American democracy was based on a double balance: between the states and the federal government, on the one hand, and the three branches of government, the legislature, the executive, and the judiciary, on the other. It received its first blow during the American Civil War. Abraham Lincoln's concern was not so much the fate of the blacks as the unity of the nation. He paid little attention to the Constitution when circumstances required it. Once the war was over, the federal state soon began a colonial policy in response to a dual need arising from industrialization: access to natural resources and to new markets. Foreign policy became imperialist after World War II, and hegemonic after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Colonial and imperial policies upset the balance between the states and the federal government. The hegemonic policy broke the equilibrium among the three branches in favor of the executive branch. Three events - September 11, the subprime crisis and the pandemic - were used to justify the strengthening of the executive. Over time, the American democracy has been weakened in an unequal struggle between the elite and the people over the distribution of power and wealth.
Three recent structuring events
Despite an official investigation and numerous independent studies, the ins and outs of 9/11 remain unknown. Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton, co-chairs of the commission of inquiry, wrote a book to express their frustration at their inability to obtain the documents and testimony they felt they needed to carry out their investigation. In response to this attack, the United States invaded Iraq on the grounds that that it possessed atomic and chemical weapons, as Colin Powell, US Secretary of State, wrongly asserted at a meeting of the UN Security Council. This decision had a considerable impact not only on U.S. foreign policy, but also on U.S. domestic policy, particularly with regard to the respective powers of the president and Congress. A first law, the Authorization for Use of Military Force of September 2001, better known by its acronym AUMF, gave George W. Bush broad powers that he used to destroy Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Afghanistan. In effect, Congress waived its exclusive right to declare war under Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution. A second law, the Patriot Act of October 2001, authorized the federal government to detain immigrants indefinitely, in violation of the Fifth Amendment, and to access people's computer data, in violation of the First. The length and complexity of this law led some to conclude that it was written before 9/11. A third law, the National Defense Authorization Act of December 2011, again better known by its acronym NDAA, expands the government's Section 1021 powers by authorizing indefinite detention of U.S. and foreign individuals in violation of the Fifth and Sixth Amendments. September 11 therefore resulted in a weakening of the Constitution, coupled with a global war on terrorism. Externally, the impact on the image of the United States is disastrous because of the wars it has led to in the Middle East. The Patriot Act expired in December 2020, but some of these provisions remain in effect. The Senate has repealed the AUMF. The House of Representatives has not yet made a decision on the matter. Section 1021 of the NDAA has been gutted in its latest versions.
The resolution of the subprime crisis is an insult to the American people. The big banks, responsible for this blunder, were saved from bankruptcy by the Federal Reserve and the U.S. government, while reason demanded that they be nationalized at the market price, thus penalizing the shareholders for their greed and irresponsibility. The authorities paid little attention to the average American, the gullible buyer of real estate, deceived by the fanciful talk of real estate agencies, suborned by the banks. Left to himself when the crisis came, he had no other recourse than to declare bankruptcy. In the end, this scandal boils down to a privatization of profits and a socialization of losses. The way this crisis was managed by the authorities confirms that the United States has opted for neoliberalism - a pseudo economic theory that boils down to the establishment of an untainted, hard financial capitalism that is reminiscent of the one practiced in the late 19th century by the robber barons. Its effects are becoming more and more obvious to the average American. Globalization resulted in the offshoring of well-paid industrial jobs, replaced by traditionally low-paid service jobs in hotels and restaurants. In thirty years, the American industry has lost 4.8 million jobs while the restaurant industry gained 5.8 million. The cost of higher education (including accommodation and food) has increased sixfold since 1970. Students go into debt to pay for their studies. Their debt amounts to $1.800 billion in 2024. It takes an average of 21 years for a student to repay the debt contracted. Such a prospect is enough to discourage vocations to higher education. This is one of the reasons the student population plateaued in 2010. It then stood at 11.5 million compared to 9.8 million in 2023, a drop of 15% in a few years. As incredible as it may seem, in the name of profit, this country penalizes its future researchers and engineers who are supposed to keep it at the forefront of technology at the global level. How does one explain such an aberration? Students cannot declare bankruptcy. They are bound to their debt as was an English debtor of the 19th century, threatened with prison if he did not pay his dues. For the investor, the risk on a student debt is zero and the income attractive! A democracy cannot thrive without a prosperous middle class. The resolution of the subprime crisis by the authorities contributed to its weakening.
The Covid pandemic completes this list of events that tarnish the history of America. Covid is most likely the product of American biological laboratories whose work has been relocated to Wuhan to meet the requirements of American law. The lies about its origin and the incompetence or bad faith of the authorities are gradually coming to light. The U.S. Congress has said that the Covid-origin theory attributed to a lab leak is not a conspiracy theory. The Food and Drug Administration - the agency responsible for protecting and promoting public health in the United States - admitted during a trial that ivermectin was not a drug intended only for horses, as its documents claimed! The immunologist, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases from 1984 to 2022, chief adviser for public health to eight presidents including Donald Trump, said during his testimony before the House of Representatives that the decision imposing social distancing had not been the subject of any scientific study. In a letter to Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's founding chairman, acknowledged that he bowed to pressure from Joe Biden's administration not to publish certain information about the pandemic. He says, "I think the government was wrong, and I regret not making it known." The Select Sub-Committee of the House of Representatives has made a few revelations. The National Institute of Health financed researches on gain of function in the Wuhan laboratory. American and Chinese governments and researches tried to hide the origin of the pandemic. The Select Sub-Committee reminds the public that the Constitution cannot be suspended during a crisis.
In ignoring the advice of scientists and doctors, scarring the population subjected to a media propaganda, and resorting to restrictive and unnecessary methods, such as the wearing of masks and confinement, the authorities have most likely not only increased the number of deaths, but resorted to measures that totalitarian regimes would not deny. The lies and liberticidal decisions that punctuate the narrative of the pandemic is weakening the American democracy.
Let us conclude this breve retrospective with three fundamental decisions of the Supreme Court: (a) Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which authorizes corporations to finance candidates in elections, (b) McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, which declares unconstitutional any limit on contributions by individuals to a political party, and (c) Buckley v. Valeo, which eliminates the limits imposed until now on election expenses. These three decisions reinforce the power of money in American political life, and confirm the analysis of professors Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page, who conclude their study with the words: "Americans have little influence on the policies of their government."
The United States is denying its most cherished values through lies, and hollowing out the substance of its Constitution by successive alterations through court decisions, laws, and regulations in the name of events and wars that the United States sometimes provoked. The liberal international order that combines neoliberalism and neoconservatism is incompatible with democracy. Before sinking into the dustbin of history, the elite responsible for this disaster will witness in disbelief the collapse of the nation it once dreamed of dominating the world. This is the irony of this adventure. It is also confirmation that an elite, no matter how powerful, cannot lead a nation without the people because it is one with the people.
Note: This text is taken from the first chapter of my book: "Inverted Democracy in America".
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