A Grand Coalition Against Trumpism?
Democrats and Progressives Cannot Conflate Our Policy Agenda or our Party With Protecting our Democracy
Polling shows that significant numbers of Republicans believe the 2020 Presidential Election results are fraudulent and that Donald Trump was the true winner of the 2020 election. After last year’s Capitol Insurrection, a majority of House Republicans voted against certification of the electoral results despite there being no actual evidence of fraudulent results.
Republicans in state after state are not only proposing draconian voter suppression laws, which are designed to change the electoral outcome in their favor, they are now proposing laws to disregard the choice of voters in their states altogether in favor of what their legislature decides instead. Thus far, only a handful Republicans, namely Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) and Adam Kinzinger (R-Illinois), continue to openly speak out against the Insurrection and accept the reality of the 2020 results.
This refusal to accept the will of the voters is dangerous and unAmerican. It is also quite frightening how many Republican elected lawmakers are agreeing to this philosophy and Trump’s various proposed conspiracy theories. It threatens a potential constitutional crisis in the future.
But as Democrats sound the alarm, we are repeatedly making a crucial error.
In our call to preserve democracy, we are often conflating the fight to preserve our democratic system of government with the fight for our own political positions. Democratic lawmakers extolling the virtues of reforming the Electoral Count Act have pointed out that a majority of Americans support the concept as well as a woman’s right to choose whether to terminate her own pregnancy and sensible gun control.
Some Democratic lawmakers have proposed kicking out members of Congress under Section 3 of the Fourteenth Amendment because they hold views labeled as favorable to “white supremacy” which they argue is akin to supporting insurrection. Some Democrats have compared Republican opposition to investigating the Insurrection with Republican opposition to COVID19 vaccine mandates.
Democratic pundits and consultants have also called for a grand coalition while simultaneously attempting to get Republicans to vote for Democrats. Effectively, using the threat of the end of democracy to try and persuade voters to elect more Democrats to power. The fear of losing American democracy is legitimate but the tactics to save it need to be evaluated.
This begs the question. What are the principles of American democracy?
For starters, our elected officials serve us, not vice versa. We accept the will of the people exercised through free and fair democracy where the candidate who wins the most votes is elected (and in the case of the Presidency, the candidate who wins the majority of electoral votes). A system where citizens are not just allowed to freely vote but have their vote counted as it was intended to be cast. But more than that, we have the peaceful transfer of power. Losers of elections give way to winners of elections.
When John Adams lost re-election Thomas Jefferson in 1800, many outside observers believed American democracy would falter because no leader had ever voluntarily given up power peacefully to their opponent.
Yet, Adams did just that. It began a longstanding tradition that our political disputes would be settled at the ballot box, not with violence.
Another principle that is sometimes counter-democratic but just as important for preserving our system of democracy is the rule of law. Americans don’t settle our disputes in the streets. We settle them in the courts. And our elected officials respect and follow the directives of our courts.
When Thomas Jefferson became President, he dealt with a leftover adversary in John Marshall, who served as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. Yet, Jefferson respected and followed the rulings of Chief Justice Marshall, even the ones he disagreed with.
Our courts help preserve our democratic rights and ensure that individuals maintain their individual rights even when they are in the political minority. Winning an election does not give a blank check to the winner to mistreat the loser and take away their rights.
Donald Trump and his supporters, however, feel differently. They seemingly believe in one thing alone. The power of Donald Trump and keeping him in power, whatever the cost to our democratic system.
Thus, our core fundamental values as Americans are at risk.
But Democrats make a mistake when we also raise other issues where we feel a majority of Americans stand with us. Whether abortion, gun control legislation, the COVID19 vaccine, global climate change, criminal justice reform, or any other issues where Democrats think we have a political advantage.
This is highly problematic. Because while these fights are important and while majorities may feel as we do, they are not the same fight as the most fundamental fight of all: preserving our democratic system of government.
Democrats and liberals/progressives should ask ourselves the following question:
If faced with a singular choice between the two, would I rather live in:
1. A democracy with free and fair elections, majority rule, the rule of law, peaceful transfers of power, and freedom to speak one’s mind on any political matter where abortion was illegal:
2. A dictatorship without free and fair elections, the rule of law, or freedom to speak, but where a benevolent and forward thinking dictator allowed women the rights over their full bodily autonomy?
I’m going to choose #1. You may assert that this is male privilege (or allege that I am secretly pro-life). Certainly, I don’t want abortion made illegal. But I know that in a free and fair democracy, even where abortion is illegal, I can use our courts, our legislative process, and use my voice to promote the legalization of abortion.
Furthermore, I can ask myself the same question with a slight variation. If faced with the choice between the two, would I rather live in a country where:
1. A democracy with free and fair elections, majority rule, the rule of law, peaceful transfers of power, and freedom to speak one’s mind on any political matter where same-sex marriage was illegal:
2. A dictatorship without free and fair elections, the rule of law, or freedom to speak, but where a benevolent and forward thinking dictator allowed same-sex marriage?
As a gay man, I choose #1. And the question really isn’t a hypothetical, because for most of my life, I lived under #1.
If we are to build a grand coalition to preserve our democracy, that will mean supporting conservative Republicans with whom we do not agree. There are Republicans who are pro-life, wear Blue Lives Matter pins, proudly own assault rifles, believe in restricting immigration, and believe in supply side economics. Yet they are Americans who believe in the fundamental principles of our democracy. And they do not support Trump’s efforts to take it away.
But if we do not respect that they hold views different from us, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to work with them and build a grand coalition.
And why should they join us?
If they think that we are as bad as Trump’s fascist forces, and would simply implement our own agenda regardless of democracy if we had the reigns of power, could you blame them for being reticent to join us? We might be as bad as Trumpists are, willing to disregard democracy, the rule of law, and peaceful transfers of power, in order to further our own agenda.
This concern is only increased when we conflate our political values with the basic values of democracy. Our political values are able to exist because of the basic values of democracy. But our basic values of democracy are shared with many of those who do not share our political values. We should remember that in this fight. If we continue to conflate, we will not build any kind of grand coalition and risk losing our democracy.1
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