Below is my column in the New York Post on the growing hysteria among press and pundits proclaiming the imminent end of democracy if Kamala Harris is not elected. The predictions of mass roundups, disappearances, and tyranny ignore a constitutional system that has survived for over two centuries as the oldest and most stable democracy in the world. More importantly, the public appears to agree that democracy is under threat but appear to hold a very different notion of where that threat is coming from.
Here is the column:
“Democracy dies in darkness” is the Washington Post’s slogan, but can it handle the light?
The Post has been doggedly portraying the election between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris as a choice between tyranny (Trump) and democracy (Harris). Yet when it commissioned a poll on threats to democracy shortly before the election, it did not quite work out.
Voters in swing states believe that Trump is more likely to protect democracy than Kamala Harris, who is running on a “save democracy” platform.
The poll sampled 5,016 registered voters in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
When asked whether Trump or Harris “would do a better job” of “defending against threats to democracy,” 43% picked Trump while 40% picked Harris.
Notably, this was the same result when President Biden was the nominee. While over half said that threats to democracy were important to them, the voters trusted Trump (44%) more than Biden (33%) in protecting democracy.
Even with the slight improvement for Harris, the result was crushing for not just many in the Harris campaign but the press and pundits who have been unrelenting in announcing the end of democracy if Harris is not elected.
Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) has declared with authority that either you vote for Harris, or this “may well be the last real vote you ever get to cast.”
I have long criticized the apocalyptic, democracy-ending predictions of Biden, Harris and others as ignoring the safeguards in our system against authoritarian power.
Nevertheless, Harris supporters have ratcheted up the rhetoric to a level of pure hysteria. Recently, Michael Cohen, a convicted felon and Trump’s disbarred former lawyer, told MSNBC that if Trump wins the election, he will “get rid of the judiciary and get rid of the Congress.”
Recently, MSNBC host Al Sharpton and regular Donny Deutsch warned viewers that they will likely be added to an enemies “list” for some type of roundup after a Trump election.
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow also joined in the theme of a final stand before the gulag: “For that matter, what convinces you that these massive camps he’s planning are only for migrants? So, yes, I’m worried about me — but only as much as I’m worried about all of us.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was quick to add her own name to a list that seems to be constantly updated by the media. She told podcast host Kara Swisher, “I mean, it sounds nuts, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this guy threw me in jail.”
On ABC’s “The View,” the hosts are becoming indistinguishable from tinfoil-hatted subway prophets. Whoopi Goldberg even explained how Trump is already committed to being a dictator who will “put you people away … take all the journalists … take all the gay folks … move you all around and disappear you.”
Of course, assuming that Cohen is wrong that there will be no courts after a Trump victory, this would require federal judges to sign off on the rounding up of MSNBC personalities, all gay people, all reporters, and, of course, Whoopi Goldberg.
All that is required is for over two centuries of constitutional order to fail suddenly, and for virtually every constitutional actor in our system to suddenly embrace tyranny.
Those pushing this hysteria often curiously cite the January 6 riot as proof that the end is near. Yet that horrible day was the vindication, not the expiration, of our constitutional system. The system worked. The riot was put down. Congress, including Republicans, reassembled and certified Biden as the next president.
In the courts, many Trump-appointed judges ruled against challenges to the election.
Our system was put through a Cat 5 stress test and did not even sway for a moment.
Nevertheless, the same voices are being heard on the same media outlets with doomsday scenarios.
Former Acting US Solicitor General Neal Katyal told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” ominously, “We are looking at a very possible constitutional crisis and one that’s going to make January 6, 2021, look like a dress rehearsal. And this year, the rogues have had four years to go pro and perfect the big lie.”
In other words: Be afraid, very afraid.
Then, in a New York Times column, Katyal lays out scenarios premised on a complete breakdown of the oldest and most stable democratic system in history.
It is like telling passengers on an ocean liner that we will all drown and then whispering that this is “assuming the crew intentionally scuttles the ship, all bulkheads and sealed departments fail, and every lifeboat and life preserver is discarded.”
But then we are all going to die.
The only way to avoid that watery grave (with the death of democracy itself)? Vote Democratic.
There is, however, some good news in all of this: Despite years of alarmist predictions from Biden, Harris, the press, and pundits, the public is not buying it.
It is not because they particularly like Trump. Many of his supporters seem poised to vote for him despite viewing him as polarizing and, at times, obnoxious.
No, it is because the American voter has a certain innate resistance to being played as a chump. Many of the same figures claiming that democracy is at stake supported ballot cleansing to remove Trump and others from the ballots. They supported the weaponization of the legal process in New York against Trump. Likewise, as Harris insists that she is the only hope for fundamental rights, many cannot fail to notice that she is supporting an unprecedented system of censorship that one court called “Orwellian.”
