An introduction to our special politics section
Just a few years after taking the name the United States of America, things were less than united in the nascent country. Both federal and state governments were ineffective, populism was on the rise, and disagreements abounded around everything from property rights to taxation. Clearly, the founding Articles of Confederation weren’t succeeding in fostering a strong central government, so delegates gathered secretly in the spring of 1787 to revise them. But by September they had instead created an entirely new model for governing, the U.S. Constitution.
As this Constitutional Convention wound down, Benjamin Franklin made note of the mahogany chair George Washington sat on as he facilitated the contentious negotiations—in particular, a golden half sun carved on its back. “I have often looked at that picture behind the president without being able to tell whether it was rising or setting,” he reportedly said.
Today, 237 years later, Franklin’s question remains open. As of this writing, polls show that voting-eligible Americans slightly favor the candidacy of a former president who promises not to be a dictator—“other than day one.” Further, only 28 percent of adults are satisfied with the way democracy is working in the U.S., according to a January Gallup survey. Three-quarters of respondents in a 2023 Public Religion Research Institute/Brookings Institution poll concurred that the “future of American democracy is at risk in the 2024 presidential election,” while a quarter agreed that “true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country.”
“Is the sun setting on American democracy?” asks Ryan Dawkins, assistant professor of political science and instructor of the winter 2024 class Polarization and Democratic Decline in the United States. “Or is this just the last gasp of white-grievance politics as we as a nation transition into a truly multiethnic, multiracial democracy? Is the sun actually rising for something fundamentally new?”
He attributes today’s political turbulence to the convergence of two trends: “First, decades of social sorting have led to the alignment of Americans’ partisan and racial attitudes. Second, the racial and ethnic demographics of this country are changing—significantly and quickly—and it’s threatening to upend the privileged social and political position that white Americans have long enjoyed.”
On that day in 1787, Franklin completed his thought on Washington’s chair: “But now at length I have the happiness to know that it is a rising and not a setting sun.” On the eve of what pundits almost universally dub “the most consequential election in our lifetime,” we focus this section of the Voice on a key component of Franklin’s certainty: action. It was only through dialogue, deliberation, and compromise that a codified, representative, bicameral government came to be, bringing forward a more effective, unified nation.
In this issue, we share voices and visions that reflect the same spirit. On the cover, we see a familiar icon—an American flag shot by Amadeo Lasansky ’97—photographed from an unexpected angle. It’s not the heroic billowing flag of postage stamp fame, but seen from this unfamiliar vantage point, perhaps it’s more open to interpretation. Is it unfurling or curling in on itself? More broadly, do Americans, regardless of race, gender, and political affiliation, see it—and “the republic for which it stands”—the same way, as a symbol of “one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all”? And does viewing this icon in a new light suggest new ways of participating in democracy?
Inside, we promote diverse viewpoints through four commissioned get-out-the-vote posters by alumni artists Mildred Beltré ’91, Erica Lord ’00, Ethan Murrow ’98, and Christina Seely ’98. Each of these personal messages are available for download, and in the print magazine, the posters are perforated so readers can tear them out for use in homes, workplaces, or public spaces (if you do, let us know by emailing a photo to voice@carleton.edu). On the back, we share information about each artist, their approach to this project, and their thoughts on art’s role in social change.
Then—channeling Supreme Court Associate Justice Louis Brandeis’s words that “sunlight is the best disinfectant”—we focus on two issues related to clear vision around the facts that inform our country. Jon Spayde looks at research by Carleton faculty and alumni on conspiracy theories and disinformation that seek to influence election and policy outcomes, while I speak with alumni journalists at news outlets from the Washington Post and Politico to Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) about the challenges of covering an election in times when public trust in both the media and government institutions is at an all-time low.
It’s disconcerting to question something so baked-into the American identity, the certainty of democracy’s health. But Dawkins reminds us that democracy has never been a sure thing in the United States and, importantly, that our sun took an awfully long time to rise this far. “We only became a legitimate democracy in 1965 when the Voting Rights Act passed,” securing the right to vote for Black Americans, a right white women had gained 45 years earlier.
Dawkins notes that the strength of the American experiment with democracy is its innovation. “But the inherent weakness is that the guardrails of our democracy aren’t self-reinforcing. When malignant actors use the trappings of democracy to fulfill an authoritarian-style agenda, democracy itself can’t protect against that,” he says. “It requires deliberative action on the part of those who want to protect what they love.”