Document Type
Article
Publication Title
California Law Review Online
Publication Date
2025
DOI
https://doi.org/10.15779/Z38ZG6G924
Abstract
This piece confronts the stakes of our current trajectory by looking to the future. It presents six fictional letters to illustrate where today’s ominous currents could lead. In this imagined tomorrow, contemporary voting restrictions, judicial erosion, and administrative manipulation have gradually hollowed out the franchise, transforming formal democracy into little more than an empty spectacle. Each letter voices a different facet of democratic erosion: a voter disenfranchised by bureaucratic hurdles, a candidate’s voice hijacked by deepfake technology, a neighbor ensnared by punitive voting laws, a community erased by gerrymandering, a campaign drowned in dark money, and even a corporate memo cheerfully touting the “efficiencies” of voter apathy. Pieced together, these forces operate to fragment a withering liberal democracy, turning the franchise into an illusion of choice rather than a vehicle for self-governance. These dispatches from our potential future aim to sound an alarm in the present; the fate of liberal democracy in America hinges on how we respond to current dynamics now.
Recommended Citation
Maureen Edobor, Letters from a Fragmented Democracy, 16 Calif. L. Rev. Online 107 (2025).