Democracy has never been under such threat as it is today. That’s not because any kleptocracy or despotic regime is somehow offering a better alternative. Rather, the assault on democracy is based on an insidious effort to change our understanding of the very meaning of democracy.
In a healthy democracy, there are competing sets of ideas. There are different visons of what kind of financial or political model might better suit a country. In the best of circumstances, these ideas are debated openly, and this debate and compromise leads us to agreed solutions. Political parties sell their ideas through manifestos and election pledges, and the voters then judge them on their successes or failures.
This utopia doesn’t really exist in such a perfect way anywhere, because politics and policies are distorted by lobbying and vested interests, but, in places where there is the rule of law, we can be sure that politicians are by and large accountable for their actions in elected office.
This imperfect system is being seriously damaged, however, by the gross dishonesty that has become a feature of significant recent votes: those who deliberately campaigned on a pack of lies have now come to expect that everyone else should accept that this is, somehow, “democratic.”
Brexit
A common refrain from defenders of a slim margin of victory that is (in theory at least) seeing the UK leave an association with their European neighbors, an association with the largest trading block in the world, one that is right on the UK’s doorstep, is that this was a “democratic” process, and therefore the result (also erroneously called “the will of the people”) must be respected.
Shall I count the ways in which the Leave campaign (of which there were several colluding camps who were acting together in a way that is contrary to campaign strategy and finance rules) achieved their narrow win through sheer dishonesty? Shall we look back at the catalogue of lies that were employed to bully the general public into voting for this course of action? Should we look at the excuses being pumped out by the leaders of the Leave campaigns, even as early as in the days and hours following the result, as to why they would be breaking their pledges?
The (dishonest on every level) 350 million pounds per week for the NHS pledge? That was just a suggestion, a campaign tool.
No, this is not democracy. A thoroughly dishonest political campaign has no right to claim that the way they fought is “democratic” and insist that the rest of us accept their twisting of the definition of democratic norms to now include blatant lying as “legitimate” tools. No. We should reject this notion in the strongest possible terms. I do not accept that such dishonesty can become the new normal.
Trump
Those following the cult of Trump have a pretty unique way of seeing the world, to say the least. One of the most common defenses of his frequently unacceptable/dishonest/offensive/plain stupid actions is to simply state, “he won, she lost, get over it.” That’s how this works now? The election of a person raises them above reasonable criticism for the period of their (barring, well, impeachment) time in office? Is this, too, a new “norm” for a democratic system?
U.S. newspapers have kept running totals of the publicly stated lies of President Trump, and on average in office he has lied five times a day. This is a fact. When White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer started claiming up was down with regard to Trump’s inauguration crowd sizes, the outright lies from the president’s key communicator with the outside world were then doubled down on by another key White House figure, Kellyanne Conway. In her reckoning, Spicer was just using “alternative facts.” U.S. political debate, and the democracy that rests on this debate, is now reduced to a position where a lie, or an “alternative fact,” is expected to carry the same weight as the truth.
Trump’s ignorance about the many elements of running a country are another matter. That he is seemingly completely unaware of how DACA works, as has been demonstrated in recent days, is not the point here. When Trump claimed Mexico would pay for the border wall, that was a deliberate lie. When Trump met Mexico’s president and claimed that who was paying for a wall on the border between the two countries didn’t come up in conversation, that was an obvious lie.
Democracy in the United States is being undermined by the way in which criticism is most-commonly dismissed as partisan bickering, even when the facts of the matter should not be in dispute. As the saying goes, you are entitled to your own opinions, you are not entitled to your own facts.
Russia
It is neither a secret nor a coincidence that the troika of Brexit, Trump and Russia include shared narratives and sympathies, of course. One of Russia’s main goals over the last couple of decades has been to undermine the notion of democracy. One of the ways in which Russia attacks democracies is to attack the very concept of an objective truth – this is something they achieve with the informational side of the warfare they’re waging against democratic and aspiringly democratic countries.
Russia lies on an industrial scale, and about everything. From the stuff that they actually need to deny (invading Ukraine, shooting down MH17, murdering their former spies overseas) to engaging in seemingly pointless lying, like the (overt and covert) promotion of absurd conspiracy theories. Russia, today, is a nation built on deceit – both domestic and international.
In terms of spreading falsehoods, Russia plays in a league of its own. When the Kremlin has dragged the rest of us down to their level, and they are no more than the lowest common denominator, (as they are doing with their support of Brexit and Trump and the subsequent changed perceptions of what is and is not acceptable electoral behavior), Russia will have succeeded in destroying a fundamental cornerstone of democracy – that even when there are differences of opinion, there is still an fundamental expectation of honesty.
Our democratic competitions should not be decided on who can lie the most egregiously, and those who have deceived their respective voters should expect some remedial action to be taken against them.
In the case of Brexit, a reversal is due, especially in light of the recent exposes of the degrees of collusion between related parties which were covered up to enable this group to cheat financing laws too.
In the case of Trump, one of the clearest areas of dishonesty emanating from him and his team has always been related to their unethical interactions with Russia. The cover up of this (obstruction of justice) is likely to be the beginning of the legal termination of his administration. Where the investigation will go from there, into the crimes that the obstruction was supposed to cover, will be a historic moment for the nation.
With regard to Russia, what is to be done? The current tougher international stance against them is welcomed and long overdue. The expulsion of Russian spies pretending to be diplomats is the type of global and coordinated response to Russia’s illegal attempt to redraw the map of Europe, using military force to change Ukraine’s borders, that should have come four years ago. And further sanctions against Russia are warranted.
Russia’s goals are not peace. Russia’s tactics are frequently brutal. Russia’s declarations are almost always dishonest. Russia’s appeasers are fools, at a minimum. The campaigns that Russia has obviously favored are endangering democracy, as intended. Those who have flirted with Russian assistance are traitors, and it is not just their own souls that they have sold, but democracy itself.
