One of Washington’s most discussed articles over the past week was Matthew Yglesias’s Monday piece in Vox contending that this country’s combination of a presidential system and increasing ideological polarization is a recipe for eventual breakdown (the article was headlined “American democracy is doomed”).
New York magazine blogger Jonathan Chait thinks Yglesias overlooked something important. In a Tuesday post, Chait argued that the major threat to our political stability is that American conservatives are considerably farther to the right than are conservatives in, say, western Europe.
“[T]he shape of our presidential system is not the only thing that separates the U.S. from other industrialized democracies,” commented Chait. “The other major difference is that the United States is the only advanced democracy whose major conservative party rejects the principle of universal health care, has leading figures influenced by the philosophy of Ayn Rand, and opposes even the tiniest revenue increases on principle.”
Chait opined that “the good news…is that the conservative movement’s control over the Republican Party is probably not sustainable. American conservatism’s power is deeply rooted to white American racial identity. That identity formed a plausible national majority for much of America’s history, but its time is rapidly slipping into the past. The steady growth of racial minorities is projected to continue for decades. Eventually Republicans will adjust to the new demography, which means they will have to abandon conservatism as we know it, which has only appealed to white voters in the context of racial polarization.”
From Chait’s post (bolding added):
The U.S. was the exception to the otherwise-universal worldwide trend of presidential systems falling apart only because its unusually loose parties lacked the motivation and partisan willpower to push their powers to the limit. Now it is only a matter of time until a crisis brings it down…
…There is, however, another possibility [Yglesias] does not consider. Perhaps the most dangerous thing about American politics is not its institutional design but the unique power of its right wing…
…Republicans realized early on that their best strategy for regaining power lay in withholding support for any elements of Obama’s agenda…
Perhaps the Republican legislative boycott is not only a strategy, but also a reflection of an ideology. Perhaps…the GOP’s reigning public philosophy makes legislative compromise impossible. After all, the shape of our presidential system is not the only thing that separates the U.S. from other industrialized democracies. The other major difference is that the United States is the only advanced democracy whose major conservative party rejects the principle of universal health care, has leading figures influenced by the philosophy of Ayn Rand, and opposes even the tiniest revenue increases on principle.
The episodes described by Yglesias could just as easily support the alternative hypothesis that the real problem is the right. The philosophy of staunch ideological opposition to any expanded role for the federal government dates back to the beginning of the Republic, and has had its strongest influence in the South…
What Yglesias describes as polarization between the parties could also be thought of as the conservative movement’s gradual rise to unchallenged power within the Republican Party…The conservative movement launched a brief and viciously contested insurgency to capture the Republican nomination in 1964, after which it receded and then slowly climbed to power.
…[There’s] no chance to successfully negotiate policy with a party that regards taxes, spending, and regulation as inherently wrong…
The good news, from the standpoint of both liberals and anybody concerned for the long-term stability of American government, is that the conservative movement’s control over the Republican Party is probably not sustainable. American conservatism’s power is deeply rooted to white American racial identity. That identity formed a plausible national majority for much of America’s history, but its time is rapidly slipping into the past. The steady growth of racial minorities is projected to continue for decades. Eventually Republicans will adjust to the new demography, which means they will have to abandon conservatism as we know it, which has only appealed to white voters in the context of racial polarization.
