The Real Threat to Democracy
By Dr. Harold A. Black
blackh@knoxfocus.com
haroldblackphd.com
Happy New Year.
I seriously doubt that 2023 will be a “happy” new year. It will likely be full of angst from the usual suspects. Those on the left will continue to whine about white supremacy, climate change, threats to democracy, guns, MAGA, Donald Trump, Ben Shapiro, all conservatives, Clarence Thomas, trans rights and all the rest. Those on the right will bemoan the lack of civility, Critical Race Theory, gender identity, school curricula, immigration, the economy, government spending, subsidization of green energy, socialism, Biden’s senility and all the rest. What is becoming apparent is that we no longer can just get along. Polls have shown that the divide between parties is getting wider and wider. One recent poll showed that if invaded like the Ukraine a majority of Democrats would flee the country while most Republicans and independents said that they would stay and fight. Noteworthy is that the majority of young Americans (aged 18-34) said that they would flee.
Maybe its just another sign of the youth not having hardly any skin in the game. This past election, the youth were the group mainly responsible for blunting the “red” wave. They voted in record numbers for the Democrats. Although most adults scoffed at Biden’s hysterics over the Supreme Court’s decision on abortion and his pledge to introduce legislation codifying abortion, the young wanted to protect their “right” to an abortion. It is no wonder that abortion clinics are near college campuses. The other issue was the forgiving of student debt. Again, Biden didn’t have the authority to cancel the debt, but the youth rewarded him for saying that he would try. The issues that motivate adults – immigration, energy prices and the economy – don’t resonate with the youth because they have no skin in the game. For them, immigration is not perceived as a threat. Their parents pay the bills so they aren’t concerned about inflation and the prices of gasoline and energy. Biden and the Democrats also kept harping on the “threat to democracy.” Most adults knew that this was nonsense but the young after being indoctrinated in K-12 and in college to leftist propaganda were convinced that the election of Republicans would lead to a curtailment of their freedoms.
If there is any good news, it is that once the young get skin in the game when they enter the workforce, that they will morph into their parents. Earning a paycheck and paying bills change one’s perspective. Remember the quote often attributed to many throughout history: “If you are not a liberal in your youth you have no heart. If you are not a conservative as an adult, you have no brain.”
I think the basic difference between those on the left and those on the right is in Robert Heinlein’s observation that the human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. Likewise, Milton Friedman observed that those on the left want to impose their wishes on others. However, those espousing socialism most likely are not the ones who will be doing the controlling. AOC, the Squad and the Bernie Sanders types do not have the intellect or the capacity to do the controlling. Rather they are the useful idiots of the ones who would actually be in power. Heinlein cautions that the thirst to control knows no political label. That is why many powerful industrialists, billionaires, money managers and bankers tend to support the left while making clucking noises to pacify the right. These are the true threats to democracy. It is also important that many conservative states are pulling their pensions from the management of companies like Blackrock which uses their funds to further leftist agendas. But don’t misunderstand, the threat to democracy in 2023 is unchanged. It is the threat to economic and personal freedoms. Politicians like Joe Biden embody that threat. But so do billionaires like George Soros and executives like Larry Fink at Blackrock.
