Michelle Goldberg points out a reason that the political system is unresponsive. The dominant coalition of businesses, social conservatives and disaffected working class whites have worked the system to “lock us into a crisis of minority rule”. On economic issues like health care, this means businesses get their way in conflicts with customers, workers and the public. The books “Tyranny of the Minority” and “How Democracies Die” show that minority rule happens because the US Constitution was designed in a pre-democratic era, and the restraints on majorities, intended to prevent abuse of minorities (and protect Southern slaveowners), have been taken to excess. These include the Senate, which gives more votes to small rural states, the Electoral College, the filibuster, and the Supreme Court, now captured by an unaccountable rightwing majority which has declared campaign contributions uncontrollable and authorized gerrymandering for political advantage. Thus, over the past 20 years the ruling coalition has won the presidency and shaped the Supreme Court with minority of public support. The businesses get their way when it comes to making health care a nightmare, taking advantage of customers and workers, or avoiding the costs of protecting the environment.
The result is that democracy is being replaced by a system dominated by the ever smaller number of very rich whose share of the nation’s wealth has drastically expanded, This comes at the expense of the middle, who lose status, security and sometimes health care, and the poor, who struggle daily to survive. Goldberg sees no easier solution than “a glacial slog of constitutional reforms” to create a system better for all stakeholders.
To work, government must involve all the stakeholders, balance power to prevent abuse, provide accurate information to all, provide a civil environment to discuss alternatives, and provide justice that is available to all and that no one is above. All of us have a duty to work to improve our system, and to make the dysfunctions in housing, health care, education and politics better.
Stanley Hirtle is a retired attorney, formerly at Advocates for Basic Legal Equality.
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