point that more often than not leads to full-blown autocracy, according to a project that tracks the health of representative government in nations around the world. ..... V-Dem’s findings are bracing: The United States is undergoing “substantial autocratization” — defined as the loss of democratic traits — that has accelerated precipitously under President Trump. This is particularly alarming in light of what the group’s historic data show: Only 1 in 5 democracies that start down this path are able to reverse the damage before succumbing to full-blown autocracy.” --- Washington Post, Sept. 18, 2020

The increasing rancor and irrationality of politics over the last ~30 years, especially over the last four years, sometimes leads to the thought that our form of government is irretrievably broken. Some experts are sounding that alarm. Social media is a new toxic power that demagogues, liars, kleptocrats and tyrants can bring to bear. It is making matters much worse than would otherwise be the case. American society certainly has not kept up with antidotes to relentless anti-democratic, pro-authoritarian social media poison.

Is America and its representative democracy effectively governable any more?  Specifically, are we expecting too much of politicians and politics? Is the mess we are in more than any human or political party be expected to effectively deal with? Or, are we just in a phase that will pass and relative calm and order will reassert itself in due course?

To keep such issues in context, one needs to think about it in view of the following relevant factors:

• A society that is presently unable to recognize the things that most Americans have in common to help them work in reasonable cooperation --- dark free speech and other forces intentionally designed to tear us apart, keep us apart and create a deep distrust to block both cooperation and compromise have done the democracy and social and political comity wrecking job quite well 
• Deeply divided government
• Often irrational and reality-detached political thinking
• Often irrational, tribal political thinking (motivated reasoning)
• Government intentionally designed to be hard to operate
• Deeply divided, often irrational society
• Endless, relentless, ruthless and increasingly effective dark free speech that is knowingly intended to foment irrational, unfounded fear, anger, hate, bigotry, intolerance, racism, and just plain stupidity
• Deep distrust in, or complete rejection of, inconvenient science, experts, inconvenient press and news media, political opposition, fellow citizens with opposing political opinions and/or beliefs
• Ruthless, immoral, well-funded special interests, backed by hundreds of millions to buy influence and a supreme court willing to defend the attendant corruption
• A powerful, toxic radical right libertarianism ideology relentlessly promoted by vicious billionaires hell bent on destroying the capacity of the federal government to function competently or even functioning at all (drown it in a bathtub)
• Toxic social media and siloed citizens no longer willing to even listen to, tolerate or accept opposing or inconvenient argument, points of view or facts
• A dominant, market-oriented morality and mindset that largely negates human moral and social concerns in the name of market efficiency and ideals, e.g., immoral meritocracy, that alienate many people and often leads to unhappiness and bad outcomes including our current president and his corrupted political party

When one puts themselves in the position of an American politician or president who is trying to govern transparently, honestly and in the name of the public interest, what can one conclude? Can any politician or party succeed? Can a politician even be transparent and honest and still be effective?[1] At present, who can succeed under current conditions, including Biden and the democratic party?

Assuming the foregoing description of political and social reality is basically correct, it can lead one to conclude that our system of government, coupled with toxic politics and a poisoned society is failing and America is moving maybe irretrievably into some kind of a corrupt, vicious, incompetent demagogic dictatorship-plutocracy-Christian theocracy, accompanied by collapse of civil liberties.

Question: Is that over the top, about right or understated?

Footnote: 

1. I mention transparency and honesty to point out that they are prime targets for political opposition. It is well-known in politics that once a person states a position, it is then subject to both rational and irrational attacks. And these days, irrational emotion-provoking attacks are de rigueur among conservatives. The tendency to be politically opaque is potent and toxic. The need for political opacity poisons congress, as radical right Senator Ben Sasse (R-NE) accurately summarized in 2018:

“. . . . . the people don't have a way to fire the bureaucrats. What we mostly do around this body is not pass laws. What we mostly decide to do is to give permission to the secretary or the administrator of bureaucracy X, Y or Z to make law-like regulations. That’s mostly what we do here. We go home and we pretend we make laws. No we don’t. We write giant pieces of legislation, 1200 pages, 1500 pages long, that people haven’t read, filled with all these terms that are undefined, and say to secretary of such and such that he shall promulgate rules that do the rest of our dang jobs. That’s why there are so many fights about the executive branch and the judiciary, because this body rarely finishes its work. [joking] And, the House is even worse.”