The hotly contested presidential election of 2020 was the most disputed in American history. President Donald Trump had been sowing the seeds of mis-trust in the election outcome for months prior to election day. He would claim that nefarious forces were aligning against patriotic Americans to “rig” the election and insure a victory for his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden. Trump made these claims despite highly reputable (A+) polls consistently showing that Biden held sizeable leads in the three most important battleground states of the rust belt.
Truth be told, the nefarious forces were on the right. Utilizing strategies of voter suppression, Republicans were making every effort to disenfranchise millions of black and brown voters that historically affiliate with the Democratic Party.
In this essay, I will explain how African-American women actually saved democracy, at least temporarily, in 2020. I will explain this in the context of a three-dimensional political model that I proposed several years ago, and which can be accessed on this site. I will conclude this essay with a discussion of the fragility of this victory, and how the fascist forces of Trumpism are still a menacing threat.
What is shown above is a perspective view of my 3-D model. I will briefly provide a descriptive overview of this model. You will need to expand the illustration to see all the labels.
Examining the illustration above, all political systems, excluding theocratic and monarchic systems, will reside somewhere on this fabric. As you can see, this model is three dimensional; the third dimension, or “height” is energy. More specifically, the height is a relative energy of energy vested in the people versus energy vested in the state. America is presently located inside what looks like a volcanic crater, elevated high up on the right or conservative side of the crater. In the next illustration we will take a look at the critical cross-section of this model.
Examining the illustration above we see a cross-section of the right side of the political model. We are now getting to the heart of the matter that concerns this essay. At present, we are located at Position #1 on the diagram above, which is on the right side of the Well of Democracy. Autocratic, authoritarian forces, represented by vector A on the diagram, are attempting to drive our democratic system further rightward toward what I call the Revolutionary Rim. The Revolutionary Rim is a very precarious location, because for a political system to be driven beyond the “Rim” means a virtually inevitable, inexorable, and remorseless descent to fascism. Any movement in our system of government depends on the sum of the forces involved, represented by vectors in the diagram. Vector B are the forces that are pushing back against the authoritarian impulses, and vector C is the natural Restoring Force, whose magnitude is greatest at the inflection point of the curve. The Restoring Force(s) are actually the safeguards of democracy, and at the inflection point is where the norms, institutions, and safeguards of democracy are brought to bear with their greatest ferocity. Movement to the right in our democratic system requires that the magnitude of Vector A is greater than the sum of Vectors B and C. (As drawn above, vector C is very long, and the sum of B and C is clearly greater than A. But imagine a highly engaged authoritarian electorate, represented by a very long vector A.)
Despite all the voter suppression efforts to disenfranchise black and brown voters in the United States, what African-American women did with their increased activism and their increased determination to be counted in the 2020 election, was to in effect increase the length of Vector B as seen on the last diagram. With the sum of Vectors B & C greater than Vector A, America has moved slightly further away from the Revolutionary Rim, more safely ensconced within the Well of Democracy. As such, all Americans who believe in majoritarian, representative democracy, owe a massive debt of gratitude to the African-American women who stepped up to save democracy.
Saving democracy is not a onetime endeavor. If the price of freedom is eternal vigilance, surely something similar must be said of democracy. “Trumpism” is the first manifestation of what some have called “the rise of the Big Man”. The “Big Men” are autocratic, authoritarian would be leaders who have contempt for the checks and balances of the American system of democracy. They have contempt for Congress and the Supreme Court, feeling that these institutions should be little more than sounding boards for suggesting how an Imperial president might proceed, but institutions lacking teeth. The “Big Men” have contempt for criticism, most effectively disseminated by a mass media, to which they likewise express contempt. The “Big Man” autocrat attracts adherents by promising a return to a nostalgic era when economic and political power was vested in a noble, hard-working, patriotic electorate. Of course, this is code for white, Christian, and largely rural or small town people. It is a populism that invokes fear of “the other”; black, brown, Asian, gay, urban, educated, and anyone else whom they perceive is “taking” from them, and giving to the non-deserving.
Jason Stanley, in his treatise on the subject of fascism titled “How Fascism Works – The Politics of Us and Them” outlines the many distinct strategies that fascist politics employ. As Stanley says, the strategies are “the mythic past, propaganda, anti-intellectualism, unreality, hierarchy, victimhood, law and order, sexual anxiety, appeals to the heartland, and a dismantling of public welfare and unity.” Stanley goes on to say “The most telling symptom of fascist politics is division. It aims to separate a population into an “us” and a “them”.” In part due to the rise of social media and cable news that fractures the electorate, tribalism emerges. When minds marinate in endless confirmation bias, polarization amplifies. As economic inequality reaches staggering levels not seen since the Gilded Age, resentment and rage grow, battle lines are drawn, and a distinct “us” and “them” emerges. This is a terrifying development. Had it not been for the engagement of highly motivated African-American women, pushing back against this development, America could have quite conceivably lost its democracy in 2020.
In an era where growth capitalism is ending, to be replaced by catabolic capitalism due to resource constraints, a nostalgic return to some imaginary “Golden Age” or “mythic past”, is no longer possible. Therefore, frustrations will continue to be felt by those whose economic prospects are dwindling. Such people are vulnerable to the accusatory rhetoric of a populist authoritarian who sows division. Expect a second generation “Big Man” in the mold of Donald Trump to rise within the Republican ranks by 2024. Some are already taking a page from the Trump playbook. Who will join African-American women this next time to save democracy?