{"id":15178,"date":"2020-10-23T09:34:20","date_gmt":"2020-10-23T13:34:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=15178"},"modified":"2020-10-24T13:44:54","modified_gmt":"2020-10-24T17:44:54","slug":"will-democracys-myths-doom-liberty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2020\/10\/23\/will-democracys-myths-doom-liberty\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Democracy’s Myths Doom Liberty?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Mises Institute, October 23, 2020<\/h2>\n

Will Democracy\u2019s Myths Doom Liberty?<\/a><\/h2>\n

by James Bovard<\/p>\n

\n

The Supreme Court declared in 1943, \u201cThere is no mysticism in the American concept of the State or of the nature or origin of its authority.” In reality, the cardinal doctrines of contemporary democracy are layer upon layer of mystical claptrap. The phrases which consecrate democracy seep into many Americans\u2019 minds like buried hazardous wast<\/strong>e.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

If Joe Biden wins the presidential election, voters will be told that our political system is redeemed: the \u201cwill of the people\u201d is now clear, Biden will rule with \u201cthe consent of the governed,\u201d and Americans are obliged to again trust and obey the federal government. If Donald Trump is reelected, much of the same media will continue howling about imaginary Russian plots. But these notions remain dangerous delusions regardless of who is declared the winner on Election Day.<\/p>\n

The notion that election results represent the \u201cwill of the people\u201d is one of the most shameless triumphs of democratic propaganda. Rather than revealing the \u201cwill of the people,\u201d election results are often a one-day snapshot of transient mass delusions. Votes which only reveal comparative contempt for competing professional politicians are transmogrified into approvals for blueprints to forcibly remake humanity.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Americans are encouraged to believe that their vote on Election Day somehow miraculously guarantees that the subsequent ten thousand actions by the president, Congress, and federal agencies embody \u201cthe will of the people.\u201d In reality, the more edicts a president issues, the less likely that his decrees will have any connection to popular preferences. It is even more doubtful that all the provisions of hefty legislative packages reflect majority support, considering the wheeling, dealing, and conniving prior to final passage. Or maybe the Holy Ghost of Democracy hovers over Capitol Hill to assure that average Americans truly want every provision on every page of bills that most representatives and senators do not even bother reading?<\/p>\n

A bastard cousin of the \u201cwill of the people\u201d flimflam is the notion that citizens and government are one and the same. President Franklin Roosevelt, after five years of expanding federal power as rapidly as possible, declared in 1938, \u201cLet us never forget that government is ourselves and not an alien power over us.\u201d President Johnson declared in 1964: \u201cGovernment is not an enemy of the people. Government is the people themselves,\u201d though it wasn\u2019t \u201cthe people\u201d whose lies sent tens of thousands of American conscripts to pointless deaths in Vietnam. President Bill Clinton declared in 1996, \u201cThe Government is just the people, acting together\u2014just the people acting together.\u201d But it wasn’t \u201cthe people acting together\u201d that bombed Serbia, invaded Haiti, blockaded Iraq, or sent the tanks in at Waco.<\/p>\n

President Barack Obama hit the theme at a 2015 Democratic fundraiser: \u201cOur system only works when we realize that government is not some alien thing; government is not some conspiracy or plot; it\u2019s not something to oppress you. Government is us in a democracy.\u201d But it was not private citizens who, during Obama\u2019s reign, issued more than half a million pages of proposed and final new regulations and notices in the Federal Register<\/em>; made more than 10 million administrative rulings; tacitly took control of more than 500 million acres by designating them \u201cnational monuments\u201d; and bombed seven foreign nations. The \u201cgovernment is the people\u201d doctrine makes sense only if we assume citizens are masochists who secretly wish to have their lives blighted.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Presidents perennially echo the Declaration of Independence’s appeal to \u201cthe consent of the governed.\u201d But political consent is gauged very differently than consent in other areas of life. The primary proof that Americans are not oppressed is that citizens cast more votes for one of the candidates who finagled his name onto the ballot. A politician can say or do almost anything to snare votes; after Election Day, citizens can do almost nothing to restrain winning politicians.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A 2017 survey by Rasmussen Reports found that only 23 percent\u00a0of Americans believe that the federal government has \u201cthe consent of the governed.\u201d Political consent is defined these days as rape was defined a generation or two ago: people consent to anything which they do not forcibly resist. Voters cannot complain about getting screwed after being enticed into a voting booth.<\/strong> Anyone who does not attempt to burn down city hall presumably consented to everything the mayor did. Anyone who does not jump the White House fence and try to storm into the Oval Office consents to all executive orders. Anyone who doesn’t firebomb the nearest federal office building consents to the latest edicts in the Federal Register<\/em>. And if people do attack government facilities, then they are terrorists who can be justifiably killed or imprisoned forever.<\/p>\n

In the short term, the most dangerous democratic delusion is that conducting an election makes government trustworthy again.<\/strong> Only 20 percent\u00a0of Americans trust the government to \u201cdo the right thing\u201d most of the time, according to a survey last month by the Pew Research Center. Americans are being encouraged to believe that merely changing the name of the occupant of the White House should restore faith in government.<\/p>\n

If Biden is elected, we will hear the same \u201credemption\u201d storyline that was trumpeted when Obama replaced (temporarily) disgraced George W. Bush. The same media that ignored Biden\u2019s corruption during the presidential campaign will insist that his inauguration purifies Uncle Sam. With Biden in charge, pundits\u00a0and pooh-bahs will swear that it is safe to expand federal control over healthcare, education, housing, the economy, the environment, and anything else that moves.<\/p>\n

But the benevolence of government rarely transcends the perfidy of politics<\/strong>. Washington will remain as venal as ever, regardless of the hallelujah chorus of PBS NewsHour<\/em> panelists. When scandals erupt, citizens will be told to trust politically approved fixes to the system\u2014even though most Washington reforms are like fighting crime by hiding the corpses of victims.<\/p>\n

It is time to demystify democracy. The surest effect of exalting democracy is to make it easier for politicians to drag everyone else down.<\/strong> Until presidents and members of Congress begin to honor their oath to uphold and defend the Constitution, they deserve all the distrust and disdain they receive. Americans need less faith in democracy and more faith in their own liberty.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
Author:James Bovard<\/a><\/div>\n
\n
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James Bovard is the author of ten books, including 2012\u2019s Public Policy Hooligan<\/em>, and 2006\u2019s Attention Deficit Democracy<\/em>. He has written for the New York Times<\/em>, Wall Street Journal<\/em>, Playboy<\/em>, Washington Post<\/em>, and many other publications.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mises Institute, October 23, 2020 Will Democracy\u2019s Myths Doom Liberty? by James Bovard The Supreme Court declared in 1943, \u201cThere is no mysticism in the American concept of the State or of the nature or origin of its authority.” In reality, the cardinal doctrines of contemporary democracy are layer upon layer of mystical claptrap. 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