None of this means that the choice between Trump and Harris is easy. However, Harris’ claim to be the only hope for democracy is proving as tin-eared as running on pure “joy.”
Voters are clearly demanding more than a political pitch of abject fear mixed with illusive joy.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
Apparently hyperbolic rhetoric is the sanctuary for those without policies and solutions that appeal to voters?
Hyperbolē sells!
At a fundamental level most all People want to ‘believe in something’.
This; Constitution (U.S.A.), God, Those close to Them, …
Hence the “sanctuary” of mindless-rhetorical that earns Votes.
Communist projecting. Enough tyranny!
ATF stated 700 million guns in circulation in America. The GOONS are out numbered and outgunned. You really want to go there……
“Say When”
Harris’s campaign has now reverted to abortion and Trump is dangerous. Everything else she believes in is too unpopular for her to say. The only reason she is still close is that the media is promoting her and bashing Trump.
Re:”The only reason she is still close is that the media is promoting her and bashing Trump.” My bet is on the horse named ‘Skin’ingenitals’, and a cadre of low information voters being subjected to the soft bigotry of low expectation, like ‘the folks’ in Georgia who ‘work hard’. A phrase which conjures up in my mind the image of a black woman with a mop and pail swabbing down the floors in an O.R. I once stood in somewhere. Personally, that’s precisely what I believe she’s gunning for. Not the woman was administering the anesthesia for the the patient on the table in front of me. She’s also working hard and it certainly isn’t a mop she’s hold in her hands. It’s a life.
Without the electoral college California and New Yawk would decide the President for everyone every election. I think it was a good thing to protect low popular states. Remove illegals from the census ergo representation and boom the Democrats incentives go away for open borders.
Seems like a lot of hysteria out there in the media and entertainment world. We’re even starting to see allegations of groping from 30 years ago but with no proof or previous mention and it’s brought forth by The Guardian (left wing I believe and successor to the Manchester Guardian)as well as more poison from The Atlantic. I’m sure most of the audience here knows that The Atlantic is owned by Laurene Powell Jobs (wife of the late Steve Jobs of Apple fame). She is also a long time close friend of Kamala Harris. I think most of us knew Steve Jobs was Liberal but more in the old style but his wife is total progressive. All these hysterics and yet Trump has been President once for 4 years and none of these Threats to Democracy reared their ugly head then.
I would be more afraid of a false flag staged coup attempt by the democrats like Erdogan staged in Turkey, which he immediately crushed and saved democracy by immediately arresting most of his political opponents and tightened his control of the government for years to come.
GEB,
Well said and I agree.
I think this is what Clinton meant by they would lose total control. As long as there is the 1stA, a free press, they cannot control the narrative. As long as we have the 1stA and a free press we can see through them, their lies and make our own, informed decisions. They dont want that. They cannot have that. That is a threat to their power.
And yet they continue to tell us Trump is the threat to democracy? They are the threat to democracy.
There’s a line from Diehard where the veteran sargeant tells the political lieutenant “why don’t you smell what you’re shoveling?”
Putting the guy who did the first attempted coup in US history, wants to send the military after his political enemies, says he will be a dictator, promises to seek revenge on just about everyone, and is immune from criminal law is an absolute threat to democracy. It is even worse with the Republicans hell bent on preventing people from voting and they want to give election officials the ability to disregard the vote count.
If the US democracy falls, it will be Republicans cheering its demise.
“first attempted coup in US history” Seriously?
And you still believe 2020 a fair election? Sammy, do you not see the subversion of Trump’s first term? Do you not acknowledge the suppression of the Hunter’s laptop scandal as election interference? Do you not acknowledge the Russian collusion dossier hoax as a fraud? If you remain to follow these fools then be prepared for the consequences when you are no longer a useful idiot for them. A coup? You wouldn’t know a coup if it blew your pants or skirt off.
Stage 4 TDS. No hope for recovery here.
Nice try. Next.
Sorry Sammy, those are all Democrat party talking points and every single point is straight out propaganda.
Yet all of them easily verified as true. But remember MAGAs don’t care about facts or even basic human decency.
None of them are verified as true. They are all taken out of context, lies or even the one video where they edited, spliced, several different Trump rallies to make it look like some of those lies you repeat like a good mindless drone.
