The Declining Health of American Democracy through the Lens of COVID-19 Policy
Raven E. Brown
Shortly after Donald Trump’s second inauguration, the United States was downgraded from a “full democracy” to a “flawed democracy”. Last week, Trump spoke at the United Nations General Assembly. His speech and general demeanor were detrimental to global stability and to the democratic health of the United States.
Though we live during the era of the 60-minute news cycle, this essay asks readers to think about the damage that the CDC did to the fabric of American democracy when it revoked access to COVID-19 boosters, then reversed policy earlier last week. While this might not seem relevant to democratic backsliding, it is.
The United States has not been this politically and socially divided since the decade before the Civil War. The COVID-19 pandemic has remained a hot-button issue. The current policy back-and-forth is a barometer of the overall health of American Democracy as it highlights that people in blue states and red states are, both de facto and de jure, living under different rules and regulations. Furthermore, it creates more confusion and misinformation about COVID, and it means that vulnerable populations will be at a higher risk, as fewer people will be boosted.
On May 27th, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced that the CDC would no longer recommend COVID-19 boosters. This was followed by the FDA limiting access to variant-specific boosters to children, seniors, and individuals with specific comorbidities. Before reversing course, a lack of a CDC recommendation for COVID boosters meant that insurance companies were no longer obligated to cover boosters. This led to Democratic Governors forming coalitions to organize the availability of boosters in their regions and states. Effectively, this has disrupted the system of cooperative federalism that has been in place since the Constitution was ratified in 1789.
The dispute between blue states and the Trump Administration is not just about access to COVID-19 vaccinations or an assault on truth that has encapsulated the COVID-19 pandemic. It is a debate about where power lies; this debate has woven its way through the fiber of American politics from the nation's inception to the present moment. What makes this debate important is not just its impact on public health, but also the purpose it serves, which is to undermine the implementation of federalism as dictated by the Constitution and to erode the institutions of governance. Mass resignations from the federal bureaucracy by non politically appointed employees highlight that MAGA has politicized institutions and support the argument that institutions are collapsing due to democratic decay. As part of the vaccine debate and other policy debates, the Trump Administration has utilized the Nullification Doctrine as a tool when Court rulings, laws, regulations, and de facto bureaucratic and institutional cultural practices get in the way of MAGA’s cultural grift. The Nullification Doctrine is the same strategy that the Southern states implemented in the decade leading up to the Civil War. If what came out of Congress, the Courts, or the Executive Branch didn’t serve the South, the South ignored the legislation, rulings, and regulations. The current administration is sending the same message. The Constitution and the rule of law can be dismissed when they are inconvenient.
Americans have been taught to believe that we’re unique. We are not. Empires rise and fall all the time. There is no guarantee that our democracy, which is hanging on by a thread, will remain intact tomorrow. Democratic deficits, the politicization of the federal bureaucracy, and institutional decay all serve to erode trust in government and erode the social contract. American society is divided culturally, politically, and by the rules and regulations citizens abide by based on their state of residence. Dual federalism did not work under the Articles of Confederation; it helped rip the country apart during the decade preceding the Civil War, and it is unsustainable in the ad hoc manner under which MAGA uses it now.