Destroying democracy in order to save it: Who's really being anti-democratic, here?
Democracy may be in danger. But the Left isn't worried about that.
Increasingly, figures like Stephen Colbert are playing the role the Left often accused right-wing demagogues on talk radio of playing.
In my last blog post, I noted that it’s the Left that has shifted in a more radical direction, while the Right has largely stayed put. But the Right’s radicalism is still viewed as the catalyst in the rising danger of civil war in the country.
Back in 2019, The New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg, who recently shared her own thoughts on the risk of civil war and authoritarianism coming to the United States, all but called for a revolt over dissatisfaction with the then-president:
More recently, Stephen Colbert, during an appearance by Senator Elizabeth Warren, wondered aloud about getting rid of the Senate, calling it an “anti-democratic” institution:
There’s a kernel of truth to this, actually: the Senate isn’t a directly democratic institution. It’s neither supposed to be nor capable of being one. Likewise, the Executive Branch of the federal government isn’t a directly democratic institution. It’s not supposed to be and, by virtue of its purpose, it can’t be. America has never been and never will be a direct democracy. It’s a representative democracy and a federal republic. And, thankfully so, as a direct democracy would be an inherently unstable system, especially in a country with over 300+ millions people.
Democracy may be in danger. But the Left’s isn’t worried about that. Instead, it’s foremost concern is their inability to wield power unilaterally (a.k.a., authoritarianism) and against the will of almost half the country. Calling for the Senate to be abolished is generally understood to be a sign that you do not want the other side to have any say in matters of governance and would rather entrust all political authority in a single source - if not the executive, then certainly in a single party. What form of government do single-party states typically take up, anyway?
This isn’t hard. Calling for the dismantling of the Senate or revolt against an elected president is blatantly un-democratic. Neither Michelle Goldberg nor Stephen Colbert have any moral standing to accuse other side of endangering democracy, nor should they indulge their inner tyrant, only to feign shock and horror when something like 1/6 happens, which, I’m sure they’d agree, was a revolt against democracy.
Imagine how such rhetoric would be received if conveyed by someone on the Right. How would it be portrayed in the media? By virtue of being in power and in control of all the institutions of the country, the Left has crafted a veneer of legitimacy for itself, where it can say undeniably awful, un-democratic things and still cast itself as democracy’s defenders. Yes, the Right has recently started to adopt increasingly authoritarian rhetoric itself. However, as the research shows, the Left succumbed to extremism much sooner than the Right did and its mainstream. This shift, of course, isn’t viewed quite as nefariously as any radical turn on the Right would be, due to the Left successfully fashioning itself as moral exemplars through its dominance of our institutions and relentless monopolization of the public square. Even if one believes the Left to be the morally righteous side of the divide, however, a more radical shift in any direction on the political spectrum comes with it greater prospects for authoritarianism and diminishes the utility of democracy. After all, when you’re right, you’re right and that’s all there’s to it.
The Left’s turn to radicalism is represented by figures like Colbert and Goldberg, who have come to hold blatantly authoritarian sentiments, using them to whip people into a frenzy, shape opinion, and, increasingly, policy (remember, they used to say the same thing about right-wing talk radio hosts). Worst of all, their views aren’t outliers, contrary to what some claim about the media not accurately representing the views of most Americans.
Don’t believe me? Look at these poll results:
I ask and will ask as many times as needed: who’s endangering democracy? Who’s stoking the fires of civil war? Who wants to destroy the republic and replace it with an anti-democratic, tyrannical regime?
Max Remington writes about armed conflict and prepping. Follow him on Twitter at @AgentMax90.
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