Putting the guy who did the first attempted coup in US history
Sammy denies that Obama/Clinton/Biden/the DNC illegally hiring a Russian and a British spy to write their “Trump Russia Dossier”, and then sending their Attorney Generals and FBI Directors to lie to FISA courts that it was verified US intelligence agency evidence, and then “leak” that evidence and the granting of those warrants to voters was the first attempted coup of an elected president in US history.
wants to send the military after his political enemies
Note to Sammy: you’re in the wrong blog if you believe normal Americans haven’t forgotten that first Obama/Biden and now Biden/Harris have been sending the Department of Justice and FBI to take out ALL their enemies since Trump ran for office.
Given that you haven’t earned any credibility here and your posts win nobody over and instead get nothing but jeers, mocking, and being called a childish pathological liar… why do you keep coming here?
As I recall, it was Kamala Harris that said, “We know who you are and we are coming for you.” This was a threat she made in the 2020 election cycles. The Democrats are the ones that continually accuse their opposition of that which they are guilty. How soon people forget their party plans for reeducation camps and internment for opposition to their policies and plans.
They know when Trump wins they will be held accountable under law for their crimes, they know if Harris wins it’s coming unglued.
Link, please. I’ll wait.
Go find it Wally, it’s there.
Kamala Harris made the statement “We know who you are and we are coming for you” during a speech at the 2020 Democratic National Convention. This was part of her remarks addressing issues of systemic racism and the need for justice in America.
Eat it “wally”, you POS
Traveler says: They know when Trump wins they will be held accountable under law for their crimes, they know if Harris wins it’s coming unglued.
Like Trump held Clinton accountable under law for her crimes after being elected the first time?
I think “lock her up” was a crowd chant at his rallies that he never actually said himself, but I remember in that last debate when she said he was a Russian stooge, in reply he said that if elected he was going to have a Special Counsel investigate her for both her espionage crimes and her and Obama’s “Russia Dossier”.
Then after being elected, as supporters were eagerly chanting “lock her up”, Trump said the Clintons were “very fine people, and they’ve suffered enough” (or something very similar). And throughout his four years as president, brought neither Clinton or anyone from the Obama administration involved in the “Trump Russia Dossier” to account before the law.
At the very least, Obama’s last two Attorney Generals and last two FBI directors should have been easy candidates for prosecution for their perjury and uttering false documents to those FISA courts.
Some would claim Trump simply didn’t know about that until it was too late – but not EVERYBODY in the bureaucracy was in on keeping their felonies hidden. Some were whistleblowing to Trump – that’s how he announced the Democrats were spying on him in Trump Tower and moved his campaign elsewhere.
It will still be an uphill slog to hold Democrat felons accountable under the law if Trump is elected. But when it comes to prosecuting the enemy Democrats for crimes they committed trying to take him out, Dictator Trump’s record so far is one of “Lets Make A Deal, Let’s Let Bygones Be Bygones”.
Which is why Democrats aren’t deterred by fear of what Trump might do – but instead have doubled down.
When it comes to valid prosecutions following a Trump victory, there’s a lot of low hanging fruit that Trump could pick from. I doubt he will do much harvesting of that low hanging fruit.
I wish he would, instead of trying to make deals to get along. But I doubt he will.
You said it, man.
The DEMS/Harris are the party that is attacking democracy and jailing their political opponents. Biden says lock Trump up. The stooges in Main Street Media do the bidding of the DEMS. The DEMS are for censorship and financially ruining any one or company that gets in their way. They are now, along with their allies in Europe, the EU, are going after Elon Musk, X and his other companies because he will not do their bidding of censorship and his support of Trump. In this election the DEMS have it wrong, the main issues people are voting on and EARLY, Immigration/Crime/Border/Economy/Freedom
So trump didn’t sexually molest Carrol? So trump did incite the attack on the capitol? So trump didn’t sit watching the attempted overthrow of the government on 1/6 for 189 minutes? So trump didn’t care that his “followers” attempted to hang Pence. I could go on. Trump is a pox on the US. Period.
Well, Carroll didn’t offer any physical evidence or any credible witnesses. Couldn’t even recall when it occurred. She was bankrolled by a dedicated Trump hater. I’d say that looks, well, suspicious.
There was no attempt to hang Pence and it isn’t even clear who built the so-called gallows.
A lot of Jan. 6 was “constructed” but it is difficult to decide by whom. The Jan. 6 committee, though, was a disgrace.
Wally is a pox on the US.
No, Trump didnt assault EJC, you moron.
So you believe that a middle aged man, who just happened to be alone in a busy dept store dressing room with a stranger, managed to somehow spontaneously get an erection satisfactory to allow him to penetrate an unwilling middle aged victim, dry, while standing face to face, with her leggings around her knees??? Its not even physically possible, you simpleton. Oh, and she was wearing a dress that hadnt been made yet. Idiot.
