Fringe Groups And Collective Action

Why is it that so-called “fringe groups” are able to drive political discourse and elect people who are clearly non-representative? What accounts for the successes of MAGA, for example, when all credible research confirms that the movement represents a minority of Americans? (Granted, it’s a depressingly larger percentage than I would have guessed, but still a minority.) 

It’s a phenomenon I’ve encountered in other situations.

Back in 2007, a bipartisan group of Indiana leaders–the Kernan-Shepard Commission–was formed to study the structure of Indiana government. Among the recommendations issued by the Commission, led by former Governor Joe Kernan and Chief Justice Randall Shepard, was one that mirrored a proposal issued by former Governor Paul McNutt—in 1936.  (Never let it be said that Hoosiers rush into anything–the Hoosier legislature is finally considering consolidation of Indiana’s 1008 townships into a more workable number– this year.) 

The Kernan-Shepard proposal was supported by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, the Central Indiana Corporate Community Council, the Indiana Realtors, and the Professional Firefighters Union. All of those organizations agreed that Indiana’s inefficient and bloated governing structure was strangling us, driving up property taxes while starving service delivery. As the campaign for reducing the number of townships pointed out at the time, Indiana citizens pay for, and are governed by, more than 10,300 local officials. The state “boasts” 3,086 separate governing bodies, hundreds of which have taxing authority. 

This bloated superstructure (much of which remains) made it nearly impossible to follow through on the perennial promise of political candidates of both parties to root out waste–much of that waste is a result of overlapping and outmoded units of government. It’s certainly not in service delivery. As I wrote at the time, in Indiana, we don’t put tax revenues to work enhancing our quality of life. Instead, we use a significant portion of them to pay for 1008 Township Trustees and other officeholders we no longer need.

Despite polling that showed a large majority of Hoosiers in support, that 2007 campaign to consolidate failed. It was my introduction to a longstanding axiom of political science: small, highly concentrated interest groups are more politically effective than larger but diffuse groups. 

The reason is salience– the importance we attach to a particular issue. 

In 2007, townships were an artifact of the days when travel to the county seat (by horseback) took half a day. Their responsibilities had steadily shrunk; they did little but run (some) fire departments and administer (with documented inefficiency) poor relief. Poll after poll confirmed that most Indiana voters agreed with the Commission that those duties should move to the county level. Convincing the legislature to consolidate them should have been a no-brainer.

But it didn’t happen.

Although majorities of voters agreed that townships should go–that they wasted money better used elsewhere–it was a rare individual for whom this was a burning issue. For the Township Trustees and members of their Advisory Boards, however, it was issue #1. Eliminating townships would eliminate the livelihoods of the Trustees (and the relatives many of them employed). It would eliminate the inflated fees paid to Advisory Board members for attending three or four meetings a year. The individuals for whom townships were issue #1 focused like lasers on lawmakers, marshalling their forces, bringing in people to testify, hiring lobbyists and calling in political favors. For them, the issue was salient. And we still have 1008 townships.

Before there was MAGA, there was the Tea Party.. Both movements were more politically effective than their numbers would have predicted, because the grievances that members shared were so salient to them. It reminded me of a famous quote from Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it’s the only thing that ever has.” Unfortunately, it is also true that committed small groups that aren’t so thoughtful can also change the world, and not for the better.

There is no honest way to ignore the shared White Christian nationalism and deep-seated hatreds of MAGA adherents. Their war on DEI and “woke-ism,” their attacks on “elitists,” science, and expertise of all sorts are evidence of the salience of their resentments and hatreds–a salience that has allowed them to marshall their forces and “punch above their weight.”

MAGA’s cult-like behavior, and Trump’s buffoonery and incompetence, has had one arguably encouraging effect. It has vastly increased  the salience of constitutional and democratic principles to the “diffuse” majority of Americans. The Resistance is coming out in force.

And this year, Indiana may actually consolidate some townships, although I’m not holding my breath…

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Speaking Up

A couple of weeks ago, I read a media account about a Pennsylvania man who’d sent an email to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), urging the use of “common sense and decency” in an upcoming case. Within hours of sending the email, DHS issued a subpoena to Google for the man’s information. Two weeks later, two DHS agents and a local police officer visited his home to interrogate him about the email. 

When my husband and I discussed the incident, he admitted to worrying about similar reactions to the sentiments I express in these daily rants….

A few days later, in a conversation with my younger grandson, we addressed the issue from another angle: not whether citizens have a First Amendment right to criticise the government (we absolutely do, as the ACLU evidently reminded DHS after that interrogation), but whether patriotic citizenship implies a positive duty to speak truth to power, to defend American principles when they are under attack. We concluded that such a duty exists, even in situations when speaking up may involve a measure of risk.

