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The public’s belief in our political ecosystem matters.
American democracy is both voluntary and tenuous. It requires a press the public perceives as unbiased, a justice system it believes is not political. And for the government to impose laws and taxes, the American public has to know there are consequences when rules are not followed. Absent that, as we saw on Jan. 6 when the United States more closely resembled an unraveling third world country than a democratic first world leader, all bets are off.
Early polling suggests the impact of Stormy-gate has Republicans rallying behind the former president, the American public statistically deadlocked over their approval of the indictment, and more than six in 10 Americans believing the Manhattan district attorney’s case involving former President Donald Trump is mainly motivated by politics. Put that together with Americans’ fundamental distrust of mainstream media—trust so low that nearly half of Americans now believe news organizations deliberately mislead them—and we are headed for a crisis so severe it could unravel the basic fabric of our democracy.
In a country where everything is hyperpolarized and parties blindly fall in line, it’s hard to remember that in 1974 Republicans voted with Democrats to subpoena then-President Richard Nixon and to approve the articles of impeachment over his involvement with the Watergate break-in and subsequent coverup. That same year, the American trust in the media stood at 70 percent; today that number is 34 percent.
The problem, of course, is that the perception of the initial Trump indictment being viewed as political is not about short term gains or losses in the polls. It’s that it undermines the very real cases that are in the pipeline, cases that raise questions about whether or not the President of the United States, sworn to uphold and defend the constitution, engaged in treason, attempted to overthrow a duly elected government, or meddle with the sanctity of the electoral process.
The investigations being conducted on Jan. 6 and election interference in Georgia are of such great institutional import that they test the very fiber of democracy and the Constitution of the United States. And for democracy to continue functioning, we need the buy-in of the American people as to both the gravity of these crimes—and that the justice system prosecuting them is free from political influence.
In a lot of ways, it’s not surprising that Jan. 6 happened. People fundamentally haven’t trusted the system for years—Trump’s election proved that. He then spent his term actively eroding faith in institutions that are the pillars of our democracy. The answer is not to erode it further; we should all be working towards restoring that faith. Without it, the entire system falls apart.
George Washington knew that.
Let’s hope the rest of us wake up to it soon, or we’ll be in for the real storm.
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