Carrol was featured on the cover of a magazine wearing the dress she claimed Trump sexually assaulted her. Fun fact, that dress was not made till years after her claim. She could not recalled the date initially, changed it a few times. I would call that rather questionable.
Trump did not incite anything. For that matter he pre-approved the use of the NG or active duty troops to prevent unrest.
Bombshell transcripts: Trump urged use of troops to protect Capitol on Jan. 6 , but was rebuffed
“Key lawmaker says interviews prove Pentagon wrongly allowed optics to overwhelm security concerns in lead-up to fateful day. The Pentagon’s top brass did not comply with Trump’s orders because of political concerns and “optics.”
https://justthenews.com/accountability/watchdogs/bombshell-transcripts-trump-urged-use-troops-protect-capitol-jan-6-was?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=offthepress&utm_campaign=home
Only ignorant people believe those things. Trump molested Carrol like you did to the 80-year-old woman down the block. The 80-year-old has no proof, and neither does Carrol.
The overthrow of the government? Pelosi admitted it was her fault on video.
No one tried to hang Pence, and there is no way Trump would approve.
You are a pox on the intelligence of America.
S. Meyer: Every time I wince at some insult Trump has thrown out and wish that he would talk more about his successes, I must stop and put myself in his shoes, dealing from Day One with this incessant bombardment of efforts to destroy him.
He is not fighting Democrats; he is fighting a global cabal with reaches way beyond the borders of the U.S. And I do hope that a new Trump administration will focus on doing a national garage sale…..
Well said lin. I watched this Tyrus interview with Trump. Tyrus was laser-focused on getting Trump to talk more about all the things he’s compassionately done that don’t make it into the news. Tyrus brought the receipts and I was impressed at how humble Trump was. Tyrus really brought out a side of Trump the American people don’t get to see. https://youtu.be/nwQil7tcImI
Wally said: So trump didn’t sexually molest Carrol?
You attacked Tara Reid, who with seven contemporary witnesses from that day, released a statement and submitted to questioning about then Senator Biden raping her when she was a young aid working for him. A woman who with her WITNESSES could describe the day, exactly where, and what happened.
And instead Wally, you want to tell us about Carrol: a woman with a history of accusing various other men of raping her, a woman who couldn’t even remember exactly when it happened, and the clothing she claimed she DID remember wearing wasn’t manufactured until long after the alleged attack occurred.
Just as you had no problem voting for Biden after you learned from his daughter that he was into Daddy-Daughter Inappropriate Incest Showers.
I could go on.
Yes, we’re sure you could continue being a reliable purveyor of Democrat lies in support of Democrat perverts in the White House. Whether the current Kiddy Fondler In Chief, or the previous Obama and Clinton families who had Harvey Weinstein on the White House open door policy list – after their Secret Service protection details warned them their best friend Harv was a serial rapist and child molester.
You aren’t even a good enough Democrat liar to amount to being a pox on Professor Turley’s blog, Wally.
Given that your posts change no minds, don’t result in any debate on points you bring up, but instead only result in you being mocked, ridiculed, jeered, and called a sophomoric pathetic liar… why do you keep coming here?
Its called histrionic personality order, and Wally has it in spades. Being mocked and ridiculed here is the highlight of his day.
If these claims by professional Democrats were true, then I want to know: Why is it that Kamala Harris is the one proposing multiple changes to the Constitution to get rid of obstructions to her ideas?
“Keep calm, and carry on; there’s nothing to see here.”
The Democratic Party is now a “reactionary” party defending the financial and institutional and personal links between its members and the federal government. Anyone who challenges those links must be destroyed by any means possible. Thus the ” politics of personal destruction.”
Round-ups, camps etc.. sounds like a plan. First, round-up the intellectuals, then the bureaucrats, then the politicians, finacial supporters, then the crimminals.
Convert former industrial plants into forced labor camps. Contract them out to corporations. Viola! Everybody is happy.
Pretty sure that this is exactly how the “National Socialist German Workers’ Party,” better known as the Nazis, did it!
Glenn Beck did an entire segment of then the Obama plan for his transformation of America. It was the entire layout from Cloward- Piven to ACORN, Paul Rudd and their network of Commie characters. It was a detailed breakdown, Im sure it is on the internet somewhere. I highly recommend watching it if you can find it. Revealing
Sounds like the TET offensive and City of Hue. You left out the buried alive and executions part.
