Rachel Maddow shows that Republicans’ refusal to accept the election results has damaged democracy.
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Mado said:
Democracy is deadly, it can be killed. You know, one day, someone declares that we are no longer a democracy, it’s not going to go away. It will disappear when people no longer expect us to govern through democratic means. When we no longer expect elections to be how we decide who is in power, right? The way to lose democracy is to lose our expectation to participate in elections. Because all parties to the election plan to accept the results, right? If they lose they go home, if they win they go home. Once we stop expecting, we are no longer in a democracy in many important ways.
Once one of the two main governing parties no longer believes that elections are binding, in many important ways the ship of democracy sets sail because they are no longer competing on a democratic basis, right? Once one of the two major political parties no longer commits to honoring the election results. Whether they win or lose, democratic systems of government are not harmed, but already harmed.
So what should we do? One way to start dealing with this problem is to stop pretending it doesn’t happen. Threats to the rule of law are not theoretical prospects that will arise at some point in the future. Here they are, prosecutors, judges, jurors and witnesses who now need to be defended because they are now threatened. For example, Georgia’s Republican-led Legislature, which is now defending Fannie Willis in Georgia, is trying to destroy her and remove her from office to prevent her from prosecuting former President Donald Trump for his alleged crimes.
Who is defending her?
Threats to democracy are not some theoretical prospect that will arise at some point in the future; threats to democracy exist just like threats to the rule of law. Now, thousands of poll workers and election workers have been kicked out of those jobs.
video:
Rachel #马多 “Once one of the two major political parties stops committing to abide by the results of the election, win or lose, the democratic system of government is not harmed, it is already harmed.” pic.twitter.com/Wr6jnAxxuO
—Sarah Rhys-Jones (@PoliticusSarah) May 7, 2024
Republicans have damaged American democracy by opting out of an agreement that respects the legitimate will of the people at the ballot box. Once one party no longer respects the legitimacy of elections, big problems will arise in democracy under the two-party system.
Republicans have damaged democracy under Donald Trump, and it’s up to voters to stop them from killing the world’s greatest democratic experiment in November.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a member of the White House press corps and a congressional reporter for PoliticusUSA. Jason holds a BA in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, particularly social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of Society of Professional Journalists and American Political Science Association
