Every time I see some liberal complaining about how conservatives, Republicans, and Trump supporters are putting our American democracy in danger, I don't know whether to laugh or to cringe.
If these people had any sense, they would realize that the United States of America is not a democracy. This nation is organized as a constitutional representative republic. The founders realized the dangers of a true democracy, so they set the nation up as a conglomeration of states that can institute various systems of elective government.
You see it in the way some states have unique procedures. Nebraska has a unicameral legislature, while every other state has a bicameral one. Some states allow ballot initiatives or referendums on proposed legislation, which is about as close to a true democracy as we get in America. Some states allow for the recall of elected officials. Each state has its own constitution and a means for amending it. But it's obvious in the way the federal government was established that a democracy was not wanted. The president isn't chosen in a single election wherein the person who receives the most votes wins. The presidential election is actually the aggregate of individual elections in each of the states and territories, with the results weighted by population. The Senate was originally envisioned as a body that was chosen by and representative of the individual state governments, but the 17th Amendment changed that to take the selection of senators away from the state legislators and give it to individuals.
But if we did have a true democracy, it's not the American right that poses a danger to it. In issue after issue, the leftists have been the ones who have complained the most about the influence of individuals in the political process.
A number of public policy issues have risen to the forefront and angered and motivated members of the electorate. From the Wuhan Chinese virus to educational policy and curriculum, members of the public have grown sick and tired of the government's actions and are vowing to effect change.
This scares liberals. They don't want the public to have any influence over government policy. The government -- a big, nameless, faceless, entity that was created to be "of the people, by the people, and for the people" but has become a self-sustaining institution -- knows best. The people shouldn't control the government. The government should rule the people.
As parents and taxpayers organize to win school board seats and take control of school policy, the left is aghast. They don't want anyone else to have a say in what students are taught. Parents are rightfully concerned over the sexualization of their kids in the classroom, and the teaching of a flawed theory on race that pushes the false notion that America is an inherently racist country, decades after the Civil Rights Act was passed and nearly two centuries after slavery was abolished.
Much of the current wave of ground-level activism started when parents complained about various public school responses to the Kung Flu. They were angry about mask mandates and the closure of classrooms to in-person learning. Many of these educational issues were at the forefront of last year's Virginia gubernatorial election, where Glenn Youngkin ran on a platform of turning control back to the parents and taxpayers and he defeated Clinton crony Terry McAuliffe.
If liberals really support democracy, then why don't they want the majority to control how tax dollars are spent? If they are the defenders of freedom, shouldn't they act like it?
An even more glaring example of this whole thing at play is how the left is reacting to what looks to be the imminent takeover of Twitter by Elon Musk. There have actually been commentaries written that say allowing free speech to flourish on Twitter or other online sources is a detriment to democracy. And people take some of these buffoons seriously. Robert Reich, the former Clinton administration official whose intellect is roughly equal to his physical size, was one of the first to weigh in. He was roundly roasted for his opinion, as have been most people who think that actually allowing more free speech is somehow harmful to freedom.
The marketplace of ideas is a cornerstone of a democratic society. The answer to free speech with which you disagree isn't censorship. It's not less speech. The answer is more speech. If someone says something with which you disagree, no matter how outrageous it might be, the solution is not to silence them. The proper response is to counter them. Point out what they're wrong about and why. Let the truth prevail.
In a true democracy -- or even in a representative republic, which is the actual form of government under which we operate -- the voices of the people are supposed to prevail. Those who actually support freedom and democracy want the people to dictate how government works, not the government telling the people how to live, and they want a robust exchange of ideas from which the truth emerges.
In today's "up is down and down is up" world, it's those on the right -- the ones the left think are trying to destroy democracy -- who are fighting for our freedoms. And those on the left, who claim that conservatives are the enemies of democracy, are the true enemies of it.
