Ricochet is the best place on the internet to discuss the issues of the day, either through commenting on posts or writing your own for our active and dynamic community in a fully moderated environment. In addition, the Ricochet Audio Network offers over 50 original podcasts with new episodes released every day.
A Dubious Commitment to “Saving Democracy”
During this election year, one insistent theme refers to the urgency of “saving American democracy.” In the abstract, no one cares to dispute that proposition: at its core, it claims that we should have free and fair elections to make sure that the people elect those candidates who represent their basic values. If the plain meaning were the true meaning, the push to “save democracy” would satisfy a strong populist impulse which is, however, in deep tension with a second dominant theme: no all-powerful state, no matter how it is chosen, should ever exert complete control over the lives of its citizens. Hence, any constitutional democracy places strong limits on the power of government to do what it wills by a combination of structural devices and protections of individual freedoms on such matters as speech, religion, contract, and property. The goal is to safeguard those freedoms from a militant majority that can invoke in the exclusive power of the state to bring criminal and civil prosecutions against its enemies.
In this election, these principles are all being tested perhaps as never before, as the Biden administration has pushed the law to the limit—in both criminal prosecutions and in civil enforcement through executive orders and administrative regulations.