Yes, democracy is on the ballot.
One hesitates to say this. It has, after all, become rather a cliche to note that the American experiment in self-government faces a moment of truth with Tuesday’s midterm elections. President Biden, former President Obama, Speaker Pelosi, Rep. Schiff and pundits, editorial pages and state lawmakers from Sacramento to Albany to Detroit to Phoenix to Palm Beach have all issued the same stark warning.
Democracy is on the ballot, they say.
The problem with cliches is that when you hear a thing repeatedly you often stop hearing it at all. So one wonders how many of us hear those words and understand them to mean this country faces an existential emergency as grave in its way as those it faced in 1861 and 1941. Perhaps we ought not be surprised some of us miss this. No matter what happens Tuesday, after all, we will not wake up to find foreign troops in Akron. The electricity will still work in Kansas City. There will be no refugees from Miami, no bomb craters in Times Square.
But that’s not to say that we will wake up and things will be just fine. No, we may find that dozens of right-wing extremist candidates whose mantra is that elections are unfair unless they win them have actually won their races, seizing control of future elections and rendering them moot. We may also find ourselves at the dawn of a new round of political violence, further destabilizing a country that has already seen its Capitol sacked, a spike in threats against government officials and a recent home invasion at the residence of a congressional leader. Not to mention that the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security just issued a stark new warning of more tumult in the 90 days following the election.