Dr. Walter, the world’s leading student of contested elections, has recently noted that the United States today is marked by the three main factors that predict election-related political violence across the planet over the years:
(i) winner-take-all presidential systems with strong presidencies as opposed to parliamentary systems where there is a significant measure of power-sharing between different parties and cooperation is required between parties. In the former system, “losing an election may leave significant portions of the electorate without representation, reduce incentives for inter-party collaboration, and allow the winning side to impose its agenda on the losers.”
(ii) “Government with parties that are organized by race, ethnicity, or religion make elections even more fraught… If your group is shrinking as a percentage of the population, then you can anticipate… the year you will be essentially shut out of the system.”
(iii) “Finally, elections are particularly dangerous in democracies whose institutions are weak or under attack. If citizens believe those in power can manipulate the outcome… then some will believe that violence and even war may be justified. Demagogues and would-be dictators, anticipating a potential loss, can groom their supporters to reject the results, using claims of fraud and calls for retribution.”
Sound familiar?! These three factors are all in place in the USA, where:
A. (unmentionably bourgeois-) “democratic norms are… degraded by… long-harmful features of our political system.” Here Walter mentions gerrymandering, voter suppression, the Electoral College, corporate money, and lifetime judicial appointments (she might also have included the absurdly powerful and malapportioned US Senate, the Senate filibuster, the corporate media monopoly, and states’ rights).
B. The two dominant parties (the “blue” Democrats and “red” Republicans) are increasingly split along racial, ethnic, religious and other cultural (and I would add regional) lines.
C. The Amerikaner Republi-fascist Party is fueled by and channels widespread white paranoia about coming Caucasian and “European cultural” minority status.
D. Trump and Fatherland/FOX News and other parts of the right-wing media have seeded the Republikan base with Hitlerian red-meat lies about a stolen election and immigrants being brought into the country (by the “radical left deep state”) to illegally vote for Democrats.
Political scientists have long failed to relate the well-known (inside academia and presumably in the US intelligence community) risk factors for political violence to the United States, but, Walter notes, “it’s now impossible to ignore that America has all the characteristics of a country at risk.”
Walter offers some chilling thoughts on what political violence will look like in the US if Trump loses: right-wing riots targeting the election result/count; far-right militias attacking “traitors within their own party, Republicans deemed too moderate” (because they “rejected MAGA”); assaults on minorities in red and purple states; ethnic and ideological cleansing of perceived “outside interlopers” in “red” turf.
Walter thinks violence is quite possible after a Trump win, too. Protest from “the left” would yield a “heavy-handed military response” from Trump, something that would in turn “radicalize” many Americans.
Withadr . A Long drawn out article , when the level of corruption has reached a point (beyond Orwellian) that removes 90% any real difference worth debate. All irrelevant corp media nonsense aside - yes : guns, abortion, lgbtq+, race, etc , all enjoy an exaggerated focus from their, editors in chief, conveniently & by design, leaving no room for the actual incredibly popular unifying issues like Medicare for all, long overdue trillions for infrastructure , campaign finance reform, free college, overhaul of corrupted FDA, EPA, HHS, US Mail [fire Dejoy], min wage, Tax code overhaul , eliminate Oil Industry subsidies, Insurance industry regulation, NO MORE $$$ for Starting or Provoking WARS ! These POPULAR issues are kept OUT OF VIEW by the corp ruling class MSM. $14 billion was spent by the Ruling Class corp media owners to ensure (rig) the electoral process, from start to finish, to ensure only candidates they approve of will ever appear on our ballots. Hence, the lack of candidates who possess, honesty, integrity and a willingness to actually act on behalf of the working classes best interests . Stepping back from the long drawn out pedantic political explanations of what is happening, it comes down to the simple fact that the RICH have rigged the whole system to lock out the average person by rendering your VOTE virtually irrelevant . Two wings (Parties) on the same bird .
The Barbara F.Walter piece on post-election violence: https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-weekend-essay/democracy-needs-the-loser.
