What is a democracy?
Well, I would say “democracy” should refer to a political system that relies upon the consent of the governed.
But, I also think it’s important for democracies to be liberal. Not necessarily in the sense of being politically left of center, but in the sense of liberty. The philosopher Charles W. Mills said liberalism is characterized by “individualism, equal rights and moral egalitarianism.”
So, the government should do what the people want, but not if it violates someone’s rights.
Essential to democracy is the free and fair administration of elections. Sham referendums on joining Russia were held recently in several regions of eastern Ukraine. According to German public media, get-out-the-vote campaigners were accompanied by armed military personnel and, in some areas, ballots were filled out in public. Such a practice is entirely contrary to democratic values because it is coercive and violates voters’ privacy.
There’s a world of difference between this instance of Russian contempt for democracy and the aftermath of the 2020 election in the U.S. Yet, this contempt does have its American parallels: Despite overwhelming evidence, some people continue to believe the election was bogus.
One of them wants to help run Minnesota’s elections.
Among other things, the Minnesota Secretary of State oversees statewide elections and runs the statewide voter registration system.
The Republican nominee for the position, Kim Crockett, has called the 2020 election “the big rig.” She also said a potential change to federal voting law was “our 9/11.” Last September, she said she’s “always loved the American Revolution, and now we get to live through the second one.”
To put it mildly, the prospect of someone who ignores basic facts and talks of “revolution” being in charge of some of our election infrastructure is concerning.
Crockett also seems to have particular animus for certain groups of voters. In 2019, she was put on leave from her job at a conservative think tank after she said of Somali immigrants, “These aren’t people coming from Norway, let’s put it that way. These people are very visible.” She later apologized for her comments.
In 2020, Crockett said, “The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that indeed you can help an unlimited number of people vote if they are disabled or can’t read or speak English, which raises the question, should they be voting?”
These quotes put into sharp focus the relationship between our current battles over election results and the historical realities of American democracy. It’s both the case that we face new threats, and that our current system has flaws.
Chou Moua works with the Hmong Outreach Network and has experience interpreting for Hmong voters who have limited English skills.
“Just because you don’t speak a certain language, doesn’t mean you’re not entitled to the same human rights,” he said.
Moua highlighted that many people in the Hmong community helped the U.S. during the so-called “Secret War.” From 1964 to 1973, alongside the war in neighboring Vietnam, the U.S. bombed Laos in an attempt to cut off communist supply lines, and supported the Lao Royal Army against the communist Pathet Lao. During that war, tens of thousands of Hmong people died. Laos, the homeland of many Hmong, would become, “on a per-person basis, the most bombed nation in history.”
“One of the people that we’ve helped vote was one of the first nurses under the Lao Royal Army, who first served with the CIA. She’s in her 90s,” Moua said. This person, along with many other Hmong people, served with the “Secret Army,” which was funded by the CIA.
“She was a veteran even before she came to the United States,” Moua said. “We have folks who were very pivotal in building the America that we know now. And for them, they may be frail in a nursing home, dealing with unaddressed PTSD, not knowing, maybe speaking six languages, and English just happens to not be one of them.”
He continued, “But it doesn’t mean that they’re unintelligent. It doesn’t mean that they’re any less worthy of voting.”
Moua said that, for some of the people his organization has helped, voting can be an important sign of belonging. “We do have uncles and aunties crying once they get their [“I voted”] sticker, because they know that a little red tag means that they are no longer orphans of any country. They belong to this country.”
In American history, voting has often been restricted from disfavored groups. At the beginning of our country’s history, those who did not own property were not allowed to vote. Black men briefly gained voting rights during Reconstruction before they were taken away by Jim Crow. White women couldn’t vote in every state until 1920. Black people wouldn’t truly get the right to vote until the 1960s.
So, if a liberal democracy is a country in which the people tell the government what to do, and no one’s rights are denied to them, then the history of liberal democracy in America is pretty short.
The right to vote came under attack before 2020. Michael Minta, a political science professor at the University of Minnesota, said the Supreme Court case Shelby v. Holder in 2012 weakened Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.
According to the Brennan Center for Justice, a liberal think tank, the court struck down the formula that had been used to determine which states needed additional federal clearance before they could change their voting laws. After the ruling, states like Texas, Mississippi and Alabama moved to implement voter ID laws.
“Studies have shown that it could actually affect minority voters and also elderly voters,” Minta said about voter ID. According to NPR, older voters can sometimes have trouble getting the right ID. The Brennan Center, in a different article, points to evidence that voter ID laws disproportionately impact people of color.
And, while it’s been much rarer than restricting who can vote, there have occasionally been contested elections before 2020.
The election of 1876 featured a disputed outcome and violent suppression of Black voters. “If you had a fair election in the south, a peaceful election, there’s no question that the Republican Hayes would have won a totally legitimate and indisputable victory,” historian Eric Foner said.
Three states had disputed returns, with both Democrats and Republicans claiming to have won them. Congress created a commission to decide the outcome. They handed the presidency to Hayes, who later worked to end Reconstruction.
In the unlikely event that election deniers succeed in overturning an election result, it wouldn’t be the first time a democratic election in the U.S. was overturned, although it would be the first time this happened above the local level. In 1898, a group of white supremacists overthrew the city government of Wilmington, North Carolina. A white mob burned down the offices of a Black newspaper. Black residents fled to the edges of town.
The right to vote is an indispensable — and fragile — component of our democracy. It’s vital to both defend the liberal democracy we have, while also being aware of how it could be improved.
A poll from KSTP in early September found that Crockett was pretty much tied with Steve Simon, her Democratic opponent. However, a more recent poll found that Simon was ahead by eight percentage points.
We can’t let someone who believes a free and fair election was “rigged,” and questions whether people who don’t speak English should vote, become secretary of state. Please vote for Steve Simon this November.
