By Luis Fierro Carrion (*)
Twitter: @Luis_Fierro_C
The United States of America (USA) prides itself on having
been born as a republic, in which its leaders are democratically elected.
However, there are increasing limitations and distortions to the democratic
character of the nation (if by democracy we mean the election of rulers by a
majority of the people).
To begin with, as is well known, initially only white men
(of European descent) who owned property could vote, which was equivalent to 6%
of the population. Women could not vote (except, in some cases, widows); and neither could people of other races or ethnicities.
Gradually, the right to vote was extended: to some blacks,
to people of mixed race, and eventually, in 1920, to women. Native Americans
were considered citizens beginning in 1924, although as late as 1948 some
states continued to exclude them (for example, South Dakota).
Despite the fact that blacks had the right to vote, in many
southern states certain customs were continued that in practice excluded them
(for example, that they pay a poll tax, that they know how to read, or even correctly
estimate the number of jellybeans in a jar). These forms of discrimination were
abolished by the Voting Rights Act adopted in 1965. In 2013, however, the
Supreme Court eliminated the obligation to observe Section 5 of the Act, which
imposed restrictions on states in which discrimination had previously occurred;
as a consequence, many GOP-controlled states have begun to reintroduce
restrictions.
To date, the more than 714,000 citizens who live in
Washington, District of Columbia, cannot vote for members of Congress; and 3.5
million Puerto Ricans, despite being US citizens, cannot vote for either the
President or Congress.
But beyond who is allowed to vote, there are other rules
that lead to undemocratic results.
To start, 2 senators are assigned to each state. In this
way, California, with 40 million people, has the same representation in the
Senate as Wyoming, with 580,000.
In turn, this affects the Electoral College. Remember that
in the US the Presidency is not won by the candidate with the most votes, but
rather the one with the largest number of electors in the Electoral College.
The Electoral College is made up of the sum of the number of Senators and
Representatives. Thus, Wyoming has 3 voters, while California has 54 (18 times
the number of voters, but 69 times the population).
This bias toward smaller, more rural states tends to favor
the Republican Party. Of the 14 states with the smallest population (and thus overrepresented
in the Electoral College and Senate), Democrats dominate only 4, while
Republicans dominate 7 (and the other three are competitive).
This means that, at the moment, the 50 Democratic senators
represent 41.5 million more people than the 50 Republican senators.
There is a norm in the Senate, which is not included in the
Constitution, which requires that in order to suspend the debate of a law, 60
of the 100 senators (60%) are required. This rule is called the “filibuster”, a
word derived from filibusters or pirates, which I understand goes back to
“taking over” control of the Senate. This results in an even more undemocratic
practice, whereby the 50 Democratic senators (with the deciding vote of Vice
President Harris), who actually represent 41 million more people than the
Republicans, cannot pass laws (with certain exceptions) .
In the case of the House of Representatives, which in theory
should be more democratic, the Republicans have once again introduced
distortions in the allocation of seats (the so-called
"gerrymandering" process), which results in some states in which
voting is very even (such as Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, or North
Carolina), about 75% of the seats go to Republicans, when it should be close to 50%.
The distortion is also revealed in the fact that the
Democrats have won the popular vote in 7 of the last 8 elections (2 times Bill Clinton, once Al Gore, 2 times Barack Obama, once Hillary Clinton and once Joe Biden).
Since 1992, Republicans have won the popular vote only once, in 2004 under
George W. Bush.
However, at the moment there are 6 Supreme Court justices
who were nominated by Republican presidents. In March 2016 (eight months before
the election), then-President Barack Obama nominated Merrick Garland for the
Supreme Court; but Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell refused to allow
him to be confirmed, arguing that it was necessary to wait for the election (in
which he hoped a Republican would win).
However, in 2020, when Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away, then
President Trump managed to nominate Amy Coney Barrett to replace him with just
38 days to go before the election.
As a consequence, the Supreme Court does not reflect at all
the will of the majority of voters in the last 30 years; despite which it is
breaking precedents that have been in force for half a century, such as the
right to abortion.
In this way, we have that the three powers of the State have
anti-democratic biases. It is not clear how long the majority of the people
will stand for this.
(*) English translation (and slightly more extended version)
of my column published on June 17, 2022, in Diario “El Universo” of Ecuador.
https://www.eluniverso.com/opinion/columnistas/limites-democraticos-en-ee-uu-nota/