Dr. Walter, the world’s leading student of contested elections, has recently noted that the United States today is marked by the three main factors that predict election-related political violence across the planet over the years:
(i) winner-take-all presidential systems with strong presidencies as opposed to parliamentary systems where there is a significant measure of power-sharing between different parties and cooperation is required between parties. In the former system, “losing an election may leave significant portions of the electorate without representation, reduce incentives for inter-party collaboration, and allow the winning side to impose its agenda on the losers.”
(ii) “Government with parties that are organized by race, ethnicity, or religion make elections even more fraught… If your group is shrinking as a percentage of the population, then you can anticipate… the year you will be essentially shut out of the system.”
(iii) “Finally, elections are particularly dangerous in democracies whose institutions are weak or under attack. If citizens believe those in power can manipulate the outcome… then some will believe that violence and even war may be justified. Demagogues and would-be dictators, anticipating a potential loss, can groom their supporters to reject the results, using claims of fraud and calls for retribution.”
Sound familiar?! These three factors are all in place in the USA, where:
A. (unmentionably bourgeois-) “democratic norms are… degraded by… long-harmful features of our political system.” Here Walter mentions gerrymandering, voter suppression, the Electoral College, corporate money, and lifetime judicial appointments (she might also have included the absurdly powerful and malapportioned US Senate, the Senate filibuster, the corporate media monopoly, and states’ rights).
B. The two dominant parties (the “blue” Democrats and “red” Republicans) are increasingly split along racial, ethnic, religious and other cultural (and I would add regional) lines.
C. The Amerikaner Republi-fascist Party is fueled by and channels widespread white paranoia about coming Caucasian and “European cultural” minority status.
D. Trump and Fatherland/FOX News and other parts of the right-wing media have seeded the Republikan base with Hitlerian red-meat lies about a stolen election and immigrants being brought into the country (by the “radical left deep state”) to illegally vote for Democrats.
Political scientists have long failed to relate the well-known (inside academia and presumably in the US intelligence community) risk factors for political violence to the United States, but, Walter notes, “it’s now impossible to ignore that America has all the characteristics of a country at risk.”
Walter offers some chilling thoughts on what political violence will look like in the US if Trump loses: right-wing riots targeting the election result/count; far-right militias attacking “traitors within their own party, Republicans deemed too moderate” (because they “rejected MAGA”); assaults on minorities in red and purple states; ethnic and ideological cleansing of perceived “outside interlopers” in “red” turf.
Walter thinks violence is quite possible after a Trump win, too. Protest from “the left” would yield a “heavy-handed military response” from Trump, something that would in turn “radicalize” many Americans.
Talk to the Electoral College of Complexes :)
Wow, what a great piece of writing! You nailed it!
Withadr . A Long drawn out article , when the level of corruption has reached a point (beyond Orwellian) that removes 90% any real difference worth debate. All irrelevant corp media nonsense aside - yes : guns, abortion, lgbtq+, race, etc , all enjoy an exaggerated focus from their, editors in chief, conveniently & by design, leaving no room for the actual incredibly popular unifying issues like Medicare for all, long overdue trillions for infrastructure , campaign finance reform, free college, overhaul of corrupted FDA, EPA, HHS, US Mail [fire Dejoy], min wage, Tax code overhaul , eliminate Oil Industry subsidies, Insurance industry regulation, NO MORE $$$ for Starting or Provoking WARS ! These POPULAR issues are kept OUT OF VIEW by the corp ruling class MSM. $14 billion was spent by the Ruling Class corp media owners to ensure (rig) the electoral process, from start to finish, to ensure only candidates they approve of will ever appear on our ballots. Hence, the lack of candidates who possess, honesty, integrity and a willingness to actually act on behalf of the working classes best interests . Stepping back from the long drawn out pedantic political explanations of what is happening, it comes down to the simple fact that the RICH have rigged the whole system to lock out the average person by rendering your VOTE virtually irrelevant . Two wings (Parties) on the same bird .
Two wings on the same capitalist-imperialist of prey yes but not wings with zero/or difference.
re: True Thing #5. Among other things is the blunderbuss of a senate rule called the filibuster.
#7 you mean? Yes, that's why I say 60 votes required in Senate.
Dems making noise about getting rid of filibuster if they keep Senate, which they won't. But no, they would never do it.
I stand corrected. Scrolling over my own speed limit.