Democracy's Design Flaw:

When Majority Rule breaks bad and elects the devil.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

“It’ll be great,” they said. “Think of it … freedom! Freedom for all!”

It was a great concept in theory. Brave men, hopeful women, an intrepid band of seekers yearning to determine their own destinies. “Let us corral our courage,” their leaders likely shouted, “and clamor onto the great ships in the harbor. We’ll fling off these shackles of monarchical rule and imposed religion, travel together to the New World, and create a government that’s by the people, for the people, all the people. One that welcomes everyone’s (well … almost everyone’s) vote, and honors the Rule of Majority. A grand new way of life. We’ll call it … Democracy (with a capital D!).”

And it was a fine idea, Democracy … until it ran into the chainsaw of Donald J. Trump.

Of course, there were buzzing obstacles even before Donald. The nettlesome fact of indigenous people already here and not thrilled about ceding life, limb, and land to marauding seekers. The various skirmishes with various countries all coveting a piece of the “New World Freedom Pie.” The complexity of designing a useful Constitution and Declaration of Independence. There was slavery in all its heinous, hateful, sustaining shame. The Civil War. The Depression. World Wars, two of them. 9-11. The pandemic. Yet through it all, Democracy took the hits but somehow held, with an ever-burgeoning population clear on the assignment: the United States of America may get beaten and battered, but it will always endure and transcend the worst of its history and nature to survive. Huzzah!

But there was one inherent problem buried deep in the foundation of our Democracy. A systemic flaw, a crack, one that couldn’t, apparently, be foreseen in all the grand postering and hearty cheers:

What happens if the vaunted Majority goes full-tilt cult-toxic and becomes a force for evil?

No one expected that. “NO,” they would have declared, “Americans are too noble, too exceptional to ever capitulate to a dictator, a crude, corrupt authoritarian. Especially given the mission of our original quest for freedom, and the countless wise, prescient people who fought to build, refine, and sustain this grand democratic experiment … NEVER!”

Well, kids, “never” came, that experiment blew up, and the flotsam and jetsam are now dripping from the walls of our many iconic establishments while Orange Nero fiddles, his endorsed lunatic billionaire rips out the joists, and red-hatted monkeys fly around cheering maniacally. Instead of “exceptional,” the American Majority has transmogrified into the cult-following of a dangerous, demented demagogue who would fling off democracy like a bad fur to declare himself king and once again impose monarchical rule, a national religion, symbolic burning at the stake of “woke/DEI” subversives, and the generalized tanking of Democracy like so much yesterday’s news. They made that happen, that Majority. Perhaps with the help of Putin’s interference and Musk’s deep pockets, but Democracy’s tenet that “majority rule” determined our elections has been mercilessly ambushed and, however they got here, the MAGA Majority, as one of my rougher social media contacts put it, “Fucked us all.”

That made my heart hurt just writing that.

Clearly not intended or foreseen, the open-door nature of Democracy’s political model allowed that sharp cultural detour … no, invited it. Because as good as it is to be inclusive and brave and full of promise, to give freedom to a population to determine the rules, the mores; the leadership of their country, it appears no one expected insanity to topple logic and reason. It wasn’t written into the Constitution, any bylaws, or the basic playbook of good governance. And into that gap swooped Trump and his MAGA henchmen to take full advantage, not only of that deficit in expectation, but of propagandizing media, capitulating politicians, and colluding business figures. They used it all to manipulate, disinform, and, ultimately, indoctrinate their Majority to take tire irons to those cracks in Democracy’s foundation.

So we stand now, watching as they control all branches of government, alienating allies at record speed, decimating agencies and organizations while unemploying thousands for zero cause; appointing shockingly unqualified, even dangerous, people to Cabinet posts, and stripping away the heart and soul of whatever was good and noble about our country and how it’s viewed across the globe. We’ve been neutered as a world power, and the rest of us, those on other side of the American electorate (which, frankly, is not that much smaller than the MAGA Majority wreaking havoc … no landslide, no mandate), are frantically trying to find footing to reconvene the resistance. Hard to do when every single day some new debacle pulls the rug out.

