How Did Covid-19 Impact The US Democracy?
It may take years before political analysts can comprehensively assess the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the democracy of the United States.
Did the pandemic contribute to the electoral loss of Donald J Trump?
Did the racial force behind George Floyd’s murder cut short Trump’s Presidency?
Or
Did it give rise to the mainstreaming of conspiracy theories?
The cold hard fact is, the United States’ democracy was suffering from different issues even before the rise of the pandemic. However, the pandemic worked as an opportunity for the leaders of the nation to introduce and describe unity, strengthening the pillars of incisions, and model competent governance in response to an ongoing public health threat, but the democrats acted differently – they responded to the pandemic by deepening the divisions within society.
As a result, covid-19 turned into inextricably intertwined with the potent blend of polarization, misinformation, and politicization. It was already ruining the public’s trust in the government. Post pandemic, the situation got even more complicated. Additionally, the coronavirus outbreak also gave birth to fresh constraints on the transparency and accountability of the government.
However, there is still a ray of hope that talks about the possibility of re-strengthening the US democracy in the longer term. The pandemic inspired fresh innovations in pulling modalities and collective action. Needless to say, it may lead to the historic entry in voter turnout in the coming election. Besides, it will give birth to a new model of civic activism.
Impact of Covid-19 on US Democracy
With omicron, the world is fearing the re-increase in the intensity of the infection. As it recedes, will there be a continuation in the positive? Let’s delve deeper and take a detailed look at the changes that the covid-19 pandemic has initiated!
1. The coronavirus outbreak induced socio-political activism in the United States
The involvement of common people in political and social activities across the United States has significantly increased in the pandemic period. The coronavirus and its fearful outbreak declined voter participation in different countries, but surprisingly the 2020 US election was seen at an all-time high in terms of voter participation.
It’s being said that the participation ratio was the highest in the last century. This drastic enthusiasm of the voters can be related to the strong partisan views of Ex-president Trump. Additionally, the local election administrators also deserve some credit as they have put new voting modalities in place and arranged COVID appropriate safety measures to help voters enjoy a safe voting experience.
To elaborate, more than ten thousand elections administering jurisdiction expanded the voter’s access to mail-in voting and early voting. The best part is, they did it, keeping the pandemic-induced staffing and budgetary issues aside. Special arrangements like curbside voting and more were made to ensure that even covid-19 positive patients could vote in a hassle-free manner.
2. The pandemic elevated repeated waves of civic actions and protests
If we go by the statistics, we will be able to figure out that around 40% of the 2020 protests were related to covid-19. Hence, it won’t be an exaggeration to call them pandemic-fuelled protests. The subject matter of such protests includes the rising rate of infection, lockdown, mask mandates, and more.
In addition, the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on communities of color induced the issues of systematic racism within the health system. The illustration of this spotlight pushed the Biden administration to appoint higher-level advisors for exclusively handling the racial disparities in healthcare.
3. The access to information has been reduced for the citizens
The pandemic ignited the most sustained and most dispersed mass mobilization in the history of the United States. However, the access to information has been reduced for the citizens. It’s an undeniable fact that the US democracy has turned into a more participatory one after the pandemic.
However, the accountability and transparency of the government have deteriorated unexpectedly. Due to lockdown measures, open meetings and public record requests have been restricted, which eventually led to the delay and denial of access to public records.
The Reporters Community for the Freedom of the Press has listed approximately 130 instances that cite the pandemic as the reason to limit the access of citizens to public records. The major budget shortfall that the state and the local governments are experiencing indicates the possibility of reduced investments in meeting legal requirements for public records.
Additionally, covid-19 has elevated the closure of the decade-long trend in the US media environment – the local news outlets. It’s being said that the quality of public safety has also declined while the growth of political partisanship has accelerated. The local news organization reported that the households with covid-19 have remained deprived of the daily newspaper facility, which has elevated the end of local media.
More than 65 local newsrooms have shut down due to the financial adversities caused by the pandemic. Though trillions of dollars have been dispersed into the US economy via definitive relief measures, the inevitable losses couldn’t be prevented.
4. The unbelievable rise in the spread of conspiracy theories
Conspiracy theories have also seen a new height in the pandemic period. Different pieces of research have stated that 25% of the US citizens live in the misconception that covid-19 is a manmade virus and the creators of this dangerous virus wanted to use it as a bio-weapon.
Former President Trump also propagated misinformation regarding the severity of the virus. These irrational beliefs gave birth to thousands of hate incidents across the globe that include verbal insults, discrimination, and physical assaults.
There’s more to see
The impact of covid-19 on the democracy of the United States is still being unraveled. From conducting massive public vaccination programs to implementing new measures for preventing the latest Omicron and Deltacron variant – the waves of the attempt to foster a quick recovery will continue to influence the socio-political environment of the nation and the expectations of what the democratic governance can and should look like will keep on evolving.
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