Democrats’ call for Americans to “protect democracy” from candidate Donald Trump fell flat in the 2024 presidential election. Repeatedly, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have said that Trump and other Republicans represent an existential threat to the political system, offering things like Project 2025 and the ambitious anti-immigration goals of aides like Stephen Miller, and predicting a more authoritarian second term if Trump is re-elected.
More than a year into Trump’s second term, we have to admit that they were right.
Trump has vastly expanded his executive powers, targeting his enemies using the traditionally nonpartisan Justice Department, sidelined Congress from preparing for another Middle East war, and engaged in a policing effort designed to win midterm elections before they even begin.
In short, Trump behaves less like a democratically elected leader – and more as an authoritarian – than before. Meanwhile, the Democrats’ “save democracy” message seems to be hitting a wall, with issues like that cope with affordability and the cost of living rises in the list of priorities. I don’t think that’s because Americans don’t care about democracy. I think it’s because they want to see the system improved, not just protected.
More than 60 percent of Americans are dissatisfied with democracy as it is, by Gallup poll. And across the country, I’m hearing a desire for more creativity from both sides in proposing solutions to the major issues driving our politics, as well as calls to improve democracy by making it more responsive to everyday people. Much of the current weakness is driven by voters who feel disenfranchised, written out of the process of choosing the president (Electoral College), in Congress (gerrymandering), or in the Supreme Court (life tenure).
So this week on America, Really podcast, I spoke with Amy Walter, publisher and editor-in-chief of the Cook Political Reportabout the state of Trump’s efforts to re-regulate and ways we can “improve” democracy, not just protect it.
Here are three things he emphasized:
1) The underlying process has been corrupted
Walter argues that the primary system — designed more than a century ago to wrest nominations from party bosses in smoke-filled rooms — has a new kind of dysfunction. “The primary process is as flawed as it’s ever been,” he said, pointing to a flood of outside money “attached to an issue or corporate interest,” and primary voters who veer “far left or right.”
His proposed reforms: one day of national primaries — instead of months of state-by-state primaries — and open voting, where “every voter is allowed to vote. … You don’t have to be a Democrat or a Republican.” It won’t solve everything, he admits, “but at least it addresses one of the main problems.”
2) Gerrymandering can erase majority districts
The decision of the Supreme Court in Louisiana vs. Callais Undermining Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, by Walter’s reckoning, has given Republicans something like a four- to six-seat advantage in the redistricting battle. In the short term, the maps of Tennessee, Louisiana, and Alabama “essentially took three heavily Negro districts, two of which were represented by Negro members of Congress, and made them safely Republican.” (Although the new Alabama map is the case is still open.)
But the long-term threat is twofold: He warns that the same logic could drive Democrats break their majority-black and majority-Hispanic seats to distribute those voters in winnable districts.
“How far will Democrats be willing to go to extend their gains in states that have a majority of black or Hispanic seats?” he asked – a “messy” paradox where both parties can decide minority representation is not a priority.
Reform alone won’t cure the malaise, Walter warned, pointing to California as a cautionary tale. The state has a wish list for election reform — open top-two primaries, easy registration, mail-in voting, voting systems — but as Walters says, “It doesn’t mean the state is well-governed.”
The incentive structure itself is broken, he says: A member of Congress who “puts your head down and gets things done” gets nothing; instead, “it benefits those who make the most noise, do the most damage, refuse to make any kind of compromise.” Until that changes, he told me, “you can create all the reforms you want, but if people feel like the system is broken, they won’t participate.”
As always, there’s a lot more in the full show, too listen America, Really wherever you find your podcasts or watch them Vox’s YouTube channel.
