One question I am getting a fair bit these days from German friends and family is: how come Republican politicians keep supporting Trump? Why aren’t more individual representatives speaking out, say calling for an independent investigation of potential interference by Russia? By what mechanism are they being held in line with party leadership? In Germany there is a well understood mechanism of “party discipline” that arises from the party’s role in arranging the “list order,” which is the order in which candidates appear on the ballot. Your chance of being elected goes up, the higher up on the list you are. The question I am getting is: what is the equivalent in the US?
In the US, we have unfortunately spent years undermining the independence of politicians through gerrymandering. This is the reshaping of political districts, by politicians, to make it highly likely that the district is either clearly Republican or clearly Democrat, giving rise to districts with bizarre shapes. More importantly it means that the relevant election determining the representative from that district is no longer the general election but is determined in the primary. Primaries are notorious for relatively low voter turnout which means that they can easily be swayed. So the threat point is: stay in line with the party or we (the party and affiliated entities) will heavily finance a candidate against you.
So Republican representatives who are fed up with Trump are generally not afraid that they will lose against a Democrat in the next general election. They are worried instead that they will be replaced in their primary! This also explains why they feel at liberty to not do town halls, despite voters desire to have these. The general election simply doesn’t matter in too many places. I have previously pointed out fixing the primary system as a key to strengthening democracy. If you have thought in the past that this was a wonky issue without real relevance, then hopefully this past Presidential election and the ensuing administration are enough to convince you otherwise.
What can you do? You can and should call up your representatives and senators and ask about their position on independent re-districting to get back to competitive districts, as well as on the question of open primaries in which anyone can vote independent of party affiliation. Both of these are mechanisms for bringing independence back to candidates. Another thing you can do is to learn about Represent.us. They have rightly identified gerrymandering as a form of corruption. So another place you can start is to support Represent.us and their work on anti-corruption legislation around the country.
