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Hi reader,

today I’d like to talk to you about the USA, elections and democracy. To write down one’s thoughts is never easy, and in all the occasions in which, in the past, I had to face such a task, I have always tried to simplify the process following a simple path: to tell the facts and give my opinion. I have never considered it important to illustrate the story behind the reflection, its origins, the path that it followed in my mind. However, just for this time, allow me to make an exception.

Allow me to because this article, which I started at the end of 2020 and which I would have initially entitled “America 2020: a lesson of democracy”, couldn’t remain the same after the events that have disconcerted the very United States, its citizens, and its institutions on January the 6th, and that have kept millions of people around the world glued to the news. Even before the dramatic facts of Capitol Hill (here’s a summary: Capitol Hill riots - Wikipedia) broke out on the world stage with all their brutality, I was aware that stating “These last overseas elections give us a lecture of democracy which would deserve to be on the history books!” would have made me sound a bit exaggerated: the 2020 US presidential elections have surely been unique (because they have taken place in the middle of a health crisis of unimaginable proportions, because they have involved extensive use of the postal voting system, because for the first time in the history of the country they have brought to the election of a woman as Vice President), and it is certain that we will remember them for many years, but in the end they remain elections, something apparently normal and natural in the functioning of a democratic system, not something special or unusual which must be studied under the microscope.

But even if I might have sounded exaggerated before, after having witnessed those terrifying images of citizens who, denying the validity of the vote, raged against their fellows, committed acts of violence, and disfigured their institutions instigated from the person they believed to be the legitimate President (and who at that moment was still the most powerful man of one of the most powerful countries of the world), those images which went around the world and at which everyone has reacted by thinking “This is the death of democracy”, at that point I truly felt like it was an impossible mission.

For some days I also thought to have witnessed the execution live of any ideals that ever inspired the Western systems since their birth, and even when I regained a bit of optimism I told myself that, after all that senseless violence and that brutal outburst of hate, I could have never made the 2020 American elections pass as a democratic example.

Thinking about it better, however, I decided to continue with this idea in mind: maybe, what happened across the Atlantic can still be considered as a lesson, but one on democracy rather than of democracy. These events have brought back to our attention something that perhaps we had forgotten, something that we had not realized about our form of government, and for me this is always a good thing because it has avoided the fate which awaits many features of our institutions: to be taken for granted and never deepened enough.

To better understand which element of democracy was brought back to us thanks to the 2020 elections, it is sufficient to watch the data and understand what else has made these elections an unprecedented event: the record turnout at the polls, which involving the 66.7% of the eligible voters (159.633.396 people) has reached the peak since the beginning of the XX century. Remarkable numbers, which are even more stunning if one thinks that they arrive at a pretty complex time of emergency in which even going outside to vote is not that obvious.

Numbers so relevant that they could not have some significance also at the institutional level, and which have indeed become protagonists of the words with which, at the Italian 2:40 a.m. of 8 November 2020, the new Vice-President Kamala Harris has opened her victory speech. Quoting John Lewis, congressman and front-line civil rights leader who died in July 2020, Harris has said:

« Congressman John Lewis, before his passing, wrote: “Democracy is not a state. It is an act.” And what he meant was that America’s democracy is not guaranteed. It is only as strong as our willingness to fight for it, to guard it and never take it for granted. And protecting our democracy takes struggle. It takes sacrifice. But there is joy in it, and there is progress. Because we the people have the power to build a better future. »

Democracy is not a state, it is an act.

Maybe, besides the drama of the context in which they took place and of the events that followed, the 2020 US presidential elections have also shown us with rare clarity how even the most solid democracy of the Western world, which have exerted an influence almost unmatched on many other systems for decades, is based on the same foundation on which all the others are built: on citizens. If this base does not cooperate with conviction, if it does not actively participate, if it is not an active part of the democratic processes, no good result can really be achieved.

But what does it mean in practice that “good result” that democracy can help us achieve when individuals make their fundamental contribution? Defining who is right and who is wrong is never easy in such situations, which are substantially competitions entailing only one winner and many losers: that which is good for one side will never totally match that of the other side, and for each person rejoicing there will be another disappointed, discontented, asking if that choice will really bring forth a better world. What I mean with “good result”, however, does not depend on factions or the names of the contestants: the higher the number of people participating in the electoral activity of the State and fuelling the engine of democracy to function properly, the more the image of the country arising after the voting will be considered true to reality and thus useful to plan future political action. Helping a democratic system to express its true potential means contributing to an accurate analysis of the problem to address with targeted and efficient interventions.

And what better example than the 2020 US presidential elections, a full-fledged marathon, a battle to the last ballot, with results debated and debated again, checked and double-checked, uncertain until the last moment as it had not happened in twenty years (since Al Gore lost by a handful of votes against George W. Bush in 2000). This running always on a razor’s edge, ended with the savage contestation of the outcome of the voting process, seems to be an utterly negative element of this chapter of the US history – also because it has led to violence. However, as a perfectly functioning thermometer, it has shown us a picture of the national state of affairs clearer than any prevision, survey, or expert’s opinion could have ever had: after many examples of events that during that tormented year had indicated the underlying and growing internal tensions, here came the very numbers attesting the fact that the United States is today an extremely divided country.

Is it good news? Not according to our normal criteria of evaluation, and it is for sure something that causes worry since it concerns such a relevant State in the international arena, and since this division has only found violent rather than diplomatic ways to express itself up until now. Nevertheless, becoming aware of a problem and accepting its existence is always the first step to solve it (one has at least an element from which to start and ground one’s future course of action), and it is no accident that, after the incredible series of events that ended in his election, Joe Biden has publicly taken upon himself to be “the president of all Americans”, probably aware of the fact that healing the deep wounds of his country will be the first and most demanding challenge of his presidency.

If this “good” starting point will end up in an administration just as “good”, only time can tell. However, its presence demonstrates that democracy, if it expresses its true potential and can count on a widespread popular contribution, can really be the link and the communication channel through which citizens can express their wills, needs, and priorities to their institutions. Democracy has always been, by its nature and definition, the system of vox populi (“the voice of the people”). But, maybe, the real lesson that these presidential elections have taught us on democracy is that this voice, to tell it as it is even though it may seem frightening, needs the highest possible number of mouths to let it speak.

Democracy is not a state, it is an act, and maybe, when in a very different era Winston Churchill said that “it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time”, he did not want to criticize as much as he wanted to remind us that, like any other human product, democracy is neither perfect nor limitless, because its power depends on those extremely imperfect creatures that are people.

In my opinion, America 2020 reminds us that – paraphrasing another renowned US President, John Fitzgerald Kennedy – we should start asking ourselves not only what our democracy can do for us, but also and above all what we can do for our democracy. And if a possible answer to this question is “we could start talking about it, discuss it, thinking about it”, then you are in the right place, reader, and I how that this reflection of mine, albeit complex and not always easy, can help you do this.

What do you think of this analysis? Are there elements that should be further explored? Do you think that democracy is alive or taken for granted around you? Let us know by leaving a comment here, sending us an email with your reflections or commenting on the related post on our social profiles.

Thank you for your attention,

Diletta Blangero

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