These have been a dark few years in which many suppositions about the U.S. system of government have come into question. You can see it in the polls showing the loss of trust. It has pertained to everything from medicine to media to tech to academia and of course government.
In addition, the sources we once associated with expertise have pushed agendas that have contradicted all experience and hence have been rejected by vast numbers.
The United States is hardly alone in this. Most countries of the world today are dealing with a wrenching upheaval in politics and social order generally. Stability has turned to instability, certainty to uncertainty, and clarity to the fog of war. The resulting thicket seemed to offer no way out.
As an inevitable part of this, many people have questioned whether the democratic system of choosing leaders works properly anymore. Protests following election returns are common worldwide, not necessarily because people have stopped believing in the ideal but because they doubt that the count is accurate and the ballots are legitimate. Technology has not helped this problem but rather introduced more doubt.
This is a major reason for the shock concerning election results. It’s not just that the Republicans swept the presidency and one if not both houses of Congress but also the popular vote, which no one really believed possible. The betting markets gave such an outcome very low odds.
Many people this year trudged the polls with grave doubts about the relevance of what they were doing. Is the system so broken that the will of the people no longer matters as compared with the power of the elites?
This was a real shock, from people from all sides. It was that the people’s voice rose above all the money, manipulation, claims of fraud, uncertainties over voter ID, technology, and so much more. For years now, people have habitually found fault with nearly everything. The prediction was that the conclusion of the vote in the presidency would take days, weeks, or even months. Such a prospect is enormously depressing for a nation that imagines itself to be a great one.
But sure enough, the results came in on a perfect schedule, as the polls closed, culminating in a result for a candidate that had for years now faced down attacks from every angle. It was the least expected conclusion to the most contentious election of our lives or perhaps in a century or more. It was a clean victory for Donald J. Trump, including the popular vote. Not only that: it was a credible result. That’s the key.
The result accomplished much. It wiped out several years of partisan agitation against the system of the Electoral College as established in the U.S. Constitution. The purpose of this institution is to grant a more even representation of the states as entities over the popular will. This traces to the federalist system established by the Founders, not a unity government from the center but a federation of states that have come together for their common betterment. Wiping that structure out would have been transformative.
But with a victory of the popular vote, that is no longer an issue. It would not have changed the result. This feature, truly blessed, of the outcome also quelled much-predicted street violence. Even the concession speech by Kamala Harris was conciliatory, and contained not even one hint of funny business or rigging. It was a clear and challenged expression of popular will to which everyone on all sides had to accede.
As she said, this does not mean giving up principles or disappearing. It means working harder in the future for causes in which one believes to make them ascend in the public mind, waiting to be embodied in a candidate who can carry those concerns to the halls of power.
In other words, we have been granted, and mercifully, a peaceful transition of power. Herein lies the genius of the democratic form. It was never created or defended because it produces perfection. It is messy and difficult. Its purpose as forged hundreds of years ago, even tracing to ancient times, is to provide a better solution to public discontent than war and revolution. To prevent violence, bloodshed, and social dissolution is the whole point.
And that is precisely what has happened. We had in contest here two dramatically different visions of the role of government. Instead of civil war, we had ballot boxes and peace.
If you voted this time, you know this interesting feeling of being handed a ballot and given a private space to make your selection. It confers on the individual a sense of responsibility and influence, not ultimate power of course but something else: a right of participation in the civic commonwealth. The remarkable thing about 2024 is the voters were able to see how their participation makes a crucial difference.
This experience alone has done more to restore American patriotism than anything to occur in many years. Americans could feel pride in the wisdom of the Founders. Crucially, the results echoed around the world, encouraging millions and billions to see how it is possible to go against the grain of the establishment, the media, the academic elites, and the whole system of intimidation and control, and do so in a way that is consistent with civility and public order.
Once again, America provided a beautiful lesson to the world in how it is done. It’s been many years since we could feel pride in that. Many people around the world, watching the lockdowns unfold and the political conflicts grow ever more intense, had begun to wonder if we still had it, if this country was still capable of leading by example. Well, we did. And the example will resound all over the world, encouraging “populist” movements in all countries. We did it not through force of arms or financial pressure but rather by being an example of light in the darkness.
We should not underestimate the power of this. Many people the world over are looking to the United States to protect free speech, guarantee election integrity, uphold the ideal of democracy, and celebrate the possibility of living together under a system of transparent integrity.
There is a long way to go with much-needed and far-reaching reform, and everyone must hope that the new administration is willing to do what is necessary. That said, Election Day was a wonderful start, an example to the world that freedom still works and is still valued here and should be everywhere.
Do you feel a sudden sense of pride in what we have here, despite all the flaws and missteps? I certainly do. It’s been a long time coming but it seems finally to be here. For that we should all be deeply grateful.
