In the United States, 2022 is a tense election year, characterized by a right-wing retreat.
There has been a backlash against public health protections implemented in the pandemic, such as masks and vaccination requirements. Against women’s rights. Against the teaching of “critical race theory”. Against the visibility of LGBTIQ people in schools, as well as more LGBTIQ rights – especially transgender people and family members who support them.
But most Americans oppose the agenda of hate and fear pushed by some Republicans and their activist base. And this year, despite a political system designed to keep us down, we pro-democracy Americans are making ourselves heard in a powerful way – including in special and general elections, not least to protect abortion rights in Kansas, despite federal rights for abortion to be repealed by an increasingly distrustful Supreme Court.
Mass shootings and trans rights
This year has been marred by numerous incidents of political intimidation and violence, including the physical attack on Paul Pelosi in October. The attack, which left Pelosi with a fractured skull, was allegedly carried out by misogynist conspiracy theorists, whose target was Pelosi’s wife, Nancy, the longtime Democratic leader of the House of Representatives.
There have also been more than 600 mass shootings, including the senseless school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in May, where police shamefully failed to intervene in a timely or effective manner.
In November, five people were killed and 17 injured at Club Q, one of several queer havens in the largely conservative city of Colorado Springs, Colorado, which is known for its large population of evangelical Christians. The devastating death toll was lower than it might have been, thanks to brave club patrons doing what the police in Uvalde couldn’t do – breaking up and stopping the shooter.
The mass shooting at Club Q is not a surprising event in today’s climate, as reporter Will Carless points out in USA Today. The attack took place the night before Transgender Day of Remembrance, where the club staged a variety of drag programs and focused on gender identity.
The show has come under frequent attack by Fox News and other American right-wing media outlets this year. Drag shows have been associated with transgender people and there is an attempt to create a moral panic about the idea that these performances, as well as queer people, represent a danger to children.
2022 is a record year for state bills that seek to limit LGBTIQ rights, most of which focus on trans rights. Right-wing Americans are also spreading false rumors that queer people can be pedophiles — labeling members of the LGBTQ community “dressers” — with a level of intensity not seen since the 1980s.
Ban on abortion and midterms
This was also the year when the Supreme Court overturned the previous ruling in Roe v Wade, and with it the constitutional right to abortion in the US.
This led to state-level abortion bans, undermining not only reproductive rights but also broader privacy rights, which many subsequent decisions on women’s and LGBTQ rights have, at least in part.
Indeed, Justice Samuel Alito’s infamous decision reflected the desire of the Supreme Court’s radical conservative majority to abrogate other civil rights, such as the right of same-sex couples to marry. The rights of all marginalized groups remain gravely threatened as long as the illegitimate right-wing Supreme Court balance remains the same.
Any chance Democrats have to restore justice through legislation by adding judges to the court is not in the near future, as Republicans will control the House of Representatives (one of the two houses of Congress) next year.
Some observers will be tempted to look back to 2022 and see a crisis in US democracy averted by the results of the midterm elections.
The party that controls the presidency usually loses Congress in the midterms, but this year the Democrats did well, holding the Senate and defeating many Republican candidates supported by Trump who promoted what he called “big lies” about the allegations. “stolen” the 2020 presidential election.
This is a good thing — and a reason for hope — but it would be naive to assume that America’s democratic crisis is over.
Trump’s answer?
Since Donald Trump arrived on the political scene in 2011 as a “birther” (false, conspiratorial claim that Barack Obama was born outside the US and is therefore ineligible for the presidency), he has always caused pain on the US right. .
This disease has done so much harm to our country through the disproportionate power white conservative Christians have been given by the electoral college, gerrymandering and voter suppression – all clearly anti-democratic aspects of the US political system.
While it is important to remember that Trump is a symptom of the problem and not the problem itself, it is symbolic of significance that new polls show him easily defeating his main rival, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, in the Republican primaries. The virulently anti-trans DeSantis is no less authoritarian than Trump, but he lacks the latter’s charisma with the hate-filled Republican base.
If the Republicans choose their 2024 presidential candidate today, they will re-elect Trump – the man responsible for the January 6, 2021 uprising, who illegally held sensitive government documents at his private home in Mar-a-Lago.
Last month he dined there with Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West – who was seen wearing a ‘White Lives Matter’ shirt in October – and Nick Fuentes, a Holocaust denier and white supremacist.
It is hard to see a clear path to a functional democratic American future.
Racism, misogyny, and anti-LGBTIQ hostility continue to create a political right characterized by a willingness to hold onto power at any cost. There is an acute danger of more extreme violence against members of marginalized groups and high-profile political targets.
That said, survival – itself a powerful act of resistance – and resisting injustice is a long-term endeavor. There are more decent Americans than haters, and at some point the latter’s dominance of many of our institutions must become unsustainable.
One way or another, as singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen said, “Democracy is coming to the US.”
This is an edited version of an article originally published by OpenDemocracy.
Chrissy Stroop is a senior correspondent for Religious Postsand her work has also appeared in Foreign Policy, The Boston Globe, Playboy and other outlets. Stroop holds a PhD and is a senior research associate with the Postsecular Conflict project of the University of Innsbruck.