Democracy is now a kitchen table issue.
According to a recent NBC News poll, “threats to democracy” was rated as the nation’s “most important issue.” It outranked cost of living, jobs and the economy, immigration and the border, climate change, guns, and abortion.
Yes, this is only one poll and the 21 percent of those polled who cited democracy under assault do not represent a majority. But it’s a snapshot of Americans reacting to an ongoing coup driven by a corrupt and vindictive former president, his feral followers, and the political party he still rules like a dictator in exile.
It’s been more than 18 months since Donald Trump “spurred a mob of domestic enemies of the Constitution to march down to the Capitol and subvert American democracy,” as US Representative Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, chairman of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection, put it during a televised hearing. The palpable aftershocks of that shameful day remain potent less than three months before the midterm elections.
If Democrats are still scrambling for a unifying theme to energize its voters, it’s the democracy, stupid.
That’s borrowed from the famous phrase coined by Democratic strategist James Carville during Bill Clinton’s first presidential run in 1992. “The economy, stupid” was a pointed reminder for staffers and the candidate himself to stay focused on their message to voters.
Swap in democracy and that’s a message that should be on the lips of every Democrat. Yet a Politico analysis found that out of more than $300 million spent this year by Democrats on broadcast advertisements nationwide, less than 4 percent went to ads that specifically mentioned “Jan. 6, the insurrection, democracy or stolen elections.”
Between now and November, Democratic candidates will talk about the successful passage of President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. They’ll tout the first major gun safety legislation passed by Congress in nearly 30 years. But they must also seize the opportunity to amplify the biggest difference between their party and their opponents. It’s not just Democrats vs. Republicans. It’s democracy vs. authoritarianism.
In numerous states from Pennsylvania to Arizona, Republicans promoting Trump’s Big Lie about the 2020 presidential election are running for governor, secretary of state, and US House and Senate seats. And if they win, they have all but guaranteed that they will use their powers to ensure that only their preferred candidates will have favorable election outcomes.
Right on cue, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell is claiming that reports about democracy’s demise are greatly exaggerated. While acknowledging to reporters Monday that after the last presidential election, “There were those who were trying to prevent the orderly transfer of power for the first time in American history, and that was not good,” he also downplayed any ongoing threat to one of this nation’s founding principles.
America has “a very solid democracy,” McConnell said. “I don’t think, of the things that we need to worry about, I wouldn’t be worried about that one.”
And why would McConnell worry about the failing health of democracy? It’s his party that’s strangling it, and he wants us to ignore the fingerprints on the body. McConnell may condemn the insurrection, but he’s also tamping down the narrative that Republicans, in their pursuit of unchecked power, pose the greatest threat to democracy in this nation’s history.
The Jan. 6 insurrection and its unfinished aftermath is as searing an event as Pearl Harbor or the Sept. 11 attacks. But the ideology that continues to drive homegrown terrorists is the violence of white supremacy, America’s oldest and most persistent scourge.
That’s exactly why Democrats, whether running for office or boosting other candidates, need to call out exactly what’s at stake. The insurrection is not consigned to history; it’s an ongoing coup playing out in Republican-led legislatures and the Supreme Court. Roe v. Wade was always the floor, not the ceiling. An assault on our rights endangers our lives, and Republicans have a check list from same-sex marriage to contraception.
In this unnervingly fraught time, our nation is facing monumental concerns. But more Americans are coming around to the bitter realization that if our increasingly fragile democracy breaks, everything else that matters will crumble right along with it. That’s the message Democrats better start repeating, and often. In November, democracy isn’t only on the ballot. It’s also on Republicans’ chopping block.
Renée Graham is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at renee.graham@globe.com.