The Right is Giving Up on Democracy

[whatthehey]

https://newrepublic.com/article/138019/right-giving-democracy

An interesting take from an interesting source. I had associated this with sore-loser narcissists but the question about which causes the other is quite intriguing.

Excerpt:

Suspicion of the democratic system is so pervasive on the right because it’s driven by the fear that white Christian America is facing demographic doom. The evidence is right there in the election results: Republicans have lost the popular vote in five of the last six presidential elections, and if current polling trends hold, the GOP will be batting one for seven when the results come in on November 8. Thanks to gerrymandering, Republicans may hold on to a U.S. House majority for a while, and they’ll remain competitive in state capitols in the near future. But a whites-only party can’t win national elections. And over time, the GOP’s congressional and state fortresses will crumble if the party doesn’t change dramatically. Or if the democratic system doesn’t change dramatically.


As conservative writer Byron York noted in the Washington Examiner in May, there’s been an upsurge on the right of calls for “a test for voting, limited-participation elections, condemnations of democracy in general.” The anti-democratic measures have been taken up with especial fervor by anti-Trump writers like David Harsanyi, Jonah Goldberg, and Keven D. Williamson, all frequent contributors to The National Review.

Harsanyi, senior editor at The Federalist and author of the book The People Have Spoken (And They Are Wrong): The Case Against Democracy, is one of the most forthright voices. In a May 2016 op-ed in the Washington Post, he called for “weeding out millions of irresponsible voters who can’t be bothered to learn the rudimentary workings of the Constitution, or their preferred candidate’s proposals or even their history.” That way, he said, “we may be able to mitigate the recklessness of the electorate.” In effect, Harsanyi is calling for a return to old-style literacy tests once used to uphold Jim Crow disenfranchisement. But he assures readers that his proposed test wouldn’t have that kind of discriminatory effect, since it “would ensure that all races, creeds, genders and sexual orientations and people of every socioeconomic background are similarly inhibited from voting when ignorant.”

[safeinOhio]

1. Voting for trump is

as reckless as it gets.

[Oldem]

2. We face so many dangers, and this is one

of the most serious. It's not new. From the time of this country's founding, the Tory element has believed in ruling and servant classes. This belief that certain people are born to benefit from the labor of others is the antithesis of democracy. Yet it's built into the fabric of our economic system. Businesses are created to make profits, and the more those profits are shared with workers, the less is left for the business owner(s), stock holders, etc. The bloody strife when the labor movement bore unions is a testament to the antipathy between the two groups. Labor rights had to be torn from management's hands, and they weren't relinquished peacefully. In the last hundred years, William Buckley embodied the Tory mentality. He gave us Ronald Reagan and trickle-down economics. And on it goes. Repugs believe they have a right to rule, pure and simple. Thus, anyone who votes against them is the enemy and must be controlled or stopped. By any means necessary.