Faith in Democracy

In historical context, this is a frightening trend. People need to believe in something. If they can’t believe in democratic institutions, with their modest procedures and unsatisfying compromises, they will look for an alternative.

How did we get here? One hundred years of progressivism have left us with a constitutional system that elevates special interests over the public interest. The swamp of progressive government is sapping the vitality of our democracy. But Trump and too many of his supporters increasingly confuse the swamp of progressive government with democracy itself.

History suggests that America, like other great powers before it, may one day enter into a prolonged decline and fall. At some point, it may be impossible to deny that our democratic government has become irredeemably corrupt and is exploiting Americans for the benefit of capitalists and foreign enemies. It will be more and more tempting to conclude that institutions and procedures can no longer be defended, that we must fall back to a stronger line of defense — identity and community — and fight back however we can, whatever the collateral damage to our institutions.

That apocalyptic vision is increasingly common on both left and right. It is the weirdly common ingredient in both the Trump diehards’ worldview and that of Antifa. But democracy cannot be defended by abandoning compromise, just as equity cannot be secured by abandoning equal protection of the laws. Our democratic institutions may be rife with dysfunction, but they are still a beacon of freedom, they still allow hundreds of millions of Americans to live as they were meant to live, and they are still worth defending with our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

HKO

I do not disagree that the administrative state is often captured by special interests, but I do not know that we can pin the blame solely on progressivism. Cronyism and special interests infected our government long before the Progressive Era and one of its objectives was to fight the corruption of special interests. Ultimately they only transferred the corruption from state and local machines to the federal government. Influence from special interests has been registered as lobbyists and PACs.