'I don't know a way out': Experts 'terrified' by state of American democracy

Public trust in democracy has plunged, and experts aren't really sure how to restore faith in political institutions.

The Jan. 6 insurrection represents an extreme example of the mistrust Americans have in democracy, but the yawning ideological gap between the Republican and Democratic parties, exacerbated by the differences between urban and rural experiences, has fostered hostility among individuals against both their political opponents and the government, reported the Washington Post.

“In comparison to European countries, our constitutional system is not well suited for polarized political parties,” said Nathaniel Persily, a law professor at Stanford Law School.

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Some of the problems are baked into the Constitution, such as the Electoral College and U.S. Senate that allows for minority rule by Republicans, and that imbalance has warped the U.S. Supreme Court in ways that has eroded trust in the law itself.

“It was created because the founders couldn’t figure out what to do,” said George C. Edwards III, a political science professor at Texas A&M University and author of “Why the Electoral College Is Bad for America.” “It doesn’t work at all as the founders intended.”

Despite winning the presidency twice in the last two decades despite losing the popular vote -- as both George W. Bush and Donald Trump did in 2000 and 2016, respectively -- and holding a clear majority on the Supreme Court and a narrow advantage in the U.S. House, many Republicans feel powerless, while many Democrats feel like the government doesn't serve their interests.

“I’m terrified,” said Henry Brady, professor of political science and public policy at the University of California at Berkeley. “I think we are in bad shape, and I don’t know a way out.”

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