The presidential election proves that the “legitimacy” of American democracy is “waning,” according to a top Democrat on the Federal Election Commission.
“For many reasons, this was a dispiriting presidential election,” FEC Commissioner Ann Ravel wrote in a Friday column for the San Francisco Chronicle. “[A] significant lesson learned is our country’s vulnerability to creating a class of outsiders.”
Political polarization, voter turnout levels, and campaign contribution statistics all point to the declining legitimacy of the political process, Ravel said. “We are deeply polarized in a way that affects how we live our lives, how we choose where to live, and the news and information we consume.
“President Obama bemoaned this polarization earlier this year, warning that the poisonous political climate is a growing threat,” she added. “Political insults have become the norm, and bipartisanship is penalized rather than rewarded. He concluded that ‘if we can’t compromise, by definition, we can’t govern ourselves.’ This is a dire assessment by the leader of our nation.”
Ravel said that while 225 million Americans were eligible to vote this year, just over 120 million chose to do so. She argued that money in politics presented a different problem insofar as political action committees were too “white and male.”
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“The concern is not the amount of money, but that the vast majority of campaign funds come from a tiny, highly unrepresentative segment of people who then wield disproportionate power. Notably, the most prolific donors to super PACs are overwhelmingly white and male, even as the voter-eligible population is at its most diverse in American history,” Ravel wrote.
She also pointed to a study that found Americans had “become more cynical about the value of democracy as a political system, less hopeful that anything they do might influence public policy, and more willing to express support for authoritarian alternatives.”
Ravel said the top solutions included encouraging more minorities to run for office. “Together, we must reduce barriers so that it’s easier, not harder, to vote. More people should be encouraged to run for office, particularly those who have traditionally been underrepresented: women, communities of color, and people of modest income. If people feel that they have a part in shaping outcomes, then the perception that the system is ‘rigged’ may lessen.”
Ravel, a member of the commission since 2013, previously served as the head of California’s Fair Political Practices Commission. She has been cited as a top prospect to replace the state’s outgoing attorney general, Kamala Harris, who won election to the Senate on Tuesday.
