CRISIS AND HOPE FOR AMERICAN DEMOCRACY Part 4

George Packer’s book, Last best hope: America in crisis and renewal, offers an analysis of American democracy’s current crisis. He points out that our democracy has gone through similar crises in the past. He identifies key elements of a functioning democracy and four cultural narratives, moral identities, or “tribes” that have emerged in the U.S. They have fractured American politics and society. This post, the last in a 4-part series, discusses his specific recommendations on how we put America back together again.

(Note: If you find my posts too long to read on occasion, please just skim the bolded portions. They present the key points I’m making. Thanks for reading my blog!)

In Packer’s analysis, America fractured in the 1970s. From two relatively stable cultural narratives or moral identities aligned with the Democratic and Republican parties, four rival narratives emerged. Previous posts summarized the narratives of the Free America and Smart America “tribes” here and of the Real America and Just America “tribes” here.

All four “tribes” emerged due to America’s failure to maintain a middle-class-focused democracy and an economy that lived up to its founding principle of equal opportunity for all. Although this ideal has never been reached and has often been violated, without a commitment to work toward it, American democracy cannot function.

American democracy has had near-death experiences before; perhaps, most relevant is the Civil War. Americans have used the same tools of citizenship to recover democracy that we have today: journalism, government, and activism. (See this previous post for an overview of this history and the overall path to recovery.)

We will require a period of detoxification according to Packer’s analysis. It will also be essential to show the American people that government can make, and is making, their lives better. The economy must be governed so that everyone has a chance, not just to survive, but to participate in society with dignity and with a real chance to enjoy life, liberty, and happiness.

Packer states that the first needed step is to repair the safety net for workers and families by building on FDR’s New Deal of the 1930s, including policies such as universal health care and child care, paid family and medical leave, a living wage, solid unemployment insurance, and stronger workplace safety protections. He advocates for improved education for poor and middle-class children, including by moving funding responsibility away from local communities with more state and federal support for local public schools

Second, workers and citizens in the middle and lower-income brackets need to have more economic and political power. A key strategy is to make it easier for workers to organize and form unions, including instituting collective bargaining across whole sectors of the economy, not just with individual employers (e.g., for fast food workers and hospitality workers in hotels). In addition to direct benefits for workers and their families, unions build shared experience, responsibility, and empowerment among diverse groups of workers. Packer also suggests worker representation on corporate boards as is done in Europe.

Third, a new type of activism is needed that builds cohesion and solves real problems. It goes beyond just protesting and embraces working together. The local level, including local government, presents promising opportunities for this. This new activism is emerging and empowers Americans, makes their voices heard, and allows them to act as self-governing citizens.

Fourth, American democracy needs a revitalization that ensures that every citizen’s voice is heard. This means encouraging voter participation and stopping the erection of barriers to voting. Racial and partisan gerrymandering need to be ended. Campaign financing needs to be reformed, including through the use of public funds to make small contributions more impactful.

Packer advocates for significant government investments in key economic sectors, such as clean energy, manufacturing, education, and caregiving to create jobs, stimulate innovation, and raise pay and benefits for workers. A fairer tax system is also necessary to put the brakes on growing inequality. This would require taxing wealth, including an increase in taxes on large estates.

Packer writes that the greatest obstacle to economic freedom today is businesses’ monopolistic power over consumers, workers, and government. He also cites the need for reform of the media which are under financial, technological, and political pressures. The result is an information (and disinformation) stream that is faster, simpler, louder, more partisan, and more divisive. The demise of small news outlets (in large part due to our winner take all economic system) has led to the nationalization of news and politics, polarization of “facts,” and partisanship in everything that is reported. Objectivity is routinely questioned and struggled with in today’s journalism. Fear of hyper-partisan responses and social media firestorms has bred a self-censorship in the media that is more dangerous and less visible than government censorship. All of this leads to less thoughtful journalism and readership. And all of this is exacerbated by the rise of the big tech monopolies in social media.

I encourage you to engage in constructive activism in whatever way works for you. Working on local issues and/or in local government is a great way to work productively with others to address concrete issues that affect people’s everyday lives. Writing letters to the editor of local news outlets is an important way to share information and opinions.

In addition to voting, being informed about and engaging in campaigns for elected offices is, of course, essential to a functioning democracy. Engagement can involve volunteering for campaign work locally or remotely (e.g., through writing postcards to encourage voter registration and turnout). Making contributions to candidates you support of whatever amount you’re comfortable with is also an important way to participate.

I encourage you to contact your elected officials and, if possible, establish a personal relationship with them (and/or members of their staff). This ensures that your voice is heard – even when you don’t get the result you would like. Volunteering for or contributing to candidates’ campaigns helps in getting their attention and building a relationship with them.

Democracy is NOT a spectator sport. If all of us are engaged and act as responsible citizens, in whatever ways we can, large or small, we can revitalize our democracy and its work toward its founding and exemplary principle of equal opportunity for all. This probably won’t happen as quickly or easily as we’d like, and it will happen with fits and starts, but we can make it happen if we all pitch in.