As for those unforeseen cracks, there are many, frankly, that once Trump has been deposed, will need to immediately be pounded, puttied, and permanently repaired. These include:

• Since no existing law states that a convicted felon can’t become president, we most definitely need one that does. If a felon can’t vote or own a gun, surely having full power over the nuclear football is fucking insane.

• Since the Founders clearly didn’t anticipate a president as fully corrupt as Trump, we now need legal limitations on the degree, reach, and amount of executive privilege and orders.

• Since it seems no one foresaw the repetitive incursion of a hostile foreign power over our elections, this would be a good time to banish the Electoral College all together and redesign our voting systems.

• Since we’ve never before had an unelected, wildly narcissistic, completely out-of-control billionaire given unlimited budget and full reign over every inch of the American government, it would be very wise if, as soon as possible, laws are passed restricting such persons from such activities.

I could go on. You could go on. Likely we all will. We saw harbingers of executive excess during his last term, but in just the first few weeks of Trump 2.0, we’ve discovered so many more holes in the foundation that it’s a wonder the place hasn’t caved in. There’s so much triage to do, heads are spinning, but one thing we must do is think long and hard about how we retake our American Majority so that never again can a corrosive, misinformed, conspiracy-driven, discriminatory, misogynistic, fundamentalist right-wing cabal of cultists determine the course of our entire national and global identity. And I’m not just talking Republican vs. Democrat. I’m talking the fringes, the extremists, the chaos agents, and hate-and-fear mongers. How do we retake the Majority from them?

Philosophers and psychics believe periods of great upheaval and destructive unrest lead to the emergence of new political and cultural DNA, the reformation of old methods and systems; the acceptance that change, new ideas, evolved ways of thinking must be embraced. I don’t know if that’s true, but okay; I’ll buy it. What I do know is that many brilliant people are, at this very moment, diving into the urgent questions of ‘how does sanity retake the Majority?’, “how do we reform Democracy to install bulwarks against fascist usurpation?’ ‘How do we limit disinformative discourse in our media?’ Looking to find answers that aren’t panaceas, aren’t distractions, but real, tangible, effective methods of changing the course on which we’re currently careening.

On a practical, everyday people level, we’ve got to get much more alert and aware of what’s driving political conversations in the real world. Social media has its place, it can be a useful tool, but preaching to the choir has limited impact and clearly the degree and appetite for chaos, hate, and anti-American sentiment was miscalculated by many, some of whom should have known better. They/we need to get out in it, knee deep, and find ways to combat the corrosive influences of Fox News, right wing radio, rabidly partisan politicians, and fomenters of ignorance.

Families need to get more involved in really talking with (and listening to) their kids about these issues, guiding them to do honest, unbiased research, to get more discerning about what’s true and what’s disinformation. Explain the concepts of “greater good,” and cultural empathy.

Teachers, mentors, church leaders—and I don’t mean the ones banning books, flinging phobias from the altar, or rejecting factual history—need to make learning about and understanding how government works a priority, so kids can move into their voting adulthoods with a solid sense of what politics really means, what’s important; solid, basic civic knowledge that offers more truth than whatever Joe Rogan, Charlie Kirk, or Sean Hannity are telling them.

And instead of not talking about politics in group settings for fear of sparking discord, we need to do the opposite: discuss, debate, share perspective on topics, candidates, and policies with people we may not agree with, but need to better understand. That’s a hard one, I know; I’ve avoided that as a matter of sanity and my teeth grind just thinking about it. But we must. Though first we need to learn how to do it sanely and seriously, with controls in place, egos and emotions tempered; rancor and knee-jerk pushback in check. That’s a big one. But not doing has proven disastrous.

Because we can’t keep doing the same things. That’s what got us here. We can’t afford to be apathetic about any of it. Not now, not ever again. We are, in real time, experiencing profound and unfolding damage as a result of too many people’s apathy, grievance, and petulance, all of which handed the Majority to the worst amongst us, and they are tearing it all down. I hope the philosophers and psychics are right, but we don’t know how much we’ll be able to save, repair, and rebuild after the storm is over. What I do know is we will be obligated, if we wish Democracy to survive, to reconfigure America so that our Majority is a far better, saner, more empathetic and fair assemblage than the one currently waving chainsaws through the smoke and dust of their daily destruction.

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