Democracies are funny things. The theory is that they give the people what they want, and as such they give leaders the opportunity to claim that they speak on behalf of the people. But is this right? The first past the post system lets parties take power with only small fractions of the votes cast. Even when they do get a majority, as the Republicans have done in the latest US election, that majority might represent a small fraction of the population. In Donald Trump’s case, this time around, that’s 27% of the population.
If people care, they should get out and vote, many will say – but this is more complicated than it might seem. In a system which only offers two options with any chance of getting into power, many people feel that they can’t vote – there is simply no-one who represents their concerns, or – when for instance, both parties support a regime which stands accused of genocide – no-one whom they feel they can ethically show support for. Furthermore, the Federal system means that the vast majority of US voters don’t expect their votes to mean very much. Very few states were ever realistically likely to change hands this time around. The same is true, of course, in much of the UK, and certainly in Scotland, which generally gets whatever Westminster party England votes for.
Denied a vote
Then there are all the people who can’t vote. In many US states, that includes anybody who has been incarcerated – and with African Americans three times as likely to be sent to prison as white people, thanks to bias in the criminal justice system, that means that politically significant sections of the population have a much reduced democratic voice. By targeting particular neighbourhoods with more intensive policing, politicians in power can influence future voting demographics.
In recent years, over 400 bills have been introduced to US legislatures with the effect of restricting access to voting. These affect things like the right to vote early (important to disabled people and students), ID requirements (which have disenfranchised many trans people as well as immigrants with limited documentation), and the provision of food and water to people waiting in line to vote (which affects elderly and chronically ill people, with queues sometimes lasting for hours). Then there are voter purges, in which potentially legitimate efforts to update electoral rolls are carried out strategically, close to elections and without notice, so that people whose details have been removed inappropriately, whether by accident or malice, find out that they have lost their votes only when it’s too late to fix the problem.
Of course, there are some people whom no system can enable to vote: children. The US has approximately 77mn citizens under the age of 18. Although they can’t vote, they still have to live with the consequences of decisions made by whomever is voted into power. In this case, climate change, threats to the state education system and the treatment of women’s healthcare, to name but a few issues, mean that those consequences are likely to be dramatic.
These are among the reasons why, traditionally, the concept of liberal democracy has included an obligation for whoever takes power to govern not just for their own voters and party interests, but also in the best interests of people who did not vote for them. Sadly, this obligation is dependent on honour, and while some politicians go to great lengths to respect it, others simply don’t care. Trump, who has several times threatened to lock up his political opponents, would seem to be firmly in the latter camp. So where does this leave vulnerable groups?
Americans at risk
There are a lot of them. He has pledged to deport hundreds of thousands of immigrants, a process which would break up families over what US law has traditionally considered a misdemeanour on a level with speeding. His promotion of racist tropes is putting people of colour in danger. He continues to prioritise policies that would slash support for poor people, including healthcare. His plan to put Robert F Kennedy Jr, a man whose anti-vax stance already contributed to the deaths of countless children in Samoa, in charge of federal healthcare, could have serious repercussions for infection control worldwide. And Trump has also made threats against journalists who criticise him.
John McEntee, a former Trump advisor, who continues to support him, recently joked about taking away the vote from women, which might seem like a daft thing to worry about were it not for the fact that it has happened before, and that Trump has, in fact, frequently expressed his dislike of inclusive democracy. The last time he was in office, the US government also did serious damage to the rights of women – and LGBTQ+ people – around the world.
With the Republicans now in control of the Senate and Congress as well as in line to have their man in the White House again, there is little to restrain them. An interim ruling on presidential immunity means that Trump himself will feel insulated from potential consequences no matter what he does. None of it can protect him from what looks like rapidly advancing dementia, of course, but if his health fails, JD Vance is ready to step in, and he is still more closely attached to the worrying Project 2025.
Across much of the world, individuals have been reacting to all this, and the fact that Trump got in anyway, by calling Americans stupid and claiming that those who didn’t vote for him failed to try hard enough to stop him. Do they realise that this includes people who have been working every day of the past four years to stop him? Many people in the US did all they could and found themselves in this situation anyway. While a Trump presidency will be bad for the world as a whole, inspiring the far right in other countries, potentially causing serious economic damage, and placing efforts to slow down the pace of climate change at risk, it is Americans who will suffer most. The majority of them bear no responsibility for this. They are going to need our support. Now, in their hour of need, we should stand beside them and give them all the help we can to survive the years to come.
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