Is our democracy sliding toward minority rule?

Majority rule – one of the bedrock principles of a democracy – may soon find its place on the endangered species list.

At least that is what many political observers contend.

Their concern is two-fold and revolves around the fact that twice since the year 2000, a presidential candidate won the popular vote, but in each instance lost the election, thanks to an antiquated system that seemingly is designed to ensure partisan minority rule.

The 2000 presidential election, of course, ultimately was decided by the United States Supreme Court in the case of Bush v. Gore, which swung the Electoral College vote in Bush’s favor despite the fact that he lost the popular vote by approximately 544,000 ballots.

In 2016, history repeated itself, as the Republican presidential candidate again lost the popular vote, this time by nearly 3 million votes, but still prevailed in the Electoral College tally as his ticket for a seat in the Oval Office.

The consequences of those two presidential elections will be long lasting, especially when it comes to the political look of the Supreme Court, which is comprised of nine members, all of whom received lifetime appointments to the nation’s highest court.

Five of the current members of the Supreme Court – Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett – were judicial byproducts of those two “lost/won” elections, and yet their political and legal influence will be felt for decades to come.

Exhibit A came on June 24 when the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, a 1973 decision upholding the constitutional right to abortion.

In writing for the majority in the 6 to 3 ruling, Justice Alito said that the Roe decision and subsequent high court cases reaffirming it over the past half-century "must be overruled" because they were "egregiously wrong," the arguments "exceptionally weak," and so "damaging" that they amounted to "an abuse of judicial authority."

Justice Alito’s last phrase apparently doesn’t apply to two of his Supreme Court brethren, Justices Gorsuch and Kavanaugh, both of whom testified in their Senate confirmation hearings that Roe v. Wade was settled law.

The decision to overturn Roe flew in the face of the public’s majority view on the hot-button subject, however, as polls have consistently shown that more than 60 percent of U.S. adults favor a woman’s right to an abortion in most instances, according to Pew Research Center surveys.

The Supreme Court’s political leanings also recently have been felt in several other high-profile cases, including the striking down of a state gun law in New York and a rethinking of the separation between church and state in a legal challenge affirming the right of a high school coach to hold midfield prayers following football games.

Again, the decisions in both cases run contrary to public sentiment, as a clear majority of voters believe that stronger gun control legislation is needed to curb the spate of mass shootings in the U.S., while polls also show that the electorate favors keeping a strong line between church and state as our Founding Fathers intended.

For good measure, the high court in late June added an exclamation point on the final day of its 2021-22 term, ruling that the Environmental Protection Agency lacks authority to regulate power plant emissions, thereby shackling governmental efforts to address climate change issues.

In effect, the Supreme Court – fueled by its conservative majority – has suddenly changed the way these so-called culture war issues will be decided for the foreseeable future and has solidified the grip that special interest lobbying groups have on Congress and state legislatures across the nation.

For those who believe in majority rule, that is a decidedly scary proposition and will come at the cost of eroding our democracy unless voters decide to reassert their power in a “We the People” kind of moment in the upcoming midterm election.

A golden opportunity awaits in November to stop the slide toward minority rule, but only if we value our cherished right to vote, a privilege that we can no longer take for granted especially in light of ongoing attempts by various state legislatures to limit access to the polls.

Those concerted efforts to suppress the vote would turn back the clock to the Jim Crow era for people of color and could threaten to disenfranchise other voting blocs that don’t fit the profile of an entrenched establishment in this country.

Shame on us if a nation of immigrants built on the belief that “all men are created equal” returns to a time when equality – and “liberty” – and “freedom” – and the “pursuit of happiness” are called into question again. Those battles already have been fought and won – during the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and in the civil rights movement.

Evidently, in some political sectors, those culture wars will need to be settled again, this time by a freshly-energized voter willing to take a stand for a more genuinely collaborative and bipartisan approach to government, run by people of honesty and integrity with the nation’s best interests at heart.

Whatever your political bent, we all have a fundamental duty to vote, which is a sacred right that will help ensure the future of our democracy. No longer is it an option to sit on the sidelines and let others do your bidding while you later wring your hands at what political apathy has wrought.

Best regards,
Jack Buchanan, President