I, like many other students, spent my Thursday night on June 27 watching the debate between former President Donald Trump and President Joe Biden. Unsurprisingly, the debate was labeled a disaster by many mainstream news sources. People called for Biden to step down, while others labeled Trump as a threat to our democracy. However, my overarching question was, “How did we get here?”
After the debate, I took a few minutes to read through a substack thread with people’s reactions to the spectacle. One comment that stood out to me read: “In a sane society, the collective realization that we have had a clearly senile person in charge of our nuclear launch codes for four years would trigger a major inquiry into how this happened, who enabled it and why nothing was done about it sooner. And preferably, some public executions as a warning to not let it happen again.”
It certainly does not feel like Americans are living in a sane society.
The last few years have been underpinned by a steady collapse of trust in American institutions. Amid riots, hate crimes, a pandemic, contentious elections and a Capitol insurrection, it’s hard to deny that a lack of trust across institutions is constantly making us reevaluate our future. It seems like every other day we reach a pivotal moment in American history. Each election feels increasingly shaky, and every piece of media appears to have conflicting arguments.
Despite our institutions having weathered numerous storms of mistrust, 2024 feels like a pivotal moment where the very foundations of our democracy are beginning to falter. Coming into this year, we found ourselves with an overwhelming sense of mistrust in this country. According to polls done by Gallup in 2023, trust in historically mainstream institutions such as banks, the Supreme Court and schools was at all-time low. Only 26% percent of people polled reported having a great deal of trust in our public school system. Similarly, only 26% of people trust the presidency while other institutions like newspapers find themselves at 18%.
Individuals should not be to blame for this. Political parties are enabling this mistrust, both with their policies and with their campaigns. In 2020, Biden ran a campaign that was mainly based around stopping the evil of Trump. Out of fear, people heeded Biden’s calls to vote for his withering self. Here in 2024, Trump is utilizing similar methods. His descriptions of migrants, crime and Biden depict an image of a country in shambles.
One only needs to go a few elections back to see that debates were respectable affairs, ones that would see policy disagreements rather than all-out attacks on the moral being of an adversary. John McCain was quick to defend Barack Obama’s family values after a crowd at his rally accused Obama of colluding with domestic terrorists, saying, “He is a decent family man that I just happen to have disagreements with on policy.” Today sees debate stages with a current president, mouth agape staring into a void, stumbling over his words while trying to argue with a convicted felon over golf.
What changed?
To answer this question, I turn to the different versions of reality that exist in voters’ minds. Reality now has countless variations. Modern technology has enabled people to not only see what they want to see, but to also have hyper-exposure to the fringes of society. What used to be an avoidable fringe neighbor is now an inflammatory comment from someone across the country visible under any given social media post. Today, we face a situation where the problem is not so much the echo chambers dividing us, but rather our tendency to judge and label entire groups based on the actions of fringe individuals — instead of considering the views of the average voter. This creates a cycle in which people become estranged from one another and conversations with similar versions of reality are difficult to find. Party identities then become associated with resisting these radical factions, in turn becoming entrenched in other extreme beliefs. As a result, we are stuck with presidential candidates who feel that it's necessary to take a side that is not representative of the average voter's views, but rather aligned with the extremes of their party.
We are truly living in an unprecedented time. It is a time in which Americans are corrupted by media algorithms, anger, distrust and a “democracy” that has given us two candidates who many believe simply cannot be president. Frankly, we should be worried — the United States is no exception when it comes to turbulent democracies. 2024 is a crucial year, and one that will see an all-time low in institutional trust.
Opinion articles represent the views of their author(s), which are not necessarily those of The Dartmouth.
