Monarchy in America

Liberalism is on the ballot, as it so often is. But is democracy?

Put another way: Is anyone—RFK Jr., Biden, Trump, Cornel West— really running against the will of the people as the basis of the American government?

You might think Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, is against it. Indeed, my trusty AI, Claude, says that Trump’s biggest shortcoming as a candidate is that he’s “a threat to democracy.”

And admittedly, it’s been a long time since Republican candidates for national office had a shot at winning the most votes. 

The GOP has for decades moved heaven and earth to gerrymander districts to smithereens. When they win office, or win on policy, Republicans generally do so courtesy of our undemocratic institutions—the Electoral College, the Senate, the Supreme Court.

And, yes, of course, MAGA in 2020 went much further. 

Trump’s people intimidated voters at the polls, mobbed polls to halt vote-counting, lied far and wide about Biden’s victory, tried to install imposter electors that were not the ones Americans voted for, strong-armed secretaries of state, slow-walked the confirmation of election results, tried to sabotage the certification of Biden’s victory, and finally—in early 2021—convened a violent mob to block Biden’s victory and thus overthrow the will of American voters.

That sounds pretty…anti-democratic. 

Finally, at the outer reaches of the outer darkness of the rightwing, there are the edgelords in goatees and capes who are actual monarchists.