Biden and the Risk of a 1-Party Democracy

In his acceptance speech, Joe Biden centered his presidency on “the cause of democracy” and national union. After Donald Trump and the invasion of the Capitol, “…unity is the path forward,” he declared on Jan. 20, promising to “listen” to all Americans.

And yet, Biden has already strayed from his commitment. He has not formed a government of national unity. He has not offered any post to political figures outside the Democratic Party. He has not called upon any moderate Republicans who might contribute to this “path,” such as Sen. Mitt Romney or former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Biden has not approached the two other alternative candidates who garnered the most votes in the presidential election. He has not invited Sen. Mitch McConnell, de facto leader of the Republican Party, to the White House.

The president’s party has used the procedure strangely called “reconciliation” in English to adopt his stimulus plan by a simple majority in the Senate, thus without the necessity of seeking a compromise with Republicans. Democrats foresee the same maneuver for the infrastructure plan. The repeated use of this “reconciliation,” which isn’t reconciliation, long decried by Biden, will further poison the atmosphere.

More worrying: American democracy continues to slide in practice to the ultimate paradox, that of a democracy … of a single party.

The 2024 Presidential Election

During his only press conference, the president cracked ironically that he had “no idea if there will be a Republican party” in the 2024 presidential election. No one should rejoice in the disappearance of one of the major parties, whether one hates that party or not. Certainly not the president, guarantor of the Constitution. Before his acceptance, Biden had, however, seemed to grasp the problem. “We need a Republican Party,” he said. The subsistence of one of the two parties embodying the opposition at a given time is crucial.

It is indeed the fundamental failure of the Republican and Democratic Parties to have forged a bipartite system of such strength that a new alliance cannot grow quickly enough to replace a dominant party. That is why Trump gave up on his “Patriot Party” and tried to continue to cannibalize the Republican Party from the inside.

For Jo Jorgensen, Libertarian Party candidate in 2020, who, despite this steamroller, obtained around 2 million votes, the United States is “already a single-party democracy.” “Since the 1970s, Democrats and Republicans have agreed to strengthen the federal government,”* she told me.

An Ultra-Dominant Democratic Party

For Howie Hawkins, candidate of the Green Party, the single-party democracy is a real risk in the United States. “We’re heading toward a single-party regime run by Democrats, especially if the economic establishment doesn’t retake control of the Republican Party,”* he told me. The prospect is for the emergence of an ultra-dominant Democratic Party in the political landscape. An emergence endorsed by big tech and other big corporations, including the majority of big media. An emergence aided by the lack of daring on the part of the left wing, which puts up with everything, like the absence, in the policymaking of Biden and his team, of a universal and public health care system, of a ban on hydraulic fracking or of cabinet secretary positions for the leading “progressive” figures, whereas certain victories of the left are throwbacks to decisions already desired or taken by Trump (supplementary post-COVID-19 assistance checks to households or total retreat from Afghanistan).

The Democratic Party, which has abandoned any ambition for a convergence of the struggles between poor whites and ethnic minorities, is becoming the far-fetched “big tent,” in which are found multi-nationals, globalized technocratic bourgeoisie, minorities and young anti-capitalists. Clearly, the evolution toward a single-party “democracy” is dangerous. One sees it already.

Too Much Media Attention

Biden is treated with too much consideration by the American media. The unpleasant aspects of his presidency are insufficiently examined: the migrant crisis on the southern border, the personal fragility of the head of state, the limited media access to the president, the proximity of relatives and collaborators of the president to the business community or the continuity with Trump on certain issues. Breaking with Republican tradition (in the lofty sense of the term), Biden declared himself on a legal matter before the verdict — that against Derek Chauvin, convicted in the murder of George Floyd.

Biden came to power with 55.5% support, by an average of the polls. That’s much more than Trump at the same stage but less than most of his other predecessors. Since then, the level of satisfaction toward Biden has dropped by 2.5 points and that of the discontented has climbed by 5.5 points.

Biden is losing ground particularly among independent voters, who are now calling for a third major party, like 63% of Republicans and even 46% of Democrats. In total, 62% of Americans today consider that the Republican and Democratic Parties “represent the people so poorly that a third party is necessary.”* A record since 2003, when Gallup began polling people on this question. However, the American dream of a new political bid is more far-off, and the nightmare of a single-party democracy closer than ever. Biden must therefore reconnect with his acceptance speech and make national unity the real central theme of his presidency.

*Editor’s note: Although accurately translated, the quoted remarks could not be independently verified.