What Happens If US Democracy Fails?
It’s a good bet that most Americans don’t want to experience what the US would be like if the US democracy fails.
We might be more motivated to fight for what’s at stake if we understood the risk better.
We need to think and talk more seriously about what’s at stake. This post can help.
One way a failure of democracy could happen is pretty close to what we’re already somewhat used to: the minority party of Republicans cementing their outsized power, and continuing to block things the majority of Americans want.
This includes removing rights; favoring moves that keep the wealthy and powerful wealthy and powerful; continuing to not invest in Americans or American communities; removing safety and health regulations; increasing vulnerabilities of the most vulnerable; and so on.
A second possibility is that both democracy and government fail or reconfigure. That could be massively worse than permanent minoritarian rule, and cause a cascade of effects that hurt the most vulnerable Americans – but also threaten vulnerable countries and people around the world that live behind the current superpower protection of the US and its alliances.
These bullet points show some of the possibilities if the US democracy fails in a big way:
Americans who are the most marginalized, persecuted, vulnerable, and under-served by the US government would lose the most; and face the greatest consequences from a failure of democracy. Governments of democracies are meant to protect the safety and security of their citizens, but cannot do so if government fails. In the case of a US failure of democracy, the most vulnerable among us would likely become even more vulnerable as systems and protections fall away; and as exploitation and corruption would increase.
All rights and freedoms protected by the US Constitution could be removed or degraded.
Systems, structures, and institutions of society would likely be weakened, eroded, and corrupted. This could have huge negative impacts for millions of Americans. The website lists 10 critical parts to society that give a sense for the stakes.
The limited supply chain interruptions Americans have seen in the US in recent years from the pandemic, Russia’s war on Ukraine, and the extended Suez Canal blockage would pale in comparison to the supply chain messes and cascading effects in a failure of the democracy.
Regulations and protections for safety, health, workers, food, drinking water, waterways, air, critical infrastructure, medicine, land use, public lands, resource use, agricultural production, manufacturing, social media, and so on could be degraded or removed.
Exploitation and corruption would likely increase.
The wealth gap would increase; the wealthy would likely hold and increase power.
The rule of law would likely be more contingent on the ruling power/party rather than on a shared social contract. Corruption would likely be rampant.
Power would likely be accomplished through violence, fear, political violence, and corruption.
Loyalty to the ruling powers would be rewarded; disloyalty could be prosecuted or punished. This would be likely for any individual, family, business, organization, or affiliation.
Current limits to government power such as for illegal search and seizure, asset forfeiture, and eminent domain could become unlimited or unconstrained.
The definitions and nature of safety, security, public safety, homeland security, and national security would likely change drastically.
The current layout of federalism with the states and cities could shift, regionalize, or break up.
Worldwide, the US has been the democracy that backs other democracies for decades.
If the US democracy fails, the world order would be shaken up; countries and people that benefit from US protection, alliances, and security would become significantly more vulnerable.
Shift the Country is a non-profit set up to help energize the majority to help us hold this democracy together. We need to energize voters to vote, and we can. We’re setting up events now for action we can take between now and November 8 to help get Americans inspired and empowered in different ways and at scale. Those events will be announced here on this newsletter.
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And please pass this information along to people you know you are also interested in fighting for democracy. Part of how we hold democracy is to leverage our social networks in-real-life and online.
A longer version of this post is on the website at "What Happens If Democracy Fails."