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.
Democracy Is a Threat to Democracy, Say Democrats
Voting has already begun for the 2022 midterm elections, and if the polling trends are right and the middle-of-the-night junk-mail ballot drops don’t do for the country what they did for New Jersey Democrats last year, Republicans are in a position to take a majority in the House and have an outside chance of taking the Senate.
It seems the people are dissatisfied with the policies of the party in power and, through the power of the ballot, will express their dissatisfaction by electing greater numbers of what passes for an opposition party. According to a lot of people who proclaim themselves “pro-democracy,” the expression of political power at the ballot box is a threat to democracy. We will start with Washington Post opinion columnist Max Boot.
If the current trends hold up, Republicans are likely to take over at least the House and quite possibly the Senate, too, along with many state offices. This is how democracies die, both at home and abroad.
Democracies die when … the people vote in elections. But the one-party state Boot would prefer is the essence of democracy; that doesn’t seem to be winning over voters. Boot is not alone in seeming not to understand what democracy is or how it works. He is joined by his good friend Tom Nichols, who is appalled that Americans are worried more about dumb things like the cost of food than the dire threat posed by electing Republican politicians who can be voted out in two years poses to democracy.
The Democratic Party has been running on the theme that electing their opposite number would imperil democracy. And why would they not? Their leader famously said Republicans (excluding Democrat-adjacent Republicans like Mitt Romney and Liz Cheney) “pose a clear and present danger” to American democracy.
The Washington Post (a news service owned by a billionaire autocrat), of course, aligns its editorial stance with Democrat campaign rhetoric and laments that their “voting for one-party rule is essential to democracy” theme isn’t landing. The New York Times, likewise, laments that Democrat efforts to frame the election as an opportunity to save democracy are only making their own voters feel sad and discouraged. Funnily, most Americans don’t see the Republicans as a threat to democracy. But 59% of us say the media are a threat to democracy.
Politics in this country has just taken a very Bizarro-world turn. The same Democrats who frothily declare that “election denial” is a threat to democracy spent tens of millions to help “election deniers” primary Republicans who were on the same page with them. The leader of the Senate Republicans is undercutting a viable Republican challenger in New Hampshire to help out a barely-Republican senator in Alaska beat back in a race where both candidates are Republicans (and Murkowski endorsed a Democrat for Alaska’s house seat, by the way).
Also, the president sat down with a man in a dress to talk about women’s issues last weekend. It sounds like a Monty Python skit, but that is politics today.
Sidebar: There was a really, really dumb quote from The Orville that made me cringe when it came out of Seth MacFarland’s plump, vacuous mouth.
But the one thing you can say for democracy is that all other forms of government are even worse. Over thousands of years and on countless planets, it’s the best system anyone’s ever come up with to ensure the strong don’t dominate the weak.
Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no… No. Pure democracy enables the strong to dominate the weak. Democracy is what enabled Jim Crow, the Trail of Tears, and the internment of the Nisei. Protection of the weak requires strong protections of human rights like free speech, self-defense, and freedom of conscience. All of these are currently under assault by democratic forces, most notably in America’s hat.
Published in General
Seth either hasn’t heard the joke or understood it. Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to eat for dinner. Pure numbers will not stop the strong from dominating the weak.
The thing to remember if you think that you are one of the wolves in that situation is that wolf is on the menu next after the sheep is disposed of.
But fortunately the other wolf can’t eat you because your votes cancel out.
Not really at that point size and ruthlessness is all that matters.
Of course. I was being ironic or something.
Oh, and Max Boot has been SUCH a disappointment.
great recap!
Democracy dies in Dumbass
We’ve actually arrived at this moment because of “democracy.” The primary system, as we know it today, didn’t exist until the 1970s. It was the contentious battle for the ‘68 nominations that created it.
We were told “no more smoke-filled rooms” where nefarious elites decided who we were and were not allowed to vote for. Everything had to be opened up and allow the people to have their say. The same people who agitated for “a more democratic process” desperately wish to return power to the elites – now that they are the elites.
They don’t know how good things are, and have been misled by disinformation on Facebook and Twitter to care about irrelevant things, and blame the administration.
Which was corrupted in 2016, perfectly executed in 2020, and will now be corrupted again somehow
Yes. Because this tantrum, this fit of pique, this ill-mannered and irrational acting-out will empower a hardened cadre of maniacs who want to rewrite the American system to ensure one-party rule. Hence this is not only the most consequential election in American history, but possibly the last. The 2024 presidential election may only enfranchise people who have a government ID – as if such a thing could be attained in the next two years.
If the fascists do regain power, the only remaining means to safeguard the continuation of our institutions is to firebomb the offices of the institutions, and then fundamentally change their structure and power. It will also be advised to burn and loot commercial establishments, since something something and Capitalism has enabled the rise of these illiberal forces. Otherwise we have no one to blame but ourselves if we wake to see Max Boot’s fedora nailed to the doors of the Senate.
I watched the video of his White House visit. If you’re a dude who wants to pretend to be a chick, can’t you at least try a little harder? Being “a girl” doesn’t just automatically happen when you grow your hair long, get your nails done, and flutter your hands about while you’re uptalking. It’s insulting to actual women, that he thinks that’s all there is to it.
Tom Nichols – the expert of experts was doing this chicken little dance this weekend
I suspect the bulwark and dispatch will give their election issue about how voting for all of the policies you disagreed with most your life is the only true conservative choice in 2022
I like where this is going. Now where exactly is Max’s head in relation to the fedora at the time of the nailing?
Joy Reid: “The GOP is now openly fascist.”
Bush Advisor Matthew Dowd (nodding along:) “I’m not going to say that the GOP are Nazis … but it certainly sounds very familiar to what happened in Germany, which is a bunch of citizens, Adolf Hitler gets a third of the vote … they went along because he said he would solve the economy & fix inflation”
Democracy will manage just fine. Their Democracy, on the other hand, is damaged goods.
In his defense, Seth MacFarlane was paraphrasing Winston Churchill:
“No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” https://winstonchurchill.org/resources/quotes/the-worst-form-of-government/
Hillary Clinton: “Right-Wing Extremists are planning to steal the 2024 election.“
Not worried. I’ve been assured over the last few years that we have the most secure election system ever and that stealing elections is impossible.
There are even some democrats who are trying to prevent Trump from running – how is that ‘democratic’?