The end of politics?

Another of my Lake Champlain Weekly columns from last year. This one was published on November 9th 2022

Many see “politics” as a dirty word. But “politics” refers to methods of making collective decisions peacefully. While most decisions can, and should, be made voluntarily at the individual level or by peaceful, voluntary, associations, there are some that need to be made collectively. We can disagree, peacefully, about where that line should be drawn, and even when we agree that a decision needs to be made collectively, we may disagree about what the decision should be.

We all agree that criminal law should be set collectively and also that murder should be a criminal offense. But what should the penalty be? Via politics, we can settle those differences peacefully. We can vote, either directly or for people who will make the decision on our behalf.

But what if we don’t accept the result of these votes? This happens sometimes because people disagree about how broad the decision should be. Where are the lines drawn between who gets to vote and who doesn’t? Is this a federal decision or a state decision? Perhaps you see your own state being overruled by other states and don’t see why “they” get to impose a decision on “us”. Maybe you see a state opting out of a decision which you think needs to be made at the national level.

But what happens when the very process of counting the votes is rejected by a large number of people? And what if this is getting worse?

Al Gore, disagreed with the Supreme Court decision that halted the recounts in Florida in the election of 2000. But, despite his disagreement, he presided over the Congressional process which confirmed the election had been won by George W. Bush.

Four years later, Congress divided over the question of whether to accept the votes from Ohio. Just a handful of Congressmen and one Senator forced a vote, but defeated candidate, Senator John Kerry, was among the 99 who voted to reject the challenge.

Defeated Georgia Governor candidate, Stacey Abrams, has insisted that she “won” the 2018 election. She conceded using the weasel words that she accepted her rival would be inaugurated, but continued to deny that he had won the election.

But all of this is prelude to the appalling events of 2020 and 2021. Outgoing President, Donald Trump, refused to concede his decisive defeat. He spread baseless lies about voting machines being tampered with and large-scale voting by dead people. Most of the court cases he and his supporters launched were filed in the wrong courts or by persons with no standing in the case. Most of those which reached court were simply abandoned by the plaintiffs the moment they were asked to produce evidence. Lying on YouTube is constitutionally protected, but lying in court is a criminal offense.

And, famously, Trump egged on the crowd which went on to storm the Capitol with chants of “hang Mike Pence”.

Your columnist fears that if Trump is the candidate in 2024, there is no outcome to the election which will not produce violence in the streets. His victory and his defeat would both be rejected by significant numbers of people.

Quentin Langley lives in New York and teaches at Fordham University and Manhattan College. His book, Business and the Culture of Ethics was published in September 2020