Martin Gurri: Mistaking Politics for Religion

Martin Gurri, author of The Revolt of the Public, is one of the most incisive explainers of our age. The former CIA analyst predicted the rise of Trump and populism across the globe. Now, in his latest column for The Free Press, reprinted from Discourse, he writes of the “fanatics” who seek redemption from our complex political system.

We are told from many quarters that something called “our democracy” is in mortal danger. The feeling of dread is pervasive: Google “our democracy in danger” and you get 70 million hits. The headlines have been frightening. Here’s The New York Times: “Will 2024 be the year American democracy dies?” NBC: “Election officials say democracy is still at risk in 2024.” Financial Times: “Can democracy survive 2024?” The putative cause of death is usually Donald Trump—but it also could be the deep state, social media, or Vladimir Putin. One way or another, our beloved democracy seems to be on the verge of annihilation.

I come with good news. We can’t lose our democracy because we never had one.

Our system is called “representative government.” It enjoys brief spasms of democratic involvement—elections, trials by jury—but by and large it glories in being densely and opaquely mediated, and many of its operations are patently undemocratic—appointed judges, for example, or the Electoral College. This is a feature, not a bug, of the system. By making sure the right hand of power seldom knows what the left hand is doing, the Framers sought to prevent various flavors of tyranny—including, in James Madison’s words, “an unjust combination of the majority.” Despite the media drama over a Trump dictatorship, we can safely say that they achieved their objective.