Democracy’s Enemies are No One’s Friends

Today about half the United States electorate seems to think that the end of democracy would be great-they could just keep on winning. It’s not said enough: that’s a fallacy regardless of where you sit on the political spectrum. The end of democracy means the end of leverage.

As history has proved over and over again, the winners when democracy dies are the real elites who hold power. In this case were talking about the Kochs, the Thiels, the Mercers, the Murdochs. In the absence of democracy, no functioning elections means no power for anyone else. All other leverage is gone.

Those people have been very clear about what that means. What they want is what’s good for them. No taxes on rich people and corporations. No regulation. No government services they don’t need-that is no social security, no Medicare, two-tier education, nothing for climate, no safety net. Back to the glory days of the nineteenth century, when businesses could get away with anything.

For now a section of the population finds common cause with those people on guns and abortion, but those were never the main issues. The only reason we’re talking about those issues today is that we do have a democracy today and voting matters. Guns and abortion are a path to power, but not a commitment to support anyone in any way.

Once democracy goes, we’ll have nothing to say. And nothing is what everyone-both their supporters and their opponents-is going to get.

Originally published at http://ontheoutside.blog on August 7, 2022.