The heading of this post is in quotation marks, because it’s what the Occupy Wall Street participants chanted as they took over public parks beginning on 17 September, 2011. 17 September is also the anniversary of the U.S. Constitution being sent out to the states for ratification. The constitution provides a means for addressing political problems, and chanting “this is what democracy looks like”, working on mass chants with 100% consensus, and appearing on Pacifica radio stations isn’t the way. The way is through electoral politics and legislation, which brings me to Donald Trump.
I’m quite certain that some readers of this essay are disgusted with seeing a picture of Donald Trump under a header that reads “This is What Democracy Looks Like”, but put your disgust aside and ponder this salient fact: Donald Trump was duly elected president of this rotting corpse of a republic on 5 November, 2024. Let me state that again. Donald Trump was duly elected on 5 November, 2024 by the citizens of this republic. Despite his abysmal first term, which included a churning flux of cabinet firings, an impeachment over an attempt to blackmail the president of Ukraine, his egregiously inept response to the pandemic, and his attempt to overthrow the government on 6 January, 2021, the citizens of the United States voted to return him to office.
Anyone who knows me is aware of my love for The West Wing. I consider it one of the finest television shows ever created, and there’s one line from that show that I use over and over whenever I have a discussion about the 2024 election:
“Decisions are made by those who show up”
Let’s take a look at who showed up to vote in 2024, or more importantly, who didn’t show up. In 2024 approximately 155 million voters cast ballots, yielding a turnout rate of approximately 65.3%. That’s a decrease of 1. 5% from the 2020 election, and that 1.5% was the margin of Trump’s majority in 2024. In a democracy, even a fakakta democracy like the one we have in this country, a majority, no matter how small, gives you the power to govern.
A 1.5% drop off in voters from 2020 is crucial in a crazy-quilt country like ours, because the 93 Electoral College votes of seven swing states (Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin) are essential to a presidential candidate securing the 270 Electoral College votes for victory. The Harris/Walz ticket failed to carry any of the swing states, and those 93 Electoral College votes, combined with the ruby red totals from the usual suspects (Texas, Florida, Alabama, Ohio, et.al.), put the Trump/Vance ticket over the finish line.
So, what’s the reason behind the 1.5% drop off in voters from the 2020 election? According to exit polls, the war in Gaza played a significant role in depressing voter turnout among younger Democratic and independent voters, especially in key swing states, such as Michigan and Pennsylvania. Apparently, those who had concerns about the war in Gaza did one of three things: cast a quixotic vote for a third party candidate, abstained for voting for president, or opted not to vote at all.
I have nothing to say about those who voted for a third party presidential candidate in 2024, or in any presidential election. Third party presidential candidates and their voters remind me of athlete’s foot and jock itch: fungal infections that crop up from time to time, then vanish. But those who abstained from the presidential vote, or who didn’t vote at all because of the war in Gaza, forgot, or never learned, that decisions are made by those who show up.
The 2024 election reminded me of another election: the 2010 midterms. President Obama swept into office in the 2008 general election with a solid majority in both the popular and Electoral College vote. His coattails were broad enough to gave the Democrats 257 seats in the House and 59 seats in the Senate. Obama took office as the country was reeling from the 2008 financial meltdown and Great Recession. The efforts he and the Democrats in Congress took to address this crisis weren’t enough for those who would start the Occupy Wall Street movement, and they were too much government overreach for those who would start the Tea Party movement. Two movements. Both pissed off. But only one of these movements actually succeeded in achieving their goals, because they showed up.
The Tea Party recruited candidates at all levels of government, got millions of voters to show up in the 2010 election, and the Republicans gained 63 seats in the House, yielding one of the largest shifts of House seats in American history. The Tea Party movement should have chanted “this is what democracy looks like”, because they exercised their democratic rights as citizens by showing up at the polls on election day in 2010, and turning President Obama’s 2008 electoral triumph into a 21st century Dunkirk. Since 2010 was also a census year, Republican majorities in state legislatures and governor’s mansions ensured that the House majority would remain intact, as Republican legislatures drew the district lines for legislative seats.
Occupy Wall Street began on 17 September, 2011, over ten months after the Tea Party’s electoral romp over the Democrats. Perhaps because the movement’s membership skewed younger than the Tea Party’s, the Occupy folks believed that chanting “this is what democracy looks like” would be the magic elixir to address income inequality and the federal government’s glaring lack of financial oversight, which was a primary cause behind the 2008 financial meltdown. Or maybe they believed that by amassing large libraries of books on economic theory and practice at their encampments around the United States, the knowledge would flow from the books to the legislators on Capitol Hill, who would then write the laws that would usher in the economic utopia they so eagerly sought. Not to knock youthful idealism, for I was once youthful and idealistic…for about fifteen minutes. Seriously, if the Occupy folks truly believed that chanting “this is what democracy looks like” would make a damn bit of difference, it’s little wonder that their movement has been consigned to the ash heap of history. What democracy looks like is backing candidates who will enact the legislation you want, or running for office to enact that legislation. Chanting cute slogans, or staying home on election day out of petulant purity isn’t what democracy looks like, but it can yield the election of an authoritarian who can ensure that future elections, if they take place, will make a mockery of democracy.