How Can We Go Forward? (Part 1 of 3)

The outcome of America’s most recent election and Donald Trump’s return to the Presidency leaves me thinking that the political system that we have been working under is actually pretty terrible as a system for choosing qualified national leaders. Trump’s initial nomination and election in 2016 was shocking, but could perhaps be seen as a fluke. And the narrowness of his loss in 2020 after four years of what was widely seen as misgovernment by informed observers, was frightening, but at least we could tell ourselves that it came out alright in the end.

But then he was returned to office in 2024 with more votes than he had received in either 2016 or 2020… after the events of January 6^th and other widely publicized crimes against our government and our system of government…after 4 years of reasonably competent government by the man who had defeated him in 2020…with no major economic crisis in progress that might have been expected to foster a reaction against the party in power…after a generally well-regarded campaign by his 2024 opponent…and after repeated public appearances that suggested that he is likely descending into dementia.

While analysts can point to a variety of factors that may help to “explain” his narrow victory, I think the more important question is how such a spectacularly and evidently unqualified candidate could have started out with a BASE of reliable support that put him within range of such a victory. A man who would not have passed the screening that would have been required for him to be hired as manager of a grocery store, and whose previous failures and crimes were matters of public record, was nonetheless nominated for the Presidency by a major political party and then elected with the support of a plurality of American voters. I think that we need to seriously question whether the poliical system and political arrangements that yielded this result are ones that we can live with going forward (even if that system and those arrangements survive the next four years, not at all certain.)

In that context, I have been thinking for some time, and even more since November, about conceivable alternative political arrangements that might make an outcome like this less likely. I would like to think that American political scientists and public intellectuals are asking similar question, although I am not clear about the extent to which that is actually happening. I also hope that a broader range of politically aware adults will begin to question whether our institutions will need major changes in the future in order to provide even a minimal degree of protection against similar outcomes.

I am not going to claim that I have “the answer”, or that I am even remotely qualified to determine such an answer. I can only say that I have been thinking about four or five ideas that I feel are worth sharing. They are not all consistent with each other, but I think each may offer some food for thought; none are original to me, but I am not trying to claim authorship.

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(Continued)