Our democracy is facing some very daunting, complex problems, and doing poorly at facing them head-on. To me, the partisan rancor, ad-hominem accusations and infowarfare are just modes of childish escapism — not wanting to take responsibility. I’ll mention just 3:
• young people abandoning marriage and 2-parent childraising lifestyles in shocking numbers
• chem pollution of our food and water which is irreversible
• the internet is a cesspool of borderless criminal activity — it was built ignoring rule-of-law principles such as jurisdictions and law enforcement — there is no urgency to redesign it for national security from daily foreign attackers.
I have to disagree with you on your statement, “To me, the partisan rancor, ad-hominem accusations and info warfare are just modes of childish escapism— not wanting to take responsibility.”
The devolution of the American culture and political system is certainly NOT a demonstration of childish and irresponsible escapism. What we are seeing today is the result of a long and deliberate plan by organisations such as the WEF, to transform America to socialism, and thereafter, incorporation by the Elite into a Globalist regime, controlled by “the few” – all for our own good, of course.
Your first two points, describe a few tools in this plan, intended to breakdown society and make Americans more susceptible to manipulation and obedience. The trend away from traditional marriage and family structure and the manipulation of our food processing methodology, leading to debilitating and costly diseases and, especially the pandemic of mental & behavioral syndromes such as ADD, ADHD, etc, resulting in a school-aged population of ‘hopeless’, ‘aggressive’ and ‘unteachable’ individuals, is just the beginning of the slide downwards.
I would exhort you to not be deceived into thinking the destruction of our civil culture and political structure can be addressed by adopting “a stiff upper lip” and turning the other cheek, all while smiling.
This is a very real fight for our Republic and our children’s future.
@ Pbinca: “young people abandoning marriage”
Do you know where young people are marrying and the fertility rate rose? Hungary.
Democrats have made it impossible for families to survive. They even incentivized the destruction of black families.
For the most part I do not give a scuff about the political divides or rhetoric
Those are not unique to us history
We have been deeply divided more than united
The political weaponization of government against a major political party is new and must end that road leads to hell
The cultural changes you note are problematic but will ultimately sort themselves out
Failure has the way of failing
We will also work out the food and environmental issues they are not abnormal
We have gone through this many times before
The fundamental problems with the internet are not its core design but the efforts of government to control it which make it less secure
In a truly free market if people want security they will get it
The internet does not amplify lawlessly ripping off ordinary people
It circumvents government restrictions on liberty
Often these make actions government does not like easier
Then government efforts to thwart that reduce alll of our security
What can I say? Another great article! “tinfoil-hatted subway prophets”. I laughed so hard. After reading that quote I had to go to the bathroom.
But the rest wasn’t funny. You have the rest on point. Can’t wait for the next article!
What can I say? Another great article! “tinfoil-hatted subway prophets”
Random
The Assertion That Trump Will Use Military Against U.S. Citizens is as Bogus as Saying He Tried To Take The Wheel of the Beast on January 6th. https://torrancestephensphd.substack.com/p/the-assertion-that-trump-will-use
These are the same people who want to prohibit ‘misinformation’.
When it comes to Donald Trump, the Democrats have exhibited every form of lawfare against him, which is the opposite of democracy. They shout from the rooftops what he will do if elected, and they themselves have gone against democracy every step of the way, using the tactics they claim he will use. They have tried impeachment , changed laws to send him into trials without any evidence hoping for jail time, they have used 8 years of personal smear campaigns, and at least 2 assassination attempts. All of this against their main political opponent. Where is democracy in this? Their behavior is that of despots, not freedom fighters. They accuse him of that which they have done in spades.
And you forgot to mention that these are the same people who want to eliminate the Electoral College and the Filibuster. Their definition of “democracy” is “mob rule” because they have dumbed down and drugged-up the population and are experts in selling this snake oil.
Man are you ever misguided, the Electoral College is not a part of Democracy by the People.
It’s a ‘firewall’, one of many in the design of the U.S. Government.
Blame the Framers, they choose the path of ‘Representative Governance’. Designed with Tier upon Tier of ‘Indirect-Democracy’,
i.e.: You (your intentions – vote) > Electoral College > Elected Official (Congress) > > Congressional Consensus (Deal/No Deal/Filibuster) >> Supreme Court (Constitutionality Test) >> Executive Discretion (Veto/No Veto) >>> finally the Results.
All shaped and manipulated by the: Media, K-Street, PACs, Lobbies, Corruption (that 10% surcharge,), Etc…
The ‘mental-constrains’ surrounding your perception about the Electoral College and the Processes-of-the-Government are skewed.
Take the ‘Blinders’ off’ – Workhorse. It’s not what it’s cracked up to be, Your hiney is at the tail-end of their Bullwhip.
The two examples you used, the Electoral College and the filibuster are both the opposite of democracy. Both were constructed to keep control from the majority.
