Elections alone cannot dismantle entrenched power — and centralized democracy is under ecological as well as political strain. As energy declines and ecosystems unravel, real change requires more than ballots: citizens must pressure parties, build local power, and practice democracy in ways that respond to both human and ecological realities.
There is a comforting myth in American politics: if people simply vote — clearly enough, loudly enough, in sufficient numbers — authoritarianism will yield. History, both here and abroad, tells a harsher story. Kaczyński in Poland, Pinochet in Chile, Milošević in Serbia, Marcos in the Philippines, Bolsonaro in Brazil — none were removed by elections alone. Ballots mattered only as part of a broader rupture: mass civic resistance, institutional fracture, elite defection, and moral and economic pressure. Authoritarianism is undone not by voting, but when power is destabilized and redistributed. Elections may register that shift; they rarely create it.
Modern authoritarian regimes have adapted. They no longer need to abolish elections outright; instead, they weaponize them. Electoral authoritarianism keeps ballots, parties, and campaigns while stripping elections of democratic substance. Ballots manufacture legitimacy, exhaust opposition, normalize repression, and gather intelligence. Elections reveal where opposition is strongest, which demographics are shifting, which issues mobilize citizens, and which leaders pose a threat. Far from threatening power, elections allow authoritarian regimes to fine-tune their control.
Even in countries with democratic processes, the pattern is the same. Milošević fell only after mass protests made Serbia ungovernable. Marcos fled only after millions mobilized and the military defected. Pinochet’s defeat came after persistent pressure. Bolsonaro lost because institutions and civil society created conditions that made continued governance untenable. Elections followed the weakening of authoritarian power; they did not produce it.
Americans are told, “It can’t happen here.” Yet the U.S. does not lack elections; it lacks popular sovereignty. The Democratic Party is not the antidote. While the Republican Party increasingly embodies hard authoritarian tendencies, the Democratic Party has perfected a softer, managerial form: controlling gatekeeping and donor pipelines, neutralizing insurgent movements procedurally, and deferring popular demands indefinitely. Soft authoritarianism hollowing out democracy often prepares the ground for harder forms by making citizens feel powerless.
Elections in the U.S. increasingly serve to measure and manage discontent rather than resolve it. Campaigns harvest data, refine narratives, and leave structural problems untouched. The mantra “vote blue no matter who” is not a democratic principle — it is a loyalty oath. Voting is necessary, but it is not sufficient.
So what can a citizen do, especially someone raised as a Democrat? Real change requires action beyond the ballot. Treat voting as the floor, not the ceiling. Track elected officials after they win, hold them accountable, and make leverage start after ballots are counted. Pressure parties where they are most vulnerable: primaries are critical, and support, donations, and volunteerism should be conditional, public, and organized. Parties fear unpredictability more than ideology.
Citizens must also build power outside formal structures. Major democratic advances in U.S. history — labor rights, civil rights, women’s suffrage, environmental protections — came not from party elites, but from grassroots organizing. Workplace organizing, mutual aid networks, and narrow, issue-specific coalitions create legitimacy that parties cannot ignore. Citizens must make parties compete for them rather than offer passive loyalty, shaping discourse, building coalitions, and making support conditional. Democracy is not a ritual; it is a practice, one that requires persistence, imagination, and courage.
Finally, this is not just a political crisis — it is an ecological one. As energy declines and ecosystems unravel, centralized, mass democracy becomes less viable, not more. Ironically, existing hierarchies could allow power to flow back down to states, regions, watersheds, and communities — toward simpler, local, low-energy governance. But this can only happen if we stop pretending national elections alone can save us. Democracy must be practiced locally and collectively, in ways that respond to both human and ecological realities. Voting registers consent. Everything else — organizing, coalition-building, mutual aid, local governance — is where democracy truly lives.
If Democrats — or any party — respond at all, it will not be because voters finally explained themselves clearly enough. It will be because pressure became unavoidable, legitimacy became conditional, and power became unstable. Voting records consent. Everything else is where democracy lives.
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