Democrats are attacking democracy, too
ALBANY — Democrats tell us the coming election is about saving democracy. If Joe Biden loses, the claim goes, this little experiment of ours may end.
“Whether democracy is still America’s sacred cause is the most urgent question of our time,” Biden said recently. “And it’s what the 2024 election is all about.”
That seems hyperbolic to me, but maybe you disagree. We can debate that another time, if you’d like. But what’s inarguable, I think, is that Democrats are limiting choice and undermining democracy while claiming they’re trying to save it. The hypocrisy is blatant.
Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein made that point during a visit to Albany this week. As she launched her petition drive to get on New York’s ballot, she noted that this very blue state has among the nation’s harshest laws for party and independent candidates.
In 2020, state lawmakers increased the number of required signatures needed to petition onto the ballot from 10,000 to 45,000. The rules were also toughened for party qualifications — an effort blatantly aimed at limiting the range of choices available to voters.
“The Democrats constantly claim to be ‘fighting for democracy,’ yet shortly after they took control of New York state government they passed one of the harshest anti-democracy laws in the world,” Stein said, noting the party’s “shameless scheming to keep their competition off the ballot.”
Stein’s campaign is pushing for universal health care and an end to what she calls the Gaza genocide. You don’t have to agree with her lefty politics to think that the New Yorkers who do agree deserve a chance to vote their conscience. If you believe in democracy, truly and sincerely, you believe in choice. Real choice. You tolerate varied views.
Alas, the scheming isn’t just a New York problem. Democrats nationally are waging an open war on ballot choice, with, as NBC News reported, several deep-pocketed super PACS devoted to crushing third-party candidates. It’s an ugly effort, unprecedented in its scope.
The motivation is clear. Democrats believe the 51,000 votes received by Stein in Michigan cost Hillary Clinton
in the 2016 race against Donald Trump, and they want to avoid a repeat. So, they’re trying to force a binary decision on voters: Biden the Democrat or Trump the Republican.
That’s it. That’s all the democracy you get.
Of course, polls suggest voters are deeply unsatisfied with the choice, so much so that third-party candidates — “spoilers,” supposedly — might have significant influence this time around. You may not automatically think that’s a bad thing.
From Biden’s perspective, the most noteworthy potential threat would seem to be Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who’s attracting about 12 percent of the vote in national polling averages and is most popular among younger voters considered key members of the Democratic base. When Kennedy is included by pollsters, Trump’s lead often grows.
If Biden and Democrats wanted to be democratic with a small-d, they would make Biden’s case to voters, particularly younger ones. They would explain why they believe he’s the best choice among all the available candidates. They would persuade, coax, convince.
But they're worried all that democracy stuff won't work. So they're seeking to kick Kennedy, Stein and other thirdparty candidates to the curb, even though most voters want more choice rather than less. No democracy for you!
On Wednesday, I talked to Jim Shear, a Kennedy supporter in Glenville who is involved in gathering signatures for the independent candidate. Shear, who is 75 and retired from the Thruway Authority, expects Kennedy will easily garner enough signatures to qualify but also expects Democrats will fight to knock him off the ballot.
“Democrats are going to challenge every signature, so they have to be perfect,” Shear told me. “They want the candidates they pick to be the only candidates.”
That’s undemocratic, obviously. It’s also bad for the future of the country, as some young Kennedy supporters may justifiably conclude the system is rigged. Voters who lack real choice may lose interest. Some won’t vote.
That gets at why the notion that third-party candidates “spoil” elections is daft. Spoil them for who, exactly?
Nobody can know that the 51,000 Michigan voters who chose Stein eight years ago would have otherwise voted for Clinton. Some might have stayed home. A few might have voted for Trump. Different strokes for different folks and all that.
I know some of you will respond to this by noting Republican support for the Big Lie and Trump’s attempt to steal the 2020 election. So to be clear, the argument here is not that Trump is a paragon of democratic virtue. He isn’t. Not by a long shot.
But responding to Trump with attacks on democracy only amplifies the problem. It also will lead some voters to conclude, rightly, that Democrats don’t mean what they say.