Is Anti-Politics Here to Stay
Or can we do something better?
I recently started feeling slightly more optimistic for the future of democracy in the United States. Court decisions, the financial markets, public opinion and ineptitude have slowed down the Trump regime’s progress towards authoritarianism and constitutional crisis. Slowed down, not halted though, and I’ve seen no change in the regime’s intent or rhetoric. A lot can happened between now and the 2028 election, but I felt better than I did earlier in the year.
My blip of optimism didn’t last long, though. When I look past the immediate threats posed by the Trump regime, the horizon looks pretty dark to me. Our government and democracy just doesn’t work right. Support of and opposition to the Trump regime seems to be consuming all our political energy, leaving none available to advance viable proposals to fix our broken political system and address the issues of greatest concerns to most Americans. During my adult life there have been a few rays of sunshine, but politics have been on a steady decline to the dark and dismal, regardless of which party occupied the White House. Apparently I’m not the only citizen who holds such a view.
A 2023 Pew Research Center study1 of U.S. politics found that the public is deeply dissatisfied with politics:
Just 4% of U.S. adults say the political system is working extremely or very well; another 23% say it is working somewhat well. About six-in-ten (63%) express not too much or no confidence at all in the future of the U.S. political system.
Positive views of many governmental and political institutions are at historic lows. Just 16% of the public say they trust the federal government always or most of the time. While trust has hovered near historic lows for the better part of the last 20 years, today it stands among the lowest levels dating back nearly seven decades. And more Americans have an unfavorable than favorable opinion of the Supreme Court – the first time that has occurred in polling going back to the late 1980s.
A growing share of the public dislikes both political parties. Nearly three-in-ten (28%) express unfavorable views of both parties, the highest share in three decades of polling. And a comparable share of adults (25%) do not feel well-represented by either party.
Candidate choices are underwhelming. As the presidential campaign heats up, 63% of Americans say they are dissatisfied with the candidates who have emerged so far. Setting aside the presidential campaign, there has been a downward trend in views of the quality of all political candidates. Just 26% rate the quality of political candidates as very or somewhat good, down about 20 percentage points since 2018.
Majorities back age and term limits and eliminating the Electoral College. Reflecting the public’s frustration with the federal government and political leaders, large shares of Americans support various changes to the political system, including for such long-standing proposals as establishing term limits for members of Congress and scrapping the Electoral College. Age limits – for both federal elected officials and members of the Supreme Court – draw broad support. But there is little appetite in the public for increasing the size of the U.S. House or modifying the allocation of Senate seats.
I’m willing to bet that if the survey for this study were repeated today, the results would show even greater dissatisfaction.
The Pew study was referenced in a posting in
, “The Rise of Anti-Politics”.
The article argues that the U.S. is experiencing a deep crisis of confidence in traditional politics, leading to the rise of “anti-politics”—a widespread public rejection of established democratic norms, institutions, and procedures. This phenomenon manifests in two main ways: populism and fragmentation/apathy.
Both versions start from the premise that traditional representative democracy—elections, legislative debate, policy making, executive decisions, judicial review, citizen participation—is a deeply flawed system of governance that is unresponsive to citizens’ desires and therefore requires radical disruption or rejection and withdrawal from politics to focus on personal aspects of life.
On the right, Donald Trump represents a nationalist, personality-driven form of anti-politics that thrives on distrust of elites and institutions.
Trump tries to achieve some ideological coherency in his approach, but his form of anti-politics ultimately boils down to an agenda based on his own whims, lifelong obsessions, demands for fealty, and attacks on anyone or anything that gets in his way.
On the left, Bernie Sanders embodies a version of anti-politics focused on dismantling economic inequality through democratic socialism.
Bernie Sanders represents a more ideological form of leftist anti-politics based on the primary belief that everything in American life is a rigged game that favors the wealthy. His supporters despise establishment politics. His solution for nearly every problem is always to attack the “oligarchs” and “billionaires” and to replace plutocratic government with some nascent form of democratic socialism built on high taxation, nationalized health care, a smaller military, green energy policies, and universal social spending.
While Trump has successfully taken over the Republican Party and won elections, Sanders has not achieved the same level of control within the Democratic Party.
Why are both Trump and Sanders considered exemplars of anti-politics rather than politics? It’s not just semantics. Both men and their movements are engaged in political activity, but it is a distinctly disruptive form of political action rather than a steady, incremental approach designed to achieve policy goals through majoritarian legislation or other bipartisan measures.
Anti-politics generally works much better as an election framework than as a blueprint for governing. Populist anti-politics is thus best viewed as a shock to the system, not a well administered and widely supported course of treatment. The strengths and weaknesses of this model are best seen in the heavy dose of executive actions early in Trump’s second term coupled with his rapidly declining job approval ratings.
Outside of partisan populism, many Americans are increasingly disengaged, either turning to alternative media or opting out of politics entirely. This fragmentation-apathy side of anti-politics is driven by frustration with polarization, ineffective governance, and perceived corruption.
The fragmentation-apathy side of anti-politics is most apparent in the backlash to mainstream media and other expert bodies along with the proliferation of new social media influencers, podcasters, bloggers, activists, tech evangelists, and regular people “doing their own research” to get around the partisan gatekeepers they feel routinely mislead or lie to the public.
“I hate politics and won’t participate” is a rapidly growing if disorganized movement among independent and non-affiliated Americans who are fed up with partisan rhetoric and policy failures.
Looking ahead, the article outlines three potential outcomes:
Right-wing anti-politics dominates through Trump’s successors.
Left-wing anti-politics gains ground if Trump fails and Democrats shift left.
A moderate return to normalcy arises, though likely short-lived.
Ultimately, the article concludes that anti-politics is here to stay, and its disruptive nature may continue to erode rational, cooperative governance for the foreseeable future.
The stark reality is that anti-politics isn’t going away anytime soon. The days of civic-minded officials working cooperatively within and across party lines to advance national economic, social, and security goals with public backing are either long gone or a romantic delusion.
…
More likely than not, however, anti-politics will continue to swamp rational efforts at consensus building and pragmatic policy making in defense of America’s interests and all its people.
Not an encouraging prognosis for government, democracy or the common good.
It’s tempting to join fragmented-apathy citizens and throw up my hands in disgust. But then I wouldn’t be a vigilant citizen and would be contributing to failure and decay. So what to do?
I’ll keep watching the Trump regime and oppose its most egregious anti-democratic and unconstitutional acts, but I’ll leave the day-to-day outrage to others. I’m going to focus more on the root causes of failure in our political system and investigate solutions. An engineer’s approach, because that’s the way I know best.
Pew Research Center, September, 2023, “Americans’ Dismal Views of the Nation’s Politics” https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2023/09/19/americans-dismal-views-of-the-nations-politics/