January 6th and the Way Forward
We are locked in a cycle of violence, hyperpartisanship, and misinformation that feeds on itself and cannot be broken at any single point alone. We must respond, without partisanship, by holding those responsible accountable, combating political violence through aggressive law enforcement, bringing our electoral process up to date with the 21st century, and properly regulating public speech, especially on online domains. A failure with any one will fatally undermine progress made with the others.
The storming of the US Capitol on January 6th punctuated a cycle of discord in the United States that has been simmering for years and now threatens to boil over. We must respond. The problem is deeper than whoever happens to hold the White House or Congress and will not be solved when Trump or anyone else leaves office. Rather, our crisis extends along three distinct but intertwined axes: political violence, constrained electoral expression, and information conflict. Any progress we make along a single axis alone will be short-lived without progress on the other two. But if we can win even modest improvements along all three simultaneously, we can weather this storm and emerge with a strengthened democratic republic.
Each axis feeds and is fed by the other two. Political violence means the use of force to achieve political goals. When this happens, it validates extremism and sparks information conflict over what happened and whether the violence may have been justified.
Constrained electoral expression refers to mechanics of our electoral system that limit voter choice to at best two categorically opposed alternatives, or no choice at all for those who live in a district safely controlled by a party they don’t support (90% of US House districts are considered “safe”). This increases voter frustration and negative perception of people with differing views, both of which make political violence more likely. Limited electoral choice also means politicians are incentivized to vilify their opponents and reject compromise because they answer only to their base, which intensifies information conflict.
By information conflict, I mean the contest between truth, opinion, misinformation, and outright lies that leaves citizens today unable to agree on even basic facts. When we cannot agree on basic facts like election outcomes, it is easy to incite people to armed insurrection. When misinformation is the chief currency of political discourse, political expression is reduced to choosing a version of reality that feels best to us and scorning those who choose otherwise.
Understood in this context, January 6th looms as an ominous escalation of the cycle, not the last futile gesture of a soon-to-be-forgotten movement. As tempting as it may be to engage in partisan haymaking, a strictly partisan response would both exacerbate the issue and miss its structural causes. The inciters and perpetrators of that insurrection must be held accountable, but our response must be both non-partisan and more comprehensive than reacting to the assault on the Capitol as an isolated event.
First, we must crack down on political violence across the spectrum. Policymakers and their offices must be adequately secured, by physical barricades, security or law enforcement staff, and procedure to ensure that mobs cannot disrupt government function or threaten our officials with violence. This applies at federal, state, and local levels, and such security must be prepared to deal with armed mobs if necessary.
In addition to defensive measures, America’s considerable counter-terrorism capabilities need to prioritize apprehending organizers of violent dissent here at home. This cannot be left to the Executive alone. It needs Congressional oversight, Judicial review, and a mechanism for public transparency to ensure it is not weaponized to repress one party’s political opponents while its sympathizers are given a pass. We cannot give extremists the luxury to operate at their leisure and our republic must be equipped to defend itself, though we need to be careful its defenses are not abused for its destruction.
Second, we need to bring American electoral systems into the 21st century. We must end partisan districting and gerrymandering that makes politicians answerable to a skewed proportion of the electorate. We can do this with independent districting commissions like those already adopted in some states. We must make it easy for every citizen to vote and ensure that citizens trust the outcomes of their elections. Washington State, for example, has had universal mail-in voting supplemented by in-person voting for years and has a stellar track record with its system. Other states should follow Washington’s lead.
We need to address campaign finance law, to cap the costs of political campaigns and reduce candidates’ dependence on donors and proprietary data to succeed. We should adopt ranked-choice voting that empowers voters to express their true preferences without needing to worry about “wasting” their vote. We need more open primaries so all citizens have a voice in the direction taken by their representatives even if they don’t support the majority party in their district. Ideally, we would enact proportional representation in multi-seat districts for legislative bodies, as has been proposed in the Fair Representation Act, so every voter can elect someone from a major party they support. Many of these reforms have been enacted with success in other democracies and in some states and localities in the U.S. They should be the norm.
Third, we need a fresh legal framework to address misinformation especially on online platforms like social media and other digital publishing. Such a framework must provide consequences for people who originate and knowingly disseminate misinformation. For example, persistent allegations of electoral fraud unsubstantiated by evidence must be treated as the assaults on electoral integrity they are.
We cannot leave regulation decisions or consequences to private companies. A social media ban isn’t a First Amendment issue, but platforms like Twitter and Facebook have become crucial spheres for public discourse. The responsibility for determining what speech is or is not permitted in the public sphere ultimately falls to us the voting public, as represented by our elected officials. We should shoulder this burden gladly, as the purest expression of our right to free speech, not send it to corporate boards to work out against their bottom line. The consequences of violating public speech policy ought to be commensurate with the harm caused. Our judiciary has both the expertise and the power to achieve that, while corporations (fortunately) do not. Ham-fisted proposals like simply repealing Section 230 would do more harm than good, uncoupling behavior from consequences by making platforms liable for the behavior of their users, to say nothing of the business risk this liability would introduce for some of America’s most successful companies.
A failure on any axis will leave a festering wound that will perpetuate the cycle. Continuing political violence will make electoral reforms meaningless in the face of mounting fear or raw seizure of power. Lack of electoral reform will leave many Americans skeptical of the legitimacy of their government and primed to take matters into their own hands when they feel left behind. Perpetual post-truthiness will leave Americans drifting in a ubiquitous fog of partial reality, ripe for emotional exploitation through fear and misshapen faith in only the narrowest sense of shared identity.
Making progress on these three axes means direct challenges to people who have already proven willing to take extreme measures to achieve their goals, and who stand to lose much if efforts like this are successful. If we succeed on all three axes, even modestly, we will stop the cycle of discord that has pushed our democracy to such strain. Things may get worse before they get better. But there is a way forward.
References
https://acleddata.com/.../demonstrations-political.../
https://www.americanpurpose.com/.../weimarization.../
https://open.spotify.com/episode/65xKscC8QbfeMNiR21A5wU...
https://fivethirtyeight.com/.../how-hatred-negative.../
https://www.congress.gov/.../116th.../house-bill/4000/text