The tyranny of the majority.
Because the tyranny of the minority is much better.
What an idiotic statement. The minority having a voice is not tyranny. Did you graduate from kindergarten, or is that what passes as logic in your world?
Having a voice is not the same as frustrating the majority. The Electoral College was invented to protect slaveowners.
“Having a voice is not the same as frustrating the majority.”
It is precisely the same, you idiot. Whats next, the sky isnt blue? Grass isnt green?
The minority either has a voice or its mob rule. We are not a democracy, fool.
“Having a voice is not the same as frustrating the majority.”
It is EXACTLY the same, actually. Are you a third grader?
You seriously need to take a civics course.
Having rights is frustrating the majority of
Having a constitution is frustrating the majority
When the majority seek to dictate how everyone must live
that is tyranny
The checks and balances do not empower minorities to act
Only thwart the tyranny of the majority
Like the constitution and bill of rights they limit government and protect individual rights
If you value democracy over individual rights you are a tyrant
Does it matter if your rights are violated by a monarch or by your neighbors
The electoral college exists because we are a union of several democratic sovereign states. We are NOT a democracy.
If you dont like that, too bad. Try Russia.
The process for selecting electors is very democratic, dunce.
The filibuster is a constraint on government, you imbecile, not on the people. You fail to imagine the laws that would be passed by either side were it not in place?
Keep repeating your small minded nonsense. Its quite telling.
So, you agree that they are the opposite of democracy. Thank you!
No, we don’t agree that they are “the opposite” of democracy. They are a guarantee that the views of the minority are heard and considered and that compromise is often the correct solution to difficult problems. They are like a governor on a runaway engine. The Framers were brilliant to recognise the need for that and to fashion one that would last hundreds of years.
The Framers had nothing to do with the filibuster. It isn’t enumerated by the Constitution, was made possible by a Senate rule change in 1806 and not used until 1837 when most if not all of them were dead. The Electoral College was a compromise to ensure the North couldn’t outvote slavery. While we’re at it, the Second Amendment was to ensure slave patrols couldn’t be outlawed which is why Patrick Henry fought so hard for it.
Yep, everything is about your victimhood, slave boy. Just making crap up, and purporting opinion as fact. Get a grip.
“The Electoral College was a compromise to ensure the North couldn’t outvote slavery.”
Seriously dude? Do you believe EVERYTHING you read in The Atlantic?
What does the Presidential election have to do with “outvoting slavery”??? Wowsa, you seriously need a civics class. The President did not have the power to “outvote slavery”, so your pathetic argument is hogwash.
Slavery was abolished by CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. The ONLY way it could be done, thanks to the 10th amendment. Oh, and by the way, the Electoral College existed then as well.
I reject your reality and substitute my own—-EnemaInBlack
https://truthout.org/articles/the-second-amendment-was-ratified-to-preserve-slavery/
The ex was not a about slavery it was about protecting small state like Rhode Island and Connecticut
The 2 nd amendment was not about slavery the south wanted local militias only not an individual right the north wanted an individual right
As to Henry your claim is ahistorical nonsense by modern mind reading left wing nut scholars who think everything is about slavery
The 14th amendment privileges and immunities clause was intended to assure free blacks could have firearms
Are you trying to demonstrate America has blemishes? Congratulation. Most people know that and a civil war was fought over it.
However, you didn’t learn from those mistakes and instead became a racist, anti-minority and anti-democratic. Congratulations for falling into the trap you despise.
You lived the good life because of the people that promoted American ideas. Now you wish to take that good life from everyone else.
If thats what you thknk i said, it will be difficult to have a conversation. I will need you to comprehend above a third grade level.
The opposite of democracy, which is mob rule, is one person rule.
51 not telling 49 how to live is good. You f-ing benefitted from that, race baiter.
Correct true democracy is the most tyrannical form of government
If you do not know that you were piss poorly educated
Eb why do you keep up such fallacious arguments
If two things are not the same
That does not mean they are opposite
That is a trivial formal logic error
My original comment was in response to someone claiming that the Electoral College and the filibuster was proof that America was a Democracy when they proved the opposite, that it wasn’t. As to the people that want to debate that the Electoral College have nothing to do with slavery but to protect small states like Rhode Island, they are saying what they wish to be true instead of researching why it was critical to South Carolina and Virginia.
This country is not a democracy
It has a republican government with some democratic elements
People generically refer to representative government as democracy which is fine
But that use of the word is absent the majoritarian overtones that are the root of the tyrannical nature of actual democracy
And it is those tyrannical majoritarian aspects that the left is talking about when they use the term democracy
Trump is as an example a threat to majoritarian tyranny
He is not a threat to norms of us governance
EB – everything from about 1600-1865 had something to do with slavery.
