Egalitarianism: the doctrine that all people are equal and deserve equal rights and opportunities
A commentator posted an essay over at OnlySky, ‘We’re a republic, not a democracy’: The origin of a weird talking point, about how the Republican propaganda Leviathan has come up with a rationale to deny that the majority should rule or influence policy in America. That poison is seeping into the propaganda that powerful Republican politicians use to deceive and distract the public. This is more evidence of the anti-democratic neo-fascism that is tightening its grip on the minds of elite Republicans. OnlySky writes:
Starting about two years ago, any Facebook post that called the US a democracy would draw a comment from That Guy, saying, “Its a constitutional republic not a democracy you’re ignorance is embarrassing.” Even if that were true (more on that shortly), where did that very precise, suddenly scholarly phrase come from—and what on Earth is it supposed to prove?
Although this thinly-veiled argument against majority rule has re-emerged for the first in the age of social media, its history extends to the dim recesses of the early 20th century. Whenever political minorities wield outsized power, and that power leads to an outcome contrary to the desires of those who usually get their way, you can count on a pundit or a politician claiming that the United States isn’t actually a democracy. You might hear it when a Republican candidate wins the Electoral College while losing the popular vote, or after a Supreme Court decision that the majority of Americans oppose.
But who is claiming that the US is not a democracy, and where did the practice get its start?
One recent example comes from Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee, who first wrote a 2020 tweet, then an essay, explaining why he believes the United States is not a democracy. Starting about two years ago, any Facebook post that called the US a democracy would draw a comment from That Guy, saying, “Its a constitutional republic not a democracy you’re ignorance is embarrassing.” Even if that were true (more on that shortly), where did that very precise, suddenly scholarly phrase come from—and what on Earth is it supposed to prove?
Although this thinly-veiled argument against majority rule has re-emerged for the first in the age of social media, its history extends to the dim recesses of the early 20th century. Whenever political minorities wield outsized power, and that power leads to an outcome contrary to the desires of those who usually get their way, you can count on a pundit or a politician claiming that the United States isn’t actually a democracy. You might hear it when a Republican candidate wins the Electoral College while losing the popular vote, or after a Supreme Court decision that the majority of Americans oppose.
But who is claiming that the US is not a democracy, and where did the practice get its start?
One recent example comes from Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee, who first wrote a 2020 tweet, then an essay[1], explaining why he believes the United States is not a democracy.
“Our system of government is best described as a constitutional republic. Power is not found in mere majorities, but in carefully balanced power,” Lee wrote. “Democracy itself is not the goal. The goal is freedom, prosperity, and human flourishing.”
This didn’t pop into Lee’s head unbidden. Earlier that same year, the conservative think tank The Heritage Foundation made the same claim. Bernard Dobski, a visiting scholar at Heritage, wrote that
America is a republic and not a pure democracy. The contemporary efforts to weaken our republican customs and institutions in the name of greater equality thus run against the efforts by America’s Founders to defend our country from the potential excesses of democratic majorities.
Dobski continued with a warning against the looming twin specters of hope and fairness:
The careful balance produced by our mixed republic is threatened by an egalitarianism that undermines the social, familial, religious, and economic distinctions and inequalities that undergird our political liberty. Preserving the republican freedoms we cherish requires tempering egalitarian zeal and moderating the hope for a perfectly just democracy.
Majority rule, once the comfortable mainstay of a white and Christian majority, has in recent years become a looming threat as both white and Christian (not to mention white Christian) shrink inexorably toward minority status.
Both Lee and Dobski are arguing against majoritarianism and for a form of minority rule. Such a shift requires a long-game devaluation of fairness, day by day, talking point by talking point. It seems ludicrous until we recall that Republicans have only won the popular vote for President once in nearly three decades. Republicans are a political minority. To wield power at the federal level, they have increasingly relied on anti-majoritarian strategies.
So where did the argument originate that America is not a democracy?
According to Columbia University research scholar Nicole Hemmer, the “republic, not a democracy” argument originated with conservatives in the 1930s who wanted to prevent the country from joining the Second World War. Roosevelt’s call for America to defend democracy drew a conservative response that “we’re not a democracy, we are a republic.” Conservatives revived the argument in the mid-1960s after the codification of civil and voting rights legislation and following federal government efforts to desegregate schools.
“It goes back to the ‘republic, not a democracy’ chants from the 1964 Republican convention,” said Hemmer. “Conservatives rejected the one-person-one-vote standard of the Warren Court, a set of arguments deeply entangled with their opposition to the Black civil rights movement.”
So the argument that the United States is not a democracy originated with conservative thinkers who wanted to shrink the pool of decision-makers in the country and preserve the influence of two rapidly-shrinking majorities that just happen to form the conservative base. It has always been an argument against majority rule, against the voice of the people having an influence in political choices. As White Christians, the core of the Republican Party, continue to shrink as a percentage of the national headcount, these arguments become even more desperately attractive.
“We’re a republic, not a democracy” is nonsensical along the lines of, “A collie is a dog, not an animal.” The United States is both a republic and a democracy. American political power ultimately rests with the people, who elect representatives to carry out their will. The system is inherently majoritarian, and the founders intended it to be. It is not a direct democracy, but that isn’t the distinction this conservative shell-game is making.
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Republican neo-fascist propaganda here is first rate. Truly first rate.
It refers to “that careful balance produced by our mixed republic.” What the hell does that mean exactly? What careful balance, government vs the people, one group of people vs another, or something else? The point of that carefully crafted poison dart is to deflect people toward a false belief that there now exists a balance of power between government and citizens that is about as good as (i) it is going to get, and (ii) should ever get. Republican neo-fascists want power to stay with the elites.
Once again, consider the anti-egalitarian words of Paul Weyrich from 1980:
Footnote:
1. In his essay, Of Course We're Not a Democracy, Lee writes this:
Insofar as “democracy” means “a political system in which government derives its powers from the consent of the governed,” then of course that accurately describes our system. But the word conjures far more than that. It is often used to describe rule by majority, the view that it is the prerogative of government to reflexively carry out the will of the majority of its citizens.
Our system of government is best described as a constitutional republic. Power is not found in mere majorities, but in carefully balanced power. Under our Constitution, passing a bill in the House of Representatives—the body most reflective of current majority views—isn’t enough for it to become law. Legislation must also be passed by the Senate—where each state is represented equally (regardless of population), ....
One of the inconvenient things the propagandizing Senator from Utah ignores is that our federal government does not reflexively carry out the will of the majority of its citizens. If anything, it reflexively carries out the will of the rich or it melts down into gridlock. Majority public opinion has literally no impact on policy. None.
Government completely ignores what the majority want. So when conservatives whine about disrupting the balance of power from horrors like universal voting rights, civil liberties and public opinion, they are actually concerned about power for elite people and special interests first, White people second and most everything else third, fourth or not at all.
The Senator also does not mention why or how egalitarian civil liberties including voting rights would upset the constitutional balance of power. He does not mention it because the balance would not be upset. The House of Representatives would remain the House as it is now. The same applies to the Senate and White House.
Again, the Republican concern is about power for the elites. When the masses have civil liberties under our current constitution, some power flows from the elites to the masses. Republican elites really are neo-fascists, not democrats. They want all of the power they can get away with accumulating for themselves. That is why Christian nationalism is so intensely focused on moral authority and political power for wealthy people. Rich people are rich because they are more moral. That reflects God’s will. Even atheistic laissez-faire capitalists are perfectly fine with that argument because it preserves their power and wealth.
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