I thought about those conversations when I read one of Robert Hubbell’s recent newsletters. Hubbell was clarifying his previous reaction to the way in which Anderson Cooper had departed from Sixty Minutes. His criticism wasn’t about the departure; it was about Cooper’s muted explanation of the reasons for that departure. Hubbell went on to make a point that directly addressed the immense importance of speaking up at times like these.

Here’s what he wrote:

We live in a fraught moment in which we have three choices for responding to Trump’s attempt to end democracy: capitulation, remaining silent, or raising our voices.

In reality, there are only two choices because capitulation and remaining silent are the same. Both advance Trump’s agenda, even though they involve different degrees of cooperation. But, in the end, dictators count on most people shrinking into the shadows. When good people remain silent, it becomes easier for the dictator to target those who raise their voices.

Let’s use Mark Kelly and the five other members of Congress who participated in the video about the duty to refuse illegal orders (Sen. Slotkin and Reps. Crow, Goodlander, Deluzio, and Houlahan). They made a brave choice. Rather than remaining silent as the US military murdered helpless civilians clinging to a shipwreck, they spoke out. Their leadership by example illustrates why they were good soldiers and commanders, and why they are good members of Congress.

As expected, Trump directed his ire at the six legislators, going so far as to seek indictments against everyone in the small group. They might still be indicted; they might still lose their retirement rank and pay. They remain at risk for speaking out.

Let’s imagine an alternate scenario. Suppose the day after Trump accused Kelly and others of sedition and called for the death penalty, the 93 additional members of Congress who are retired military veterans released the same video. And then the next day, 100 retired generals and admirals released the same video. And the next day, another 100 retired generals and admirals made the same video. As the number of those speaking out mounted, Trump and Hegseth would have retreated into sullen silence.

But because good and honorable men and women have chosen to remain silent, they are abandoning their colleagues during the most important fight of their lives. The other retired military members in Congress and retired generals and admirals are leaving Kelly and the others exposed to enemy fire, even though they have the capacity to provide cover merely by ending their silence.

Anderson Cooper quietly left CBS as it was being censored at the hands of Bari Weiss, paid for by Larry and David Ellison, to please Donald Trump. Anderson Cooper remained silent when he could have spoken the truth. That was a choice. Just like it is a choice for retired military members of Congress who send private text messages of encouragement to Kelly and the others but lack the courage to speak the same truth. Their silence is a choice.

 The simple but profound act of bearing witness to the truth by standing on a roadside or an overpass with a protest sign is a choice. It is the right one. It is a choice that inspires others. It tells them there is strength in numbers. It tells them not to lose hope.

Kelly, Slotkin, Crow, Goodlander, Deluzio, and Houlahan made a choice.

Their retired military colleagues in Congress made a choice.

Anderson Cooper made a choice.

We are being called upon to make a choice. Let’s make the right one.

I couldn’t agree more!

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Local Control? Surely You Jest…

The anticipated conclusion of the 2026 session of Indiana’s legislature is February 27th, due to an unusually early start; the statutory deadline is March 14th.

Let’s hope they meet the target date of February 27 th. The end can’t come soon enough…

Every year, the intrusions of Indiana’s legislative overlords into local decision-making makes me wonder why Hoosiers even bother electing Mayors and city councilors. This session is no different. At this point in the session, some of the more egregious measures have–thankfully–been deep-sixed (I’m thinking especially of an outrageous bill that would have overruled local zoning affecting billboards–undoubtedly a bill near and dear to the hearts of lobbyists for the billboard industry). But plenty of the intrusions remain viable, and look likely to pass.

Mirror Indy has reported on a bill that aims to forbid county councils from using state road funding for projects picked by individual councilors. While the measure would apply statewide, the proposal probably targets Marion County, where reports emerged last year asserting that a few city-county councilors had used their share of a $25 million pot of money to fix roads in front of their homes or near their workplaces.

Assuming those reports were accurate, the appropriate response in a small-d democratic system would come from the voters. Inappropriate decisions about where to spend public monies are a time-tested political issue, and in a properly functioning system, would become campaign issues the next time those accused of self-dealing were up for re-election. In other words, local voters would decide whether the accusations were accurate and if so, whether the behavior of these particular councilors–when considered alongside other performance by those councilors–required their replacement.

Instead, the legislature has moved to restrict all counselors statewide from having a say in the way these funds would be spent.

