A culture of patriotism
Why policy changes aren't enough
Keeping it simple today as Baby Girl is with Toya in Jersey for the week. So, other than a concert recommendation, more serious stuff than usual.
The 4th of July feels like a good moment to focus in on one the US Supreme Court’s decisions that – if it had gone the other direction – would have changed the trajectory of our democracy.
Moore v Harper asked the Court to rule on the independent state legislature theory, the idea that, “under the Constitution, only the legislature has the power to regulate federal elections, without interference from state courts. Proponents of the theory point to the Constitution’s elections clause, which gives state legislatures the power to set the ‘Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives.’”
SCOTUSblog’s Amy Howe wrote that theory was first tested in the 2000 case Bush v. Gore by then-Chief Justice Rehnquist when he, “Outlined his view that the state court’s recount conflicted with the deadlines set by the state legislature for the election.” A version of the theory was advanced by those seeking to undermine the 2020 election count in Pennsylvania.
Moore v. Harper itself was an effort by the North Carolina legislature to overturn a state Supreme Court decision that threw out a gerrymandered new congressional map ahead of the 2022 election. When the US Supreme Court granted review, J. Michael Luttig, a conservative former federal judge on the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, recognized that proponents of the independent state legislature theory were accusing courts of legislating, “a powerful rhetorical sword in the effort to limit courts to their proper role as interpreters, not makers, of the law.”
Luttig clarified the difference between legislating and interpreting with:
It is not a statement of fact as to what courts do, because it is literally not possible for courts to legislate. If courts misinterpret the law, they are simply misinterpreting the law; they are not legislating. It is for this reason that the North Carolina Supreme Court did not usurp the role of the legislatures by legislating the state’s congressional districts, contrary to what the theory’s advocates maintain.
All to say, last week, on a 6-3 vote, Howe reported that the Court ruled, “that although the Constitution gives state legislatures the power to regulate federal elections, state courts can supervise the legislature’s exercise of that power.”
Pundits and advocates alike marked the victory as one that saved US democracy. Fantastic. From a technocratic perspective, yes, I agree. Moore v. Harper, along with the Electoral Count Act (ECA), strengthened our democracy’s guardrails.
From a cultural perspective, on the other hand, our democracy remains on shaky ground.
Neither the Court’s decision nor the ECA changed the mind of the tens of millions of voters who still believe the 2020 election was stolen. And it doesn’t take more than a few minutes on cable news to find their anger broadcast across the country. Which feeds into a growing anger on the left.
Last week, a new USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll showed 74% of Democrats, 75% of Republicans agree and 66% of independents agree that "democracy is imperiled." Take a closer look at the cross-tabs and the picture gets a little more complicated (and, for me at least, familiar).
Inflation is the most important 2024 issue across Democrats, Republicans and Independents, 15%, 33% and 20%, respectively. Immigration comes in at 3%, 21% and 10%; threats to democracy at 12%, 9% and 9%. Health care and gun control break the 10% threshold for Democrats; no other issue than inflation and immigration break 10% for Republicans or Independents.
Over the next three years, our nation will continue to grow and diversify (primarily due to immigration), we will endure another presidential election and, in 2026, we will celebrate our nation’s 250th birthday. In the face of these kinds of pressures, court cases and new laws, while important, are not going to right the ship.
Which brings us to Nebraska – one of the longest states I have ever driven through.
About a decade ago, Bob Evnen, as president of the state’s Board of Education, helped lead an effort to require all Nebraska schools set aside time each day to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. In his testimony to the state legislature, he said, “You cannot have a true and genuine love of country without an understanding of what our country has and has not done well. We want students to feel an emotional connection to the history of our country.”
As Nebraska’s Secretary of State since 2018, Evnen oversaw the 2020 election process. Faced with a 2022 challenge from his right, like so many candidates competing in Republican primaries, Evnen could have endorsed various election conspiracies. Instead, in early 2022, he confronted election deniers head-on when he released a PowerPoint presentation “Fake vs. Fact,” rejecting, “one by one, allegations made by a group claiming to seek ‘accuracy’ in elections.” Evnen won his primary by some 26,000 votes.
If politics is downstream from culture, leaders like Evnen are critical conservative bulwarks between a polarized electorate and an extreme minority. Some may feel mandatory time to recite the Pledge of Allegiance is an affront to their definition of liberty and freedom. Others may feel it didn’t go far enough. Our democracy is based on this kind of polarization, negotiated through our political processes. In other words, I will take polarization over extremism.
Yes, holding onto our democratic processes relies on the ECA or the Moore v. Harper decision. But they it requires a sense of shared patriotism. Which Evnen describes as “the idea of liberty and freedom and of self-governance.” Extending that idea to all Americans - regardless of race, income, religion or gender - should be the goal of our democracy.
Celebration of our 250th anniversary as a nation, America250, relies on getting both the policy and the culture right.
Janet
Back in the December of last year, when we were T-minus a few weeks from Baby Girl, I surprised Toya with Janet Jackson tickets. (H/t to MG for the idea.) A few weeks back we went and saw the show, leading to some of my favorite Toya pics ever. Pure joy.