Growing threat to American democracy: Winning at all costs

Over nearly 250 years, the United States has built the greatest economic force on earth — the largest by GDP, possessor of the world’s reserve currency, the largest recipient of foreign direct investment, and more. But by the time President Biden signed the Fiscal Responsibility Act into law earlier this month, the United States was a mere 48 hours away from defaulting on its obligations, an event that could have permanently risked our earned reputation as a global power. 

The good news is America’s political leaders did come together to forge an agreement to avoid default and make the most significant improvements to our nation’s fiscal trajectory in over a decade. The Fiscal Responsibility Act could generate more than a trillion dollars in savings over the next decade, or twice as much if future budget targets are taken seriously. Given that it would take $8 trillion in savings to stabilize the debt levels over the next decade, much more work remains to be done. And a good next step would be to establish a bipartisan commission to bring our debt down to a sustainable level, as has been suggested by Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).

But beyond the fiscal benefits, the Fiscal Responsibility Act received support from 314 representatives and 63 senators, which is more total votes than any major deficit reduction bill in the last quarter century. The overwhelming majority in the House and Senate who voted for the bill, and the leaders who negotiated it, accepted there had to be a compromise — no one got everything they wanted, and they were willing to come together for the benefit of the American people. In part, this is the way our system is supposed to work.

Yet despite this success, the process it took to get there is far from what should be expected of the world’s global economic leader. The exhausting dysfunction within our political system was once again on full display throughout the debt ceiling debate, and it is illustrative of more profound challenges that, left unaddressed, make it likely our nation eventually does stumble into a self-inflicted crisis, default or otherwise.

While most Americans are fed up with our dysfunctional politics, the means to remedy it are oft misunderstood. What is required is not political regime change or removing specific individuals from power, whether they are replaced with preferred partisans or “outsiders.” Rather the danger that lies at the heart of our dysfunctional policymaking is a self-destructive obsession with “winning” with a tripartite creed: winning now, winning “my way,” and winning at all costs.

These core concepts manifest themselves in numerous interrelated ways, as exemplified during the debt ceiling debate. One is that our system consistently prioritizes political gamesmanship over sound policy, as our elected officials spent months waiting for their counterparts to cave on their demands as America’s economic foundation, built over centuries, inched closer to self-inflicted collapse. The debt limit should have been raised well before the use of extraordinary measures began in January, which have become all too ordinary.

Another illustration is the demolition of longstanding norms, often for political and/or personal gain, such as the willingness by some to use the threat of national default as a bargaining chip, including a former president of the United States openly calling for default if all their demands are not met.

The never-ending partisan warfare drives the American public, except the most ideologically or politically devoted, to detach from political debates, fomenting a feedback loop in which policymaking and the public response thereto are increasingly ceded to the extremes. As a result, the need to reinvigorate the disengaged to overcome the growing threat to American democracy has become our country’s paramount challenge.

The polarizing division, distrust, and dysfunction threatening our democracy didn’t happen overnight, and overcoming it will require a long-term effort to address the incentives empowering partisan extremes while revitalizing core norms and values that make our system work. A good place to start would be establishing independent redistricting commissions to reduce the influence of partisan gerrymandering, along with opening closed partisan primaries, both of which could disincentivize candidates and policymakers from appealing to the most partisan voters.

We should also reprioritize civic education in schools, preparing future leaders with the skills and lived experiences required for democratic citizenship. And we should scale up the hundreds of different local, state, and national organizations that are seeking to change behavior at the individual level by promoting spaces and interventions that foster mutual understanding and empathy across political differences.

But, ultimately, counteracting the forces pulling our political system apart will require promoting the valuable lessons from the debt ceiling debate, such as restoring the lost art of compromise, while reckoning with how dangerous and unacceptable our cold civil war has become. If we collectively call out our nation’s self-destructive spell and promote the need to put country over party, compromise over conflict, and long-term national benefit over short-term political gain, then there may be a chance to fix us yet.

Michael Murphy is Senior Vice President at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and Director of FixUS. Andrew Henry is a Program Associate at FixUS.