This example is hardly a one-off. Just this session, Indiana’s legislature has moved to preempt local rental regulations. HB 1210
would block local governments from adopting or enforcing rules that limit homeowners’ ability to rent out their property,
overriding existing local ordinances in cities like Carmel and Fishers that limit short-term or unit rental caps.
Cities and towns would no longer have the ability to tailor rental housing rules to the specific needs of their communities or to respond to the particularities of their local housing markets.

HB 1001 is even more egregious. It would impose statewide standards on local zoning and permitting–usurping the historic prerogatives of local officials to respond to neighborhood desires and other specific situations in their communities  The measure is presumably prompted by a not-unreasonable desire to increase housing supply, although how that goal would be furthered by the imposition of statewide criteria for lot sizes, parking and density, or by the removal of local control over design requirements, is–to be charitable–difficult to understand.

Even worse, SB 176 would prevent local governments from using zoning/land-use powers to restrict or ban shooting ranges. (I wasn’t aware that Second Amendment rights extended to zoning…)

There’s more, but the overall picture reinforces the obvious belief of the GOP super-majority that Indiana legislators are elected to supervise all lawmaking within the Hoosier State, not simply matters that are usually and properly considered state issues.  The 2026 session continues a longtime trend in Indiana, where state lawmakers believe they know more than local officials and feel free to preempt lawmakers who’ve been elected to exert local control. In previous sessions, the legislature has overruled local lawmakers on issues ranging from puppy mills to the use of plastic bags.

There are numerous problems with this legislative arrogance. Local government officials are closer to the people they represent, and more accessible. In areas that still have local media covering local governments (another problem, granted), it’s easier for voters to monitor their performance. Political theorists since Alexis de Tocqueville have pointed out that robust local governance strengthens democratic habits and builds civic competence. It also allows for what political scientists call “better policy fit and contextual sensitivity.”

There can certainly be differences of opinion about when standardization is desirable, but that sort of thoughtful discussion has generally been absent from the rulemaking in Indiana’s General Assembly, where far too many legislators are unfamiliar both with accountability and with the virtues of an appropriate humility.

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Ranked Choice Voting

As I write this, Indiana’s legislature is close to passing Senate Bill 12, a measure that would prohibit the use of ranked-choice voting in Indiana. The bill was co-authored by Republicans who are evidently worried that the state might use the system some day in the future (it is not in effect now and has not, to the best of my knowledge, been proposed). 

What, you may be asking, is ranked-choice voting, sometimes called “instant runoff” voting?

It’s simply a system that allows voters to rank candidates in their order of preference, rather than forcing them to select just one. In other words, voters rank the candidates–first choice, second, and so on. The vote count begins with the first choices; if one candidate receives over 50%, that’s it. Election’s over. If no candidate receives a majority, the candidate with the fewest first-choice votes is eliminated, and his or her votes are reassigned to the remaining candidates based on each voter’s next highest preference. The process of eliminating and redistributing continues until a single candidate achieves a majority of the remaining votes.

Organizations concerned with fair elections support ranked-choice voting. Indiana’s League of Women Voters supports it because–among other things– the system would “give voters meaningful choices to reduce the toxicity of negative campaigning.” Indiana’s Common Cause supports ranked-choice voting because the organization finds the system makes elections more equitable, allows voters to choose among more diverse perspectives, and provides more choices.

The legislators opposed to the system insist it is “too complicated”–that there is something “unAmerican” about allowing voters to say, in effect, “my first choice is candidate X, my second choice is candidate Y, and if neither of them wins, I suppose I can live with candidate Z. Evidently, they think voters in states that currently use the system, like Maine and Alaska, are smarter than Hoosiers. (Given some of the people we’ve elected, maybe they have a point.)

Interestingly, according to Governing Magazine, in 2020, the state Republican Party used the method to select delegates.

In an article on the subject, Indiana’s Capital Chronicle noted that the award of the Heisman Trophy is the result of ranked-choice voting. The article explained why using that method ensures that the candidate with the most support wins.

This is the same reason why so many states and localities have adopted ranked choice voting for elections for governor, state legislature, city council and other offices. It is an incredibly useful tool for voters in any race with more than two candidates. 

It ensures a majority winner in a crowded field. Voters can choose the person they like best, without fearing that their vote might go to a “spoiler” and help elect the person — or the quarterback — that they like least.

The article then turned to Indiana Republicans’ current effort to ban the system, pointing out that in a state where some 3% of voters are libertarians, ranked-choice voting would mean Republicans would no longer need to worry that a Libertarian candidate might tip the race to the Democrats — and Libertarian voters could support the candidate of their choice without that fear, as well.

Why prevent Indiana and its localities from giving voters more choice? The bill’s sponsors suggest that ranked choice voting is confusing, and that they want to protect Indiana’s current election system. But every poll conducted after a ranked choice election shows that huge majorities of voters — often even bigger than Mendoza’s Heisman margin — like it, find it easy to use, and want it expanded to other elections. 