That does NOT mean that slavery was the primary driver of anything, or that even the issue o slavery won the argument.
Masschusetts, New York, Pennsyvania and Virginia were the large populaous states that the Electoral college, the structure o the Senate and many other features in the constitution were intended to disempower. Slavery was an inconsequential factor and worked AGAINST the EC and the checks and balances in the constitution.
It is trivial for modern left wing nuts – including some professors to construct faux reasoning that pretty much anything that occured was SOLELY about slavery – or even primarilhy about slavery.
That does not make it true, and that is painfully obvious to anyone who does more than cherry pick a FEW statements by select framers.
I will give a different example – which you have completely wrong.
It is absolutely correct that Slavery and the south was instrumental in the language of the 2nd amendment. But in the OPPOSITE fashion than you claim.
One point those on the left have is that the language of the 2nd amendment was DELIBERATELY ambiguous. Northern states INSISTED that the 2nd amendment was an INDIVIDUAL RIGHT, while those in the south explicitly sought to frame it as a COLLECTIVE right.
This is the driving force behind the militia clause. It allowed those in the Slave south to beleive that the 2nd Amendment was about the right of communities to have local militias and to keep weapons in local armories. Southerners were deathly affraid that Slaves would manage to take guns from their masters at a plantation and lead a revolt that would spread like wildfire.
Northerners explicitly wanted an individual right as that was the norm in both northern and western states, Particularly those on the fronteirs were indian raids were commonplace and state of the art capable firearms were the difference between survival and death.
The 2nd amendment was constructed to allow the south to beleive they had what they wanted and the rest of the country to see it differently.
But the actual reason driving the Heller, McDonald and other recent 2A decisions was not the 1787 history of the 2nd amendment, but the legislative history of the priviledges and immunities clause of the 14th – the 14th is one of the most critical amendments in the constitution as it reinforces that individual rights and he bill of rights apply to the states, not just the federal government.
But more importantly in this debate. the legislative and ratification history of the 14th amendment was crystal clear that among the priviledges and immunities that the 14th amendment protected was the INDIVIDUAL right to firearms by newly freed black slaves.
Absolutely the history of the 2A is driven by slavery – but in EXACTLY the opposite fashion as you claim
Nor is this unique.
Those on the left celebrate the progressive era decisions of the FDR courts.
or the legislative actions of democrats at the time.
The regulatory state, more and more control of business by government,
But the intended and unintended effects of these proved incredibly racist.
Wilson’s progressive democratic administrative state was the most racist in US history.
The later Davis Bacon act – prevailing wage laws and minimum wage laws were DELIBERATE efforts by congress and democrats to advantage whites and disadvantage blacks – and they continue to have those racist impacts through today.
The left Rants about “redlining” – some of the earliest majro legal victories for Blacks arround the turn of the century were AGAINST redlining laws by cities. These decisions rested on the Contracts clause in the constitution – which prohibited government from interfering in private contracts.
Government was no more allowed to zone blacks out of specific parts of a city, than it was to prohibit child labor or impose minimum wages.
But FDR’s flipped court tossed Lochner, and the result was Fliburn and the regulatory state.
And lots of racist laws, like prevailing wages, and zoning. that had among many other bad results,
a rise in systemic racism.
I have said before that those on the left are confused by intentions and blind to incentives.
But much of the above is not a failure of good intentions, but the success of bad intentions and bad incentives.
You touched upon a number of subjects, and you’d be surprised how much I agree with. The Constitution is a mass of compromises, and many people thought they were getting what they wanted when the opposite ultimately proved true. I wouldn’t give too much credit to government regarding redlining. While cities may not have been allowed to continue the practice on paper. Developers flaunted the policy in the government’s face. The suburbs with developments like Levittown used FHA Loans to create their all-white subdivisions using government financing. VA loans were not generally available to Black vets initially. I’m unclear which century you’re referring to when you say “turn of the century.” If you mean entering the 2,000s I’ll go with you.
BTW, everything for the decades after 1865 was about slavery, in the South trying to recreate it the best they could. The Black Codes, enacted in every returning state, resulted in mass incarceration of freed man and women with the creation/expansion of the leased convict system. In many cases the convicts were sent back to the same plantations they were freed from, when they weren’t leased or sold to railroads or building roadways. The Klan formed in 1865 though the Republican’s in Congress beat back the first wave with the Anti-KKK Acts in 1870-1871. The Party formed by abolitionists turned their back on Black people in the Compromise of 1877, agreeing to remove the federal troops in return for winning the disputed 1876 presidential election. Posse Comitatus was enacted in 1878 to ensure those troops never returned, though there were loopholes as Arkansas found out with the Little Rock Nine.
