Democratic Norms Are Under Attack, and Not Just by Trump

Lee Drutman was quoted in a Governing article about how state legislators are eroding democratic norms:

Last November, 42 percent of all state legislative seats went uncontested by one party or the other. (In North Carolina, the figure was 45 percent.) Those numbers are in line with other recent election cycles. And, despite the fear legislators seem to have about potential opposition if they break with party orthodoxy, few ever actually see a primary opponent. Just under 80 percent of the incumbents running again last year had no primary contest. All told, a third of legislators were re-elected through the simple act of showing up, facing no opposition in primaries or the general election. Among those who drew an opponent, the vast majority had no real contest.

All of this has emboldened legislators. What’s more, with parties separated into warring camps, the desire to entrench power has grown. Power grabs can be justified as preventing the other side from pursuing its evil ways. “When you view the other side as the enemy, you increasingly feel that the ends justify any means,” says Lee Drutman, a senior fellow in political reform at New America, a think tank in Washington.