Beyond the flaws of SB12 are other questions: Why, in a short session with limited time to address other pressing issues, has the GOP super-majority decided to spend time banning something the state isn’t doing anyway? Why is our legislature overruling– in advance–the ability of Indiana’s local jurisdictions to adopt a voting measure used in hundreds of cities and counties across the country?

As the Capital Chronicle quite properly concluded, we need to reject this nonsensical ban. “Ranked choice voting produces more positive campaigns, majority winners, and puts an end to spoilers. It’s proven and it’s easy. If Indiana’s political parties, cities and towns want to adopt it, they should have that right.”

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Vice Signaling

The Guardian recently published an article addressing the degraded rhetoric ushered in by MAGA and employed non-stop by Trump.

We all are familiar with the concept of “virtue signaling”–-defined as publicly taking progressive positions that can seem performative–efforts to burnish one’s moral credentials, or demonstrate “right-thinking” (with a lower-case r.) As the article says, it can be easy to lampoon. (When I purchased my first Prius, a colleague suggested that driving a hybrid fell into that category.)

Trump, of course, has exhibited the opposite–what the article calls “vice signaling”–a penchant for dehumanisation that is the  opposite of decency. They’re not in the same rhetorical category. It began with his campaign launch, when he announced that he would build a wall between the US and Mexico in remarks the article described as ungrammatical with a vocabulary that was vague and repetitive. (The embarrassing third grade level characteristics of “Trump speech” that we have now come to expect.)

This is classic vice-signalling, breaking taboos in this case both general (against hate speech) and more specific (against falsely associating base or criminal traits with a race or ethnic group). He was signalling that he was prepared to go there –- say what the establishment would not allow, and assert himself as a politician who is authentic and courageous, who cannot be muzzled.

The recent video depicting the Obamas as apes was consistent with the racism he’s been signaling for decades. The linked article points out that such behaviors garner media attention and “break down established barriers to entry.”

What is far too infrequently discussed is what a society loses when civility of discourse is abandoned, and insults and hateful rhetoric displace respectful disagreement.

Research confirms that civil discourse leads to greater institutional trust– that tone strongly influences whether citizens view institutions as legitimate, even when they disagree with specific policies or outcomes. Without trust, compliance with the law declines and, as we are seeing, polarization deepens.

In “How Democracies Die,” Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt argued that democracy depends on “mutual toleration” and “forbearance”—both rooted in civility. Studies in social psychology show that civil environments increase people’s willingness to listen to each other and increase cross-ideological understanding—even when opinions don’t change.

Other research suggests that civility is economically consequential–high-trust, low-conflict environments attract investment, and reduce both transaction costs and regulatory friction. Social scientists like Robert Putnam have demonstrated that social capital–trust and reciprocity–leads to stronger economic growth.

There are also personal costs to marinating in an increasingly hateful and uncivil society. Medical scientists warn that chronic exposure to hostile rhetoric raises cortisol levels and increases anxiety; political science tells us that civility increases the likelihood of participation in civic life. Political science also tells us that rhetoric routinely delegitimizing elections, courts, journalists and civil servants leads to a greater tolerance of violations of important social norms, to institutional weakening, and ultimately, tolerance of violence.

As we’ve seen in our dysfunctional Congress, inflammatory rhetoric makes compromise difficult, if not impossible. It increases policy gridlock; worse, it creates a situation in which expertise is belittled and dismissed as partisan. (If you doubt that, just look at what RFK, Jr. has done to public health, or consider the consequences of Trump’s dismissal of climate change and embrace of coal mining.)

Civility isn’t silence. It isn’t the absence of protest or disagreement. It’s fundamentally a recognition of civic equality, in the sense that civil discourse implicitly recognizes that every citizen has a right to express an opinion. When discourse and even very strong disagreements are voiced in a civil and respectful manner, governments (and all institutions) benefit.

I’m not naive. I understand that individuals will often express themselves in dismissive or vulgar terms. (I am not exempt.) But when the people we have empowered–those we’ve elected to public office, or those whose celebrity means their comments will be widely shared–use demeaning and ugly rhetoric, “punching down” on those of lesser authority or status, the negative results don’t just fall on the people being demeaned. They are felt society-wide.

Every day, we learn of the profound, concrete damage this administration is doing. We learn of the corruption, the assaults on the rule of law, the efforts to reinstate Jim Crow…on and on. These assaults understandably consume our attention, but while we are compiling our lists of things we must correct once these horrible people have been ejected from our public life, we need to put “restoring civility” near the top.

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