In totalitarian regimes—communism, fascism, religious fundamentalism—popular support is a given. You can start wars, you can prolong them, you can put anyone in uniform for any length of time without ever having to worry about the slightest political backlash. In a democracy, the polar opposite is true. Public support must be husbanded as a finite national resource. It must be spent wisely, sparingly, and with the greatest return on your investment. America is especially sensitive to war weariness, and nothing brings on a backlash like the perception of defeat. I say “perception” because America is a very all-or-nothing society. We like the big win, the touchdown, the knockout in the first round. We like to know, and for everyone else to know, that our victory wasn’t only uncontested, it was positively devastating.
-Max Brooks, World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
Point of order, democracy is a mechanism for selecting leadership, not an ideology of governance.
Democracies routinely produce Communist, Fascist, and Religious Fundamentalist leaders.
Like, I know it’s a quote and all. But it’s just a Baby’s First PolySci view of how civilizations organize themselves. Not an ounce of Lockean Theory to be found.
That’s before you get into the reality of Republican governance and practical enfranchisement. You can’t go rolling up on Thomas Jefferson’s slaves and announcing “Idiots, it’s a democracy, why did you vote for this?”
Point of order, democracy is a mechanism for selecting leadership, not an ideology of governance.
Democracies routinely produce Communist, Fascist, and Religious Fundamentalist leaders.
Like, I know it’s a quote and all. But it’s just a Baby’s First PolySci view of how civilizations organize themselves. Not an ounce of Lockean Theory to be found.
That’s before you get into the reality of Republican governance and practical enfranchisement. You can’t go rolling up on Thomas Jefferson’s slaves and announcing “Idiots, it’s a democracy, why did you vote for this?”