What Do Americans Really Want?

Freedom, mostly

Let’s not pretend we didn’t all expect this

I was listening to NPR on an annoying long drive this morning and was utterly shocked to hear how calm their analysis was, expecting TDS all over the place today. There were some reassurances about how a second Trump presidency won’t be as bad as the first now that we know what to expect and he’s a lame duck, and there was speculation that perhaps he wouldn’t be so dangerous on abortion rights as initially feared after he declared that he would veto a nationwide abortion ban. They even discussed what Democrats did wrong — including discussing what Democrats need to do to actually make people like them again, and how maybe they shouldn’t have annoyed the bulk of the country’s Latino population by adding an X to what they call themselves.

The way the abortion issue has changed since Dobbs two years ago is the part of this election I find most interesting, though.

In eight of ten states that put abortion rights on the ballot in the form of constitution amendments or codification, abortion won almost every time, excepting only South Dakota and Florida — the latter of which did win the majority of pro-abortion votes, but not by a wide enough margin to pass. Nebraska, too, defeated the ballot initiative that would ban abortion after the first trimester, but their competing ballot measure, intended to enshrine the right to abortion until viability, failed. Who knows what Nebraskans actually want.

Anyway, ever since Dobbs showed us that the majority of Americans do not support full bans and instead fall somewhere in the middle bickering about trimesters and circumstances, we’ve seen voters choose abortion rights in states that otherwise tend to primarily elect Republicans into office. Surprising, at first, since Republicans are the primary antagonists of abortion rights, but now I expect this when the issue is on a ballot. And expecting it has made me a lot less anxious about the state of abortion rights in America, and even many states. This graph from Pew makes clear the ostensibly contradictory beliefs in an intersection of recently-polled Americans who believe both that life begins at conception and that abortion should remain legal:

Americans have always been vibes-based voters to a certain degree and our primary vibe is freedom. Regardless of where we land on the political spectrum, your average American — Republican or Democrat — is usually made uncomfortable by too much government intrusion into the private lives of Americans, whether that be with their money, their recreational activities, their sex lives, their reproductive lives, their personal weaponry stash, or decisions about their actual bodies. We obviously continue to disagree on these issues at various points, but overall these and other issues related to personal freedom continue to trend more toward the freedom side of the spectrum, with drugs, sex work, abortion, and gun rights increasing and vaccine mandates ultimately falling by the wayside.

While vaccine mandates for Covid-19 were more popular than not by a healthy margin not long after the rollout, overall there were also a healthy number of people who opposed them or were ambivalent, especially independents and unvaccinated Democrats, the latter of whom consistently polled between 34% - 44% as opposing such measures, depending on the context of the mandate.

Interestingly, more Republicans were in favor than Democrats were opposed to these mandates; it would seem that, for most Americans, a reasonably credible threat to the health and safety of one’s community may be enough for some temporary concessions in a certain level of bodily autonomy. (For the record, I am both pro-choice and anti-mandate because bodily autonomy is the only real thing any of us have and you probably can’t change my mind about that.)

I’d love to live in the kind of world where every new law we pass was a ballot measure, but there’s no way in hell every eligible citizen could be trusted to research and understand every nuance of every bill or to sit it out when they don’t have a solid grasp of the issue (I’d sit out anything foreign policy related, because I frankly rarely care enough). Although perhaps it would be a great opportunity to simply pass fewer new laws. In lieu of that, I would prefer a ranked choice voting system of some kind to allow for more meaningful choice in candidates and parties. I doubt that’ll get passed nationwide anytime soon considering neither of the major parties would benefit from it in the slightest, at least as they operate now, but I’m heartened seeing the numbers of municipalities, states, and districts adopting it for their own elections.

One way that this “everything is a ballot measure” style of direct democracy could work would be within intentional communities that don’t exceed Dunbar's Number. It would be a more manageable number of people who are mostly on the same page, can hold calm enough meetings, and not have too many issues to need to educate oneself and decide on.

Prester John's Revenge

wrote about this recently in his article, Prometheus Unchained, an exploration into tradition versus modernity:

Just as there are many ways to have a family, there can be many ways to create a community. For some people, the idea of a fulfilling life is deeply connected with traditional values and community structures. They may choose to live in rural areas, fostering connections rooted in traditional relationships and religious traditions. Yet, this lifestyle is neither desirable nor realistic for everyone. Factors such as sexual orientation, economic constraints, an affinity for urban living, or even an alternative outlook on life may make the conventional approach unappealing or out of reach. Nonetheless, I believe that the essence of a smaller, purposeful community remains possible. Even in bustling cities, intentional communities can flourish within a few city blocks, cultivating a sense of belonging and shared purpose. Whether it takes the form of a polyamorous lesbian commune in Vermont, a church potluck or a block party, the important part is the community's intentionality and manageable scale, rather than any specific cultural or relational framework.

Barring all that, I give up. Just let ‘em turn us into a monarchy. I’m tired.

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