“The 360” shows diverse perspectives on the day’s main news and debates.
What is happening
Since the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, Democrats have persistently argued that former President donald trump and his supporters in the Republican Party pose a unique threat to the stability of American democracy.
Despite all these warnings – and the presence of at the polls across the country – voters do not appear to be treating perceived threats to the electoral system as a key issue in the November midterm elections.
It’s not that they don’t believe the threats are real, but they largely consider them less important than other problems. On a released earlier this month, 71 percent of voters said they believe democracy is at risk, but just 7 percent said they see it as the most important issue facing the country.
Part of the reason for the disconnect is that a significant portion of those who worry about the validity of the elections are Republican voters who believed Trump’s thoroughly debunked claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent. But even among Democratic voters, protecting democracy consistently ranks below issues like the economy and inflation.
Many election experts say there is ample reason to believe Democrats’ concerns about the future of U.S. democracy are well founded. In addition to documented efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election, about 60% of Americans will have a , according to a count compiled by FiveThirtyEight. Some of these candidates are running for positions such as , It is , which would give them significant power over how elections are conducted in their states if they win. There were also a series of reports detailing how It is may be preparing to undermine voting procedures next month.
Why is there debate?
If the fate of American democracy itself is up for vote, how Democrats have repeatedly warnedSo why do voters seem to be prioritizing other issues?
The most commonly raised explanation, by experts across the political spectrum, is that voters always place more emphasis on issues that directly affect them. They say that inflation, crime, gas prices and other things people experience in their everyday lives resonate more than abstract concepts like democracy.
Many left-wing pundits have also argued that in the two years since Trump tried to overturn the election, Americans have gradually become desensitized to the Republican Party’s antidemocratic actions. Others blame the media for treating the campaign to undermine democracy as just another partisan issue that should be viewed from the same “both sides” perspective as debates over tax rates and health care policies.
Many Republicans that the 2020 election was stolen. But even among the minority of conservatives who accept that Joe Biden’s victory was legitimate, there is a widely held view that Democrats have exaggerated the danger the Republican Party poses to democracy — to the point that voters have largely ignored them. Others on the right argue that Democrats have lost any opportunity to make that case by allowing problems like inflation and crime to become mainstream issues.
What is the next
Most election-denying Republican candidates are running for seats in deep red districts and are . But some of the most important races are taking place in swing states like Pennsylvania, Arizona and Nevada and are expected to be extremely close on Election Day.
Perspectives
Many voters consider Trump the only true danger to democracy
“As we have seen throughout this campaign cycle, Democrats are trying to run against Donald Trump, who has not been in office for 21 months. But that won’t be enough when pocketbook/kitchen table issues crowd out everything else, especially in Senate and House races.” -João Concha,
Americans have gradually become desensitized to the threats facing democracy
“There’s something bigger going on here than just the usual political unrest, or even the idea that voters are more motivated by pocketbook issues than amorphous issues like a potential future need for abortion. Voters are adapting to authoritarianism. And this doesn’t just portend a bad outcome for Democrats in November; suggests that America’s democratic future is at acute risk.” -Jill Filipovic,
Many voters lost faith in American elections years ago
“The bottom line is that democracy itself is widely viewed as so broken that Trump’s deliberate effort to shatter it through an act of insurrection is being accepted by an alarming percentage of the population as just another warning sign. They do not see this as anything more significant than ineffective anti-inflationary policies, rather than as a unique threat to our system of self-government.” -Ed Kilgore,
Few voters recognize the threat facing democracy
“Liberal democracy will not return unless people are willing to fight on its behalf. The problem is that many who grow up living in peaceful, prosperous liberal democracies begin to take their form of government for granted.” -Francisco Fukuyama,
It should come as no surprise that voters are unconvinced by Democrats’ warnings
“Why are Americans more concerned about inflation than the doomsday predictions of the partisan press and their surrogate counterparts in the MAGA world? Because, quite sensibly, they believe that only one of these problems is real.” -Charles CW Cooke,
Overuse has turned warnings into a meaningless cliché
“The phrase ‘threat to American democracy’ is so common these days that it hardly has any meaning.” -Emily B. Finley,
Democrats failed to keep the issue on voters’ minds
“Although the president has claimed that Trump’s ‘MAGA’ fans have embraced ‘semi-fascism’ and some Democratic campaigns have run ads warning of an autocratic Republican Party, Democrats are trying much harder against the rollback of abortion rights by the Supreme Court’s conservative majority and its new law cutting some prescription drug costs. -Stephen Collinson,
The media is not making clear the danger to voters
“The results of next month’s vote will determine whether there will be more real elections in the future. …And yet these issues are almost entirely absent from mainstream political reports and, apparently, from the minds of swing voters who will decide control of Congress and state offices across the country.” -Ryan Cooper,
The news media treated attacks on democracy as just another partisan debate
“As the media attempts to cover both parties equally critically, the story of U.S. politics today is often portrayed as an extremist Republican Party facing an almost as extremist Democratic Party dominated by overeducated elites who are hostile to the values of the average. Americans and leaves them no choice but to vote Republican. But this is an attempt to turn a one-sided problem into a two-sided problem.” -Perry Bacon Jr.,
Voters always prioritize concrete issues that directly affect them
“Americans today – and particularly the swing voters who are so assiduously watched and courted – are not impressed by abstract ideas, distant crises, or problems scheduled to materialize at some point in the future. With a few exceptions, they are focused on the here and now. Pocket issues. Quality of life issues. Better schools. Safer streets. The cost of living.” -Nicholas Goldberg,
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Photographic illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Samuel Corum/Getty Images
