Liberal democracy retreats as politics take a right turn

 

Gordon L. Weil

The world is taking a right turn.

Even when parties clash on policy, their shared values can yield practical results through compromise. But now, conservatives increasingly reject compromise, jeopardizing shared values.

Liberal democracy may be retreating. It emerged from the adoption of social welfare policies and the defeat of fascism by American and European democracies. Once widely accepted, it is now openly challenged.

Listen to Viktor Orban, the Hungarian Prime Minister idolized by some American conservatives. His country has lived under a monarchy, Nazism and Communism, and he now proclaims, “We have replaced a shipwrecked liberal democracy.” He labels his new form of government “illiberal democracy,” which amounts to an elected dictatorship with no need to compromise.

Orban’s views are extreme, but many conservatives favor smaller and more authoritarian government, lower taxes, and fewer foreign commitments. They believe that only by being uncompromising, contrary to the practices of liberal democracy, can they gain control.

Even in Maine, this way of thinking is appearing.

Unless two-thirds of the Legislature agrees on a state budget, a version adopted by a simple majority and signed by the governor must be delayed for 90 days. That’s what happened this year with the basic budget. But hopes remained for a supermajority to adopt the supplemental budget.

The minority Republicans and the majority Democrats had conflicting legislative goals. They reached a compromise with some GOP gains, but the majority unsurprisingly dominated the result. The 13-member bipartisan Appropriations Committee sent the agreed budget to the House and Senate with the opposition of only one Republican.

The compromise budget, enjoying the support of Republican leaders, was expected to get the required supermajority. Then, GOP House members rebelled against a budget that had been negotiated by their own picked representatives. The House GOP leader had to abandon them.

Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham said that efforts had been made at compromise. “But at the end of the day, I listen to my caucus, and I answer to them.” With remarkable honesty, he reported that he had accepted its refusal to agree. The GOP required even more concessions to add to their major win on highway funding, which should reduce taxes.

In the final tally, the compromise budget received only three GOP votes. Two came from members of the Committee, veterans of political compromise politics who stuck by their position and the third was by the Senate GOP leader.

Maine Republicans in the Legislature had openly shed the shared values of compromise for partisan conflict. Their backs may have stiffened when the Democrats led in adopting liberal legislation on abortion and gender.

This situation revealed much about the Republican Party. While there may be more degrees of conservatism at the national level, the split between party factions was revealed by the Maine budget switch.

Nationally, the GOP is composed of four elements: Trump loyalists, the hard or extreme right, strong conservatives and moderate or economic conservatives.

The Trump loyalists are attached to Donald Trump (and possibly to any successor named Trump). They can be understood as an ultra-loyal cult or at least an ardent fan club. Wherever he leads on policy, they follow. If he is found legally guilty of anything, they would see him as the victim of a plot.

The hard right places partisanship above political responsibility. They not only disagree with Democrats; they want to destroy Democrats. This leads to conspiracy theories and endless attempts to discredit their opponents. Social media lies are their weapons. Autocratic government is their goal. They are the Orban people.

Strong conservatives will fight on wedge issues like abortion, gender identity and gun control, and also support voter suppression and more emphasis on religious rights. They demand smaller government and lower taxes. They want to reduce government aid programs for the poor and disadvantaged.

Traditional conservatives want lower taxes and reduced regulation, which they see as standing in the way of economic growth. The business wing of the party, they are less concerned about social issues than other conservatives. They are willing to seek compromises with Democrats. Among Republicans, they are fading out. The Maine budget vote showed that happening.

The growth of the hard right and strong conservatism is not limited to the U.S. The right turn has been seen in the end of U.K. membership in the EU. Italy, Israel, Sweden and France have all seen a surge of parties on the right.

In the U.S., the split between strongly conservative states and other states following more traditional politics is becoming increasingly obvious, shown by contrasting red and blue states.

Conservative Republicans want to give voters a clear choice, undiluted by compromise. They believe that’s the way to win. The 2024 elections, with or without Trump, may provide the key test for the powerful Republican right.

Supreme Court reactions: Too much heat, too little light

Gordon L. Weil

More has been said about what’s wrong with recent Supreme Court decisions than about what the decisions said.  Snap analyses have amounted to spreading half-true and often biased explanations to people who don’t read the opinions.

On one side are liberals, including justices, who give the clear impression that the Court is political, acting like a legislature, and under the control of conservative zealots.  On the other side are conservatives, who like the decisions and claim victory.

Beyond question, the Court’s majority on some major issues is composed of conservative justices. They show that there is no objective law, but rather that the Constitution and laws are subject to their mindset.  Recent controversial cases reveal how justices look at the same facts, but reach conflicting conclusions. That’s normal, and the criticism may go too far.

In one case, a cake maker who designs special sweets for customers sought to refuse any client who wanted a cake decorated for a same-sex wedding.  The designer’s religious beliefs oppose such marriages, and they wanted to conform to these teachings.  But Colorado state law bans discriminating among customers.

The Court ruled that requiring the designer to prepare such a custom cake violated their freedom of speech because the government would make them express themselves over their objection. The decision only affected design work, and did not overrule the Colorado law requiring the designer to sell any standard cake to any customer no matter its ultimate use.

The criticism of this decision was that it allowed a person’s religious belief to displace the Fourteenth Amendment requirement for equal protection of the law. The Court majority effectively decided that a First Amendment free speech right should be given more weight than that Fourteenth Amendment right.

While about a religious objection, the decision was not about religion. Suppose the designer was the descendant of a Holocaust victim and refused to place a swastika on a cake for a fascist customer.  Would opponents of the cake case decision feel the same?

In another controversial decision, the majority ruled against affirmative action in college admissions. Race by itself could not be used simply to increase the diversity of the student body.

