The Farce of Democracy: How a Symbol Maintains the Status Quo

Dr. Jorge J Rodriguez V | Feb 7 2017

In the United States “democracy” is not a reality but a symbol which helps us maintain the myth that this country is somehow exceptional, above the rest. We hear people praise the United States because “we have democracy,” “everyone is free to vote,” and “people control the government.” Such rhetoric legitimizes U.S. interventions overseas under the justification of “spreading democracy.”

But the reality is that democracy—a political structure where every person has equal vote and equal opportunity to participate in government—has never existed in the United States. This claim can be historically defended. The Electoral College was created to limit the number of votes people from various parts of the country are allowed (all while deciding who is and is not citizen and even who is and is not considered “human”). By definition, this is not democracy. Though more and more social groups have gained the right to vote in the last half century voter suppression remains rampant. There are blatant examples like U.S. colonies (e.g. Puerto Rico, American Samoa) and Washington D.C. not being allowed the right to vote and more subtle ones like people (of color) being turned away at voting booths across the country. In both, suppression of the vote seems ubiquitous—and by definition not democratic. Finally, if the 2016 elections are any indication, only those with access to money and wealth even have the chance to run for office. Indeed Donald Trump and Betsy Devos’ (confirmed today) only qualifications for political office are that they have wealth. And a government run by the rich is an oligarchy, not a democracy.

Thus the idea that the United States is a democracy is objectively and qualitatively false. This is not a controversial point, it’s empirically verifiable.

Yet we need to understand how the idea of democracy is wielded in popular imagination to preserve the status quo. If the masses are constantly told they can change those political realities they disagree with in the next voting cycle, radical change in the “now” is quelled. Unethical business transactions by politicians or deadly bombings overseas, under this symbolic democracy, are not seen as systemic realities inherent in the governmental system but temporary decisions that can be corrected by voting in a new official. Indeed, that Donald Trump droned the same community in Yemen as Barrack Obama is not a surprise, because they are both part of the governmental system. Yet because we are told we can vote people in and out of office we assume drone strikes will cease as soon as we elect another president. My point is that a symbolic democracy maintains the status quo by making us think in election cycles that we allegedly have control over and not systemic realities that will continue until the structures of power are dismantled, no matter who is in office.

We need to question how democracy is wielded as a symbol—not a reality—to keep us content and limit our political imagination. But right now we can’t afford to be swept away by empty symbols. We need to continue living into the radical tradition of protest, critical pedagogy, sanctuary, and undermining those systems that cause death, discrimination, and destruction. Perhaps then, and only then, can we have an actual conversation about real democracy.

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Also see: Farcical Folley