That The Sentiments of Democratic Nations Accord With Their Opinions In Leading Them to Concentrate Political Power - 11/11/2010 (2)

 [Continued from "That The Sentiments of Democratic Nations Accord With Their Opinions In Leading Them to Concentrate Political Power - 11/11/2010 (1)". sch 8/22/2024.]

How long ago since this country enjoyed public tranquility?

If one says 2001, they forget the 2000 election, or Clinton's impeachment, or any of the recessions between 1979 and 2001, or Nixon's implosion, or the Vietnam War, or all of the assassinations in the Sixties.

I think we have lacked a consistent public tranquility since November 22, 1963. Which apparently counters this idea of de Tocqueville's:

I have also had occasion to show how the increasing love of well-being and the fluctuating character of property cause democratic nations to dread all violent disturbances.  The love of public tranquillity is frequently the only passion which these nations retain, and it becomes more active and powerful among them in proportion as all other passions droop and die.  This naturally disposes the members of the community constantly to give or to surrender additional rights to the central power, which alone seems to be interested in defending them by the same means that it uses to defend itself.

After the last ten years, no one should be surprised that the Tea Party arose to have the federal government restore their tranquility. Why the Tea Party and not the Democratic Party? The Tea Party seeks a return of the party and ideas that almost detroyed the Americna financial and economic systems. The healthcare reform sought to give Americans control of their lives; this the Tea Party opposes. The law was sloppy and hapahazard; that is not what bothers the Tea Party types. Interia got underestimated - the Tea Party types preyed on the fears of those seeing yet another upheaval in their lives. People will give everything they have for a little piece of mind (with my apologies to John Lennon.) The Democrats were the ones pushing change, the disruptors of tranquility.

But I cannot think of Tea Party Republicans as egalitarians when they start breathing hard and heavy about protecting the very rich and coporations. Compare how these Republicans criticize Democrats as elitists with this passage from de Tocqueville:

...The man of a democratic age is extremely reluctant to obey his neighbor who is his equal; he refuses to acknowledge in such a person ability superior to his own; he mistrusts his justice, and is jealous of his power; he fears and he contemns him; and he loves continually to remind him of the common dependence in which both of them stand to the same master. Every central power which follows its natural tendencies courts and encourages the principle of equality; for equality singularly facilitates, extends, and secures the influence of a central power.

That The Sentiments of Democratic Nations Accord With Their Opinions In Leading Them to Concentrate Political Power  

That the Democratic Party can be labeled as anti-democratic by a political party that long ago turned its back on its own egalitarian roots is a wonder for the ages. I admit the Republicans had no small help from the Democrats in creating this fraudulent appearance. 

Perhaps those people pumping out this anti-Democratic propaganda must have read de Tocqueville.

... His independence fills him with self-reliance and pride amongst his equals; his debility makes him feel from time to time the want of some outward assistance, which he cannot expect from any of them, because they are all impotent and unsympathizing. In this predicament he naturally turns his eyes to that imposing power which alone rises above the level of universal depression. Of that power his wants and especially his desires continually remind him, until he ultimately views it as the sole and necessary support of his own weakness. [Footnote omitted. sch 8/22/2024] This may more completely explain what frequently takes place in democratic countries, where the very men who are so impatient of superiors patiently submit to a master, exhibiting at once their pride and their servility.

The anti-Democratic propagandists seem to have built upon these ideas with the tools of a national mythology.

What has been the work of Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck and others but give unity to the fearful and hateful against the power that made them fearful and angry? They hope to retrieve power for themselves, not destroy the power. 

...Democratic nations often hate those in whose hands the central power is vested; but they always love that power itself.

I find The Tea Party dishonest. They offer no constitutional changes that would curb the power they claim oppresses them. 

We should all wonder why constitutional amendments are regularly ignored nowadays. It is as if the politicians prefer a broken system. Think about why that might be.

 ...I am of opinion, that, in the democratic ages which are opening upon us, individual independence and local liberties will ever be the produce of artificial contrivance; that centralization will be the natural form of government.

sch

[I think that MAGA and the Trumpist movement amplify what I wrote almost 14 years ago about The Tea Party. Limbaugh is gone, but Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity persist. Is MAGA not a move backward to an imagined Golden Age of tranquility? Well, golden for certain classes and types - not for women, not for anyone of color, not for anyone trying to rise economically. Trump wants to centralize power beyond anything allowed by our Constitution. The United States Supreme Court has lifted the President above the law. Conservatives once wanted a small government. No longer. They want the ability to police every citizen; no larger government can be imagined. Iran will not be the only countrywith a morality police - only ours will have a different name. The only good news is that the Democrats have found the will to resist this threat to the law. I have heard of only one proposed constitutional amendment - that is to remove the new-fangled presidential immunity. They have found freedom as a theme.

And I have a hope I did not have in 2010. sch 8/22/2024.]