The conservative majority noted that the universities in the case had offered no evidence that diversity produced superior academic results.  The advocates of affirmative action may believe that diversity in itself has an obvious educational value. 

The Court ruled that the relevance of a person’s race to their own life could be taken into account, but that admitting people to achieve racial balance should not be allowed.  That could amount to illegal discrimination negatively affecting applicants denied admission.  Colleges could neither deny nor offer admission based on race

After this decision, colleges could still end up with similar diversity through their individual admissions selections.  And the Court’s decision will affect only a handful of the nation’s thousands of colleges.

Another case focused on President Biden’s attempt to wipe out $430 billion in student loans using a law passed after 9/11, giving the president extra emergency powers. He had suspended loan payments during the Covid pandemic and proposed to use the terrorism law to make the suspension permanent.

The Court majority said the president could not undertake such massive spending, even for a worthy purpose, without express congressional approval.  The minority claimed that the majority had invented a new rule to reach this conclusion. That’s a legal question open to debate.

What would have been the reaction if President Trump had chosen to use his emergency authority under this law to build the wall along the Mexican border?  Wouldn’t there have been objections that he lacked such authority and could not use the 9/11 law to cover his favored spending?

In all these cases, it’s worth remembering there may be a difference between what you see as right and what is legal. 

The Court’s conservatism seems increasingly political, especially given Justice Samuel Alito’s public speeches.   In recent years, justices on both sides have become highly and rudely critical of one another.  That increases the appearance of partisanship and not judicial neutrality.

Chief Justice John Roberts, a conservative, is making some effort to close the gap.  He is putting space between himself and the extreme conservatives. But he resists a code of ethics for the Court and tolerates the political activism of some justices.

The Court’s controversial opinions reveal the false assurances by judicial nominees who tell Congress they will stick to the law. What’s the law?  Elect a conservative president and their appointees will probably produce conservative interpretations of the law.

When people are polled about major issues, they often cite the economy or immigration in determining who they support for president.  If they fail to focus on the Court, they may get decisions they don’t like.

 

Major events dominate historic June: From Putin to Supreme Court

 

Gordon L. Weil

June may turn out to have been an especially historic month.

Unusually, at least five events took place that are changing the U.S. and the world.  Amazingly, only one of them was related to a current armed conflict and, in that case, not a single member of the American military was under fire.  The historic almost became so routine as to almost miss being noticed.

The event related to war that drew worldwide notice was the uprising against Russian President Vladimir Putin and his fumbling military.  Despite his efforts to restore its former role as a world power, Russia was finally revealed as the second-rate dependency of China that it has become.

Putin had parlayed his mistakes into an epic loss.  He believed Ukraine would collapse with only a small push, that the West would not support Ukraine and that he had tamed Europe by making it dependent on Russia’s energy.  Wrong, wrong and wrong.

Suddenly, a Russian election may mean something.  Next year, a presidential election there may find Putin open to challenge.  While he can still try to throttle the opposition, ranging from repressive to reform, his success is no longer assured. 

This month, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinkin delivered to China an American message placing clear limits on what would be tolerated.  While acknowledging that the two huge economies both benefit from a good relationship, the U.S. stressed that it would not sell out its vital interests for the sake of that linkage.

He told the Chinese leadership that its shipments of the raw materials of fentanyl to Mexican drug cartels were seen as an attempt to undermine American society by promoting drug dependency.  Such exports to criminal elements were hostile acts undermining hopes for improved relations.  Arrests followed.

Despite China’s attempts to scare off American naval and air forces from the China Sea, the U.S. made clear that it would not recognize Chinese claims that the Sea was its internal waters.  Much of world trade passes through this international sea, and the U.S. and its Asian allies would keep it that way.  It’s now up to China to decide on further confrontation.

In both the U.S. and the U.K., the mighty were in the process of falling.  The British Parliament made history when it forced out Boris Johnson, a former prime minister, who had arrived with a strong electoral mandate but left in disgrace. He even lost his special pass into the building.

The action, which included his own party, was an impressive example of the strength of democracy.  The government continued to function without facing either a Capitol-style insurrection or mutiny à la Russe.   The prevailing calm almost obscured the political history.

Donald Trump, who tried too hard to hold onto the presidency and its powers, could not miss that justice was beginning to close in on him.  The public could listen to the tape of him describing papers he held on Iran policy options as laid out by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  He admitted that he was no longer president and the papers were classified.

He had led “Lock her up” chants about Hilary Clinton, his 2016 presidential rival and the missing emails on her private computer.  How could he distinguish between the two of them?  His presidential campaign coffers became the source of funding for his legal defense, revealing that the legal case was his true campaign.

Finally, the Supreme Court’s conservative solidarity began to show cracks.  Finding itself increasingly at odds with the public and with its members subject to ethics challenges, the Court began to show some signs of change.

The Court turned a corner in congressional redistricting cases.  Alabama had laid out districts that distributed African Americans so they could win no more than one House seat.  The state argued that, no matter its effect, discrimination had not been the intent of the districting law.

Previously, the justices had insisted on openly racist intent before they would overrule state districting.  That was virtually impossible to prove.  Now the Court majority has found that the Voting Rights Act allowed them to look into effect, so long as it did not impose strict proportionality.  Alabama was sent back for a redo.

But there was more.  After allowing Louisiana to create only one Black district in 2022, the Court opened the way for two such districts in 2024.  Finally, it rejected conservative claims that state legislatures could ignore state court rulings that block political gerrymandering.

Any of these June events was big news.  Together that made major history that almost got lost as one story piled on the other and other events, from abortion to immigration, captured public and political attention.

But, to paraphrase a long ago television comedy show: “That was the month that was.”