We do not have free and fair elections in this country, and it has nothing to do with the vanishingly rare election fraud that the Republicans love to trumpet.
There were times when we came much closer and times when it was as bad as it is now.
They were mostly free and fair for land owning white men all along. Next were poor white men. But not Black men for decades and women were not invited at all until the 20th century.
Over time the franchise expanded to include all races and both sexes. But Black people still were denied too often. Which spurred the 1965 Voter’s Rights Act. And that act corrected a good portion of the problem for a number of years.
But the corporatocracy never sleeps.
It took them half a century after the success of FDR’s New Deal to burrow in so deeply that there is literally no separation of big business and state.
The coup de grace was the Supreme Court decision in Citizen’s United v FEC (2010) in which a corrupt court took the restraints off “dark money” and open season on democracy began.
No, this country is not close to being a healthy democracy. It was on life support before Citizen’s United. And if we can’t fix it, the malefactors of great wealth will pull the plug.
Rather than the nearly nonexistent “voter fraud” it is about the ubiquitous voter suppression and gerrymandering, all legal.
Because the system is so broken that the Democrats can’t pass a new voter’s rights bill. Which would use the legislative branch to put a set of rules in place that should be enshrined in the constitution.
Voting is our most sacred right and is woven into the very fabric of a true democracy. But it only works if it is universal.
I am not advocating staying home on Election Day. Voting, even now, is our last defense against American fascism. It has one purpose now, protecting us against worse.
We vote to protect from greater harm because the oligarchs have blocked most paths to actual good government.
Looking at it in that light, President Biden has done some remarkable things getting ANYTHING that helps the average citizen through congress. Some of which has been interfered with by the rogue SCOTUS and the dark alt-right money they feed upon. And will be interfered with again.
But despite any small crumbs that fall to the regular citizen, the United States is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Transnational Corp Inc.
All the predatory capitalism without the democracy. If you have ever played monopoly you will understand how this happened. Capitalism is inherently non-democratic and where it exists it always wins.
Can we regain what has been lost? Not from within the corrupt system that allowed this to happen. If we are to try it will be the life’s work of the next two generations.
So, vote. It is your civic duty. Just don’t expect miracles from politicians unable to perform them. They too are caught in the net.