The US election got me thinking about the power of ideology.

Blair Fix

I rarely write about partisan politics on this blog. Today, though, I'll
make an exception. As the spectre of a second Trump term remains
possible, here are some thoughts on the US election.

### Avoiding democracy

A second Trump term is possible largely because the US electoral system
is designed to avoid democracy. To be fair to the US, though, many of
the world's democracies have similar features.

In many democracies, government power is decided not in terms of the
popular vote, but in terms of subregion plurality. Whoever wins a
plurality of votes in a given district gets all the government
representation (in the district). The result, often, is that government
power has little to do with popular sentiment and more to do with the
quirks of regional differences.

The US [electoral
college](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Electoral_College){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"} is just one example of this backwards system, though one
that is admittedly bizarre. The electoral college creates a two-step
process for electing presidents. Voters in each state technically vote
for 'electors', and these 'electors' then vote for the president. The
catch is that electors in each state are allotted by plurality. Whoever
gets the most votes gets all the state's electors. As Trump's 2016 win
(and Bush's 2000 win before him) shows, this means that a candidate can
win the election with a minority of votes.

The electoral college is uniquely bizarre only because state 'electors'
are purely symbolic. They have no role after the election. But in all
other ways, the electoral college is similar to the
[first-past-the-post](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-past-the-post_voting){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"} system found in many democracies. This system often
leads to minority rule.

In Canada, for instance, we suffered through a decade of rule by
[Stephen
Harper](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Harper){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}. Throughout his time in power, Harper was disapproved of
by the majority of Canadians. Yet he won three elections. How? Two
reasons. First, Harper's *disapproval* was spread out across the whole
country. His *approval*, in contrast, was concentrated in the West.
Second, the progressive vote (against Harper) was split between 4
parties, while the conservative vote (for Harper) was consolidated in a
single party.

Interestingly, Stephan Harper eventually lost power to a party that
promised to implement [proportional
representation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proportional_representation){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}. But once in power, it decide not to. It was a clever
bait-and-switch that many keen observers saw coming.

Back to the US. With its state-biased senate and electoral college
system, the US merely takes the problems of non-proportional
representation farther than other democracies.

### The ideological landscape

Much has already been said about the anti-democratic nature of the US
electoral college. What gets less attention, though, is that a huge
chunk of the US population *still voted for Trump*. To observers outside
the country, this fact is inexplicable. How can Trump --- with his
incessant lying and near-criminal ineptness --- possibly get so many
votes?

This points to the importance of *ideology*. In ideological terms, the
US is an outlier. Its devotion to free-market fundamentalism is extreme.
If you live outside the US, you already know this. But what's
interesting is that many Americans have no idea that their country is
such an outlier. They have ideological tunnel vision.

Many working class Americans simply can't imagine having paid sick days,
paid maternity leave, or paid vacation. And yet outside of the US, this
is the *norm*. And then there's healthcare. In no other industrialized
country is [healthcare so expensive and the outcomes so
poor](https://ourworldindata.org/us-life-expectancy-low){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}. And yet many Americans simply can't imagine having free
healthcare for all.

What's at play here is the power of ideology. You can only see this
power when you're *outside* of it. The absurdity of feudal caste
systems, for instance, is obvious to all modern observers. But given the
ubiquity of such systems in the past, this absurdity is evidently *not*
obvious to those inside the system.

The same is true for any ideology. When you're surrounded by it, you
can't see it. I speak from experience. I lived in Texas for 4 years.
When I first arrived (from Canada), what struck me was the oppressive
media landscape. In the corporate media, the range of expressible
opinion was tiny. I only noticed this because the US ['Overton
window'](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overton_window){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"} was much smaller than in Canada. But over time, I
forgot. The US media landscape became the new norm. I only (re)realized
how oppressive it was when I started reading [Noam
Chomsky](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}.

### Free market ideology

The US is a good example of what happens when free-market ideology runs
rampant. Talk about power is [framed in terms of
'freedom'](https://economicsfromthetopdown.com/2020/04/29/the-free-market-as-a-double-lie/){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}. And corporate power is framed as 'efficient' and even
'democratic' (you vote with your money). Government power, in contrast,
is framed as wasteful and corrupt (counting votes even gets called
['stealing the
election'](https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-adviser-jason-miller-equates-counting-ballots-with-stealing-the-election){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}).

To the outsider, this ideological landscape is bizarre --- it's right up
there with the [divine right of
kings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divine_right_of_kings){target="_blank"
rel="noopener"}. And yet many Americans have evidently been hoodwinked.

If Trump does win a second term, there will be much soul searching on
the left. Many people will blame the electoral system. Fewer will blame
free-market ideology. But the fact is that both are to blame. And both
are frustratingly hard to change.

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I rarely write about partisan politics on this blog. Today, though, I’ll make an exception. As the spectre of a second Trump term remains possible, here are some thoughts on the US election. Avoiding democracy   A second Trump term is possible largely because the US electoral system is designed to avoid democracy. To be fair to the US, though, many of the world’s democracies have similar features.

Messaggi di Rogue Scholar

Ideological Tunnel Vision