I enjoyed your description of the Davis Bacon Act. It sounds like you’re describing systemic racism. Add in discriminatory housing policies, exclusions from unions, and segregated health care and you might end up making the case for reparations, not for slavery but for all the things that came after.
Your focus often lands on right vs. left or progressives vs. conservatives I suppose though it’s hard to describe current Republicans as conservatives. I submit that left and right, progressive and conservative, have done little good overall for the people but have been instrumental in assisting a class divide where race has been the primary means to protect the rich since the Nat Bacon Rebellion.
Enigma, you write about black slavery and are passionate about the harm done to people for the sole reason they are black. It was and is terrible, but why, on all other things, do you consider color more important than character?
You have no idea what I think. Class has always been the bigger issue than color, racism became the primary mechanism for achieving class goals. You talk to me about character and support Trump? Quite the hypocrite,
“You have no idea what I think.”
Enigma, you are correct. I have no idea what you think, but your writing provides plenty of evidence about what is on your mind. It is clear you believe the opposite of MLK and think color trumps character.
“Class has always been the bigger issue than color.”
Not from what we hear you say on the blog unless you think less affluent individuals do not exist in populations of Asians and Hispanics, nor are you upset when many of the advantages go to upper-class blacks. My opinions differed from yours because I believed in giving a leg up to all disadvantaged people, regardless of their color.
“You talk to me about character and support Trump? Quite the hypocrite,”
Trump has Jewish grandchildren. He hired more women executives than any other comparable builder in NY and provided jobs for all races. What have you ever done?
“Trump has Jewish grandchildren.”
What does that say about Trump’s character? How about Trump has cheated on all his wives and degrades women (Please ask for examples).
I have hired well over a thousand people of all races, none of which I didn’t want to be seen like Trump required when he walked through the casino floor of Trump Casino. He also cleared the floor of Black employees due to the wishes of a high roller. Give me an example of Trump character other than his daughter having children. That would be the same daughter he has the hots for.
https://www.pastemagazine.com/politics/a-trump-owned-casino-was-fined-for-meeting-one-hig
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/5-lewd-remarks-donald-trump-allegedly-made-about-his-daughter-ivanka-over-the-years/ar-BB1p9djH
It’s baaaacccckkkk… Biden’s Uncle Tom Marxist enigmainblackcom: The two examples you used, the Electoral College and the filibuster are both the opposite of democracy. Both were constructed to keep control from the majority.
The Uncle Tom whose intersectional Critical Black Racists’ Theory (a copy and paste of the communist Herbert Marcuse’s “Critical Theory”) is working with Democrat racists like Joe Biden, claiming the Electoral College and legislative branch filibuster was designed to prevent a democracy 50%+1 tyranny of the majority ruling all via a handful of the largest cities in America.
For once, Joe Biden’s intersectional Black Supremacist Uncle Tom enigmainblackcom has gotten through a sentence without that sentence containing a lie.
What he would not admit is that this country was NEVER intended to be a democracy with 50%+1 mob rule.
But instead, a republic, with a constitution intended to prioritize first the rights and liberties of the individual citizen above the rights of state governments, and then at the bottom of priorities, what federal governments could do.
And that an increasingly small percentage of black Americans agree with Uncle Toms on either their racist ‘Critical Race Theory’, or submitting and working hand in glove with Democrat racists like Joe Biden who have kept black Americans on their Democrat Poverty Plantations since LBJ in order to harvest their votes.
Tell me you at least cut and paste, reusing the same material over and over and aren’t recreating your rants from scratch but saying the same thing over and over? O love hearing from you because you remind me of who you are.
No they exist to preclude the tyrant of the majority
Regardless you are correct this is not a democracy
Which is the most tyrannical form of government
The various checks s as me balances you loath empower various minorities to thwart the majority
They do not empower minorities to act
The objective is as Adam smith noted
That government that governs least governs best
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep arguing over dinner
The filibuster and the EC assures that the minority are not dinner
Actually, in your scenario, the sheep could still be dinner. 2/3 rules.
Correct
The sheep is dinner
That is the point
In a democracy on any issue 50%+1 rules
Even if that means everyone else is dinner
It is not callled the tyranny of the majority for no reason
Why is it necessary for me to explain to you that democracy is atleast as tyrannical as any other scheme of government
As John Stuart mill noted democracy is the most tyrannical
There is no limit to what man is willingly ng to do to his neighbor with the blessing of a majority
Projection.
Well said.