"So what?" some of you may say. What does income or wealth inequality have to do with democracy and the right to vote? It is theorized that:
- Inequality can inhibit growth and slow poverty reduction;
- Inequality often undermines the political process: that may lead to an inadequate social contract and may trigger bad economic policies--with ill effects on growth, human development, and poverty reduction; and
- Inequality may undermine civic and social as well as political life, and inhibit certain kinds of collective decision-making; at the societal level it may also generate its own self-justifying tolerance, perpetuating a high-inequality equilibrium despite the potential economic and political costs (Birdsall, 2001).
Though a pro-capitalist proponent, Birdsall nonetheless concludes that "while societies with relatively high-income inequality can, in principle, be equitable, it is more likely that income differentials will compound and aggravate unfairness in the allocation of opportunities, the functioning of the political process, and efforts to improve the well-being of the least advantaged" (Birdsall, 2001). Indeed, political scientists usually pinpoint the beginning of societal disruptions when inequality exceeds a certain mean.
Such conclusions are not news to working-class families, as they are well aware of the malevolent affects of income and wealth inequality, particularly to their political status in society. They do not need an academic to tell them that the system is rigged against them, fixed, and has them in a bind.
Today, as a nation, we are in the throes of a rebellion against equality, as we witness a billionaire holding the executive office of the United States, with his presidential cabinet composed of the richest millionaires and billionaires in American history (Burleigh, April 5, 2017). We watch as he regularly meets with Governor Jim Justice of West Virginia while repeatedly holding what amounts to white-nationalist rallies in the state. We witness Trump eager to apologize for the murderous actions of the Saudi Arabian heir-apparent Mohammad bin Salman. And we are left with a political environment that is not favorable to notions of equality of result but, rather, and grudgingly, only equality of opportunity, and directed only at those of Caucasian ethnicity. But even there, there is currently a backlash against those deemed to be unworthy of the nation's bounty and, hence, efforts to restrict the suffrage, suppress the vote, and eschew what is deemed to be the excesses of democracy from our laws are being actively pursued by forces inimical to a democratic ethos. [12]
We thus must revisit the question that has propelled humanity, at least since the Enlightenment, to ask if political power does indeed come down from the clouds or rises up from the people? If the answer is the latter, then who are the people? And how shall we each express our uncoerced preferences in society?
The vote is a precious right, fought for by many generations of Americans, and it is our fundamental claim to equality as citizens as well as our civic duty and solemn responsibility to exercise that right.
By: Colin S. Cavell, Ph.D.
REFERENCES
Berman, Ari. November 9, 2016. "The GOP's Attack on Voting Rights Was the Most Under-Covered Story of 2016." The Nation. New York, NY: The Nation Company [click here].
Birdsall, Nancy. September 2001. "Why Inequality Matters: Some Economic Issues." Ethics & International Affairs, Vol. 15, Issue 2, pp. 3-28. UK: Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs.
Burleigh, Nina. April 5, 2017. "Meet the Billionaires Who Run Trump's Government." Newsweek Magazine. New York, NY: IBT Media Group. [click here].
Greenberg, Edward S. and Benjamin I. Page. 2018. REVEL for The Struggle for Democracy: 2016 Election Edition, 12th Edition. New York, NY: Pearson.
Marx, Karl. November 22-29, 1864. "Address of the International Working Men's Association (First International) to Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States of America. Presented to U.S. Ambassador Charles Francis Adams, January 28, 1865." Marxists Internet Archive [click here].
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