America was a country founded on a set of principles; equality, personal liberty, freedom, independence, democracy. These principles were, from the very beginning, aspirational. Virtues we, as a country, should strive for; not something that had been achieved when the words were written. The Founders grappled with the contradictions that existed in our founding ethos; that all men are created equal while slavery persisted in the fledgling nation. While they did not themselves embody all of the ideals they espoused it does not make those ideals any less virtuous, or excuse later generations from striving to uphold those same virtues because their predecessors may have fallen short.
Certain of the Founders believed that future generations may have different interpretations of what these principles look like in practice, or maybe hold different principles all together. Thomas Jefferson advocated for the Constitution to expire after 19 years, to be renewed or created anew by the next generation. Though we did not adopt Jefferson's approach, for practical reasons, subsequent generations have interpreted and reinterpreted the founding principles time and again.
George Washington called the undertaking of the new American government a "great experiment". This phrase would evolve into "the great American experiment in democracy", I would call it "the great American hypothesis of democracy". Even at our founding we were a diverse nation with Europeans, American Indians, and Africans living in one country. However, only a narrow band of that population was given the rights of full citizenship, namely the white protestants. And even within that population voting rights were, with few exceptions, granted to a narrower band still—land-owning, tax-paying males.
Even for these select few afforded the right to vote, the Founders did not trust the masses to elect their leaders. Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist No. 1 (emphasis from me);
An over-scrupulous jealousy of danger to the rights of the people, which is more commonly the fault of the head than of the heart, will be represented as mere pretense and artifice, the stale bait for popularity at the expense of the public good. It will be forgotten, on the one hand, that jealousy is the usual concomitant of love, and that the noble enthusiasm of liberty is apt to be infected with a spirit of narrow and illiberal distrust. On the other hand, it will be equally forgotten that the vigor of government is essential to the security of liberty; that, in the contemplation of a sound and well-informed judgment, their interest can never be separated; and that a dangerous ambition more often lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people than under the forbidden appearance of zeal for the firmness and efficiency of government. History will teach us that the former has been found a much more certain road to the introduction of despotism than the latter, and that of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people; commencing demagogues, and ending tyrants.
To this end, the Founders believed it wise to remove the election of the President from the general populous and placed that responsibility with electors. States are responsible for administering federal elections and initially the election of those electors was primarily the responsibility of state legislators. Over time states shifted from state legislator appointed electors to electors determined by popular vote.
Even with this shift towards democratization, well over half of the US population still was not eligible to vote. It would not be until the passage of the of the 15th Amendment in 1870 until the right to vote was extended to all adult males. However, this newly extended right was very quickly curbed with the passage of Jim Crow laws in states across the country. In 1920 the 19th Amendment was adopted extending the right to vote to women. 94 years after all men were given the right to vote through the 15th Amendment, the 24th Amendment was passed prohibiting poll taxes as a barrier to voting and provided Congress the authority to enforce this article through appropriate legislation. A year later the Voting Rights Act would ensure the right to vote for all US citizens.
While the story of suffrage in this country is frustratingly slow and riddled with setbacks, it is an illustration of the aspirational nature of our founding principles. While we have made significant progress towards democratization and though we think of ourselves as the quintessential democracy, much like at our founding, I would argue that this is still aspirational; thus a hypothesis and not yet an experiment.
I would like to take a brief detour, if you stick with me I think it will come together in the end. I will also apologize in advance for some vulgarity.
Back in 2004 George W. Bush was running for reelection against John Kerry. The same year South Park was in its 8th season and the week before election day they offered their take on the current state of American politics in episode 8, Douche and Turd. In the episode the residents of South Park are in the process of selecting a new school mascot and are given the choice between a giant douche and a turd sandwich. Maybe not the subtlest allusion to American politics, but an incisive critique nonetheless.
Two years later It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia would air The Gang Runs for Office (Season 2, Episode 8). In the episode the gang has the following exchange;
These episodes that aired only two years apart captured a similar vibe; there is no real difference between two self-interested parties. A vibe that persists among voters still, though I think the characterization has since broken down.
In the 20 years since these episodes aired the political landscape in America has changed dramatically. For the first time in our nations history we did not have a peaceful transfer of power when, on January 6th 2021, outgoing President Trump incited a mob to disrupt the certification of the 2020 election. Trump was impeached twice, though not convicted, and indicted on four separate counts. In 2024 Donald Trump would run for president for a third time. To update the South Park analogy for 2024, the choice would be between a giant douche and an arsenic sandwich—both bad, but one will kill you.
Democrats warned that, if elected, Trump would represent democratic backsliding towards authoritarianism in America. Since taking office Trump has validated those warnings as he has violated the Impoundment Control Act by freezing funding allocated by Congress; violated civil service protections by firing civil service employees without appropriate cause, ignored court orders to resume funding, and countless other lawless acts.
It would be too much to say that America is an autocracy; the 2024 election was free and fairly administered and there is currently not strong reason be believe that the 2026 mid-term elections will not also be free and fairly administered. However, I think we have seen enough to declare that the great American hypothesis that a large and diverse multi-cultural democracy is not possible. At least as our political systems are currently constructed.
In a two-party system, when one of the parties has abandoned the democratic process, as the Republicans have, it leaves pro-democracy voters with a single option. When there is a single legitimate option there is no choice, and where there is no choice there cannot be democracy.
It would be too much to say that America is an autocracy, but we are no longer a democracy.
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