2 years, 8 months, 17 days, 3 hours
5 November 2026
Ultimately in the US election on Tuesday, democracy defended democracy.
Many of us feared it would be otherwise but ultimately in the US election on Tuesday, democracy defended democracy.
In The Voter Poll by SSRS Political & Election Polling Solutions the second biggest issue for voters, after the economy, was ‘The state of democracy’.
Watching from the other side of the Atlantic, what had seemed most worrying about the last few years was the extent to which supposedly independent institutions, in a country famous for its constitutional ‘balance of power’, either subjugated themselves to the presidential will, or were hounded into submission. And countless big businesses meanwhile disgraced themselves by whitewashing their claimed principles and values as they rushed to kowtow to the administration.
Happily not every part of the US system folded so easily. Large parts of the media continued to speak up for what they believed. The Supreme Court, and lower levels of the judiciary, handed down judgements that infuriated the administration. States continued to defend their rights. And civil resistance was ignited by travesties such as the fatal shootings in Minneapolis by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
But what was always going to matter most was whether the majority of voters would go along with the erosion of their own democracy, or not. And on Tuesday in spectacular fashion they defended it. Spectacular in the states where gerrymandering of voting districts backfired. And spectacular in the ‘blue tsunami’ cascading through central and southern states which have voted Republican for as long as anyone can remember.
For those of us with liberal values, the result of the election is a huge relief. But what matters most is not the result per se, but the implication that a majority of the US population still care about their democracy and the rule of law, and the rejection of ‘might is right’.