Democracy in Decline

Creators Syndicate Inc. ^ | June 18, 2008 | Tony Blankley

[devere]

The broad, sneering European-elite response to the plucky Irish vote to oppose the further centralization of governmental power in the European Union and the emerging opinion in China suggest that from Brussels to Shanghai, democracy may be losing its appeal.

Democracy, broadly understood as government by the people being governed, has been the upward aspiration of Western civilization for about 1,000 years -- and of the rest of the world for about 100 years. ... The democratic urge gained further rhetorical support in the post-World War II United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 21:

"(1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.

"(2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.

"(3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures."

Arguably, the aspiration for and expectation of democracy reached its zenith with the fall of the Soviet Union and the prediction that the end of history had been reached in the form of liberal democratic capitalism as practiced in the last decade of the 20th century.

But events and experiences I have had in the past week reinforce a growing sense I have had for a few years that the ideal and practice of robust democracy may be seen in history as a quirk of the 18th-20th centuries. I can imagine students 500 years from now studying democracy the way we study medieval history: its rise, its high period, causes of its decline.

[mavfin]

I don’t see the Irish vote as a bad thing like this guy....

I don’t call the EU a democracy either. They’re already trying to silence voices they don’t want to hear. It’s like the thirties again, ffs.

[ModelBreaker]

Well, democracy should be in decline. The voters frequently refuse to endorse the policies of their betters in the government and the press. The only way to get around that is to pretend you have a democracy but make sure the institutions let the wise folks actually run things.

It's easy to sneer at the Europeans. But that pretty much describes things in our neck of the woods also.

[Proud_USA_Republican]

I don’t call countries throwing away their national identity democracy in action.

The EU needs to stop trying to orchestrate some faux capitalism/really socialism version of the USSR.

You want a common currency? Fine.
You want an organization that helps balance trade? Fine.
You want an collection of elitists in Brussels telling German bar maids what they can and cannot wear or telling Poland what their laws should be or dictating eastern european countries relations with the United States. Absolutely not.

[hosepipe]

America is a republic.. Democracy is a social disease that causes socialism.. Socialism is merely the symptom of the disease called democracy.. Democracy is killing Europe and as America becomes more democratic it is killing America.. Democracy is and always been MOB Rule by mobsters.. Tribal Rule.. by political Shamans..
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Democracy is the road to socialism. -Karl Marx

Democracy is indispensable to socialism. The goal of socialism is communism. -V.I. Lenin

The meaning of peace is the absence of opposition to socialism .-Karl Marx

[irishjuggler]

I don’t see the Irish vote as a bad thing like this guy....

He never said that the Irish vote was a bad thing. In fact, he wrote, "God bless the Irish people."

[devere]

“America is a republic.. Democracy is a social disease that causes socialism.”

Saddam’s Iraq and Hitler’s Germany were also republics. A republic is any government without a hereditary leader.

The fact that the elected leaders of Europe feel no shame in trying to put over the Lisbon Treaty without a vote is deeply significant. Democracy is the idea of the people’s will prevailing, and they really don’t care for it any more. The spirit of the age comes from Beijing, or perhaps it’s from the corporate boardrooms.

While representative democracy seems to have failed, direct democracy still works where it is tried, as in Ireland and Switzerland. In the age of the internet there’s no longer any reason to elect people to make laws for us, who will then degenerate into a corrupt elite. We need to develop mechanisms to let the people vote directly on laws.

“this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

[DB]

Um, the Irish voting against being EU slaves is democracy in action. Hardly a sign of its end.

[mavfin]

Um, the Irish voting against being EU slaves is democracy in action. Hardly a sign of its end.

Thank you. You put what I was trying to say in my earlier post in better words than I could.

[nathanbedford]

. Every Russian I met wanted a strong government, thought democracy is inherently corrupt and useless, and that capitalism is another word for theft.

Each was perfectly content to let the unelected Communist Party run the government, as long as economic growth continued.

Asia is noticing that the Chinese Communist Party-managed economic method is working better than the American democratic capitalism method.

When Tony Blankley says, "God bless the Irish people" I say, God bless Tony Blankley. Blankley has the indicia of a convert, more zealous than those who inherit the faith by birth.

It is unfortunate that so many Freepers rush to print before carefully reading the article about which they are commenting. Everything Blakeley said in this article is persuasive and compelling. I have been in Russia and I know what he says is true.

One need not go to Russia, one can wallow in the soirées of Georgetown or the Upper East Side and one will be treated to the same bilge.

[iopscusa]

Thank you for: America is a republic.. Democracy is a social disease that causes socialism! Never confuse the two.

[rbg81]

Yes, Democracy IS in decline. What other conclusion can you draw when you have:

— Activist judges making laws (imposing their will by fiat)
— Human rights commissions regulating (overriding) Constitutional rights like free speech and freedom of association.
— US law being subjugated to dubious International treaties
— De-facto Government policies being carried out without debate (illegal immigration). Or the Government just plain lying to the people (Example: Yeah, we’re building a border fence, but 1) we have not funded it, 2) its “virtual, 3) it will not be done in your lifetime.]

Face it: Democracy is hard and dirty. Convincing people of anything and building consensus is hard, dirty work. It becomes even harder when you form interest group blocks (as the Dems have worked to do for years). The Elites are frustrated by Democracy, so the obvious solution is to ignore it and let it wither on the vine. The MSM is more than willing to help them out here.

[Clock King]

It first hit me with force that democracy may not be a universal goal when I was in Russia in 2005 ...Every Russian I met wanted a strong government, thought democracy is inherently corrupt and useless, and that capitalism is another word for theft.

Last week, I was in China...Each was perfectly content to let the unelected Communist Party run the government, as long as economic growth continued.

I find it melancholy to consider that perhaps people aspire to self-government not because it is the natural and dignified condition of man to be free and self-governing, but merely only if it is likely to turn a quick economic profit.

This guy is a G-D damn idiot! Some people just WANT to be slaves, as long as they are "happy" slaves. This has to be some sort of mental illness. Has to be!

[Clock King]

I retract my comment.

[hosepipe]

[ Democracy is the idea of the people’s will prevailing, ]

As I said.. MOB RULE.. by mobsters.. or a consortium of Mobs with a consortium of mobsters.. Germany was not a republic.. when you have a strong central government it is not a republic anymore but a Banana Republic... which IS a democracy..

Either you are a republic or a democracy you cannot be both.. The Union of Soviet Republic(S) was not a republic either.. but a democracy..
-----------------------------------
Democracy is the road to socialism. -Karl Marx

Democracy is indispensable to socialism. The goal of socialism is communism. -V.I. Lenin

The meaning of peace is the absence of opposition to socialism .-Karl Marx

[The Great RJ]

Note the UN document on human rights omits the rights of free speech, free assembly and religious expression which are first in our Bill of Rights.

[devere]

“The Union of Soviet Republic(S) was not a republic either.. but a democracy.”

Calling a dictatorship in which few people make all decisions without standing for elections or taking any contested popular vote a DEMOCRACY, is perfectly silly.

I guess in Orwellian terms you can redefine any word to mean whatever you wish it to mean. After all, the word liberal used to mean favoring freedom, and now it means the opposite!

[hosepipe]

[ Calling a dictatorship in which few people make all decisions without standing for elections or taking any contested popular vote a DEMOCRACY, is perfectly silly. ]

Most all republicans hate or despise John McLaim.. How did he become republican candidate for President?.. Do WE live in a dictatorship?.. Sometimes a dictator is the proletariat.. The base concept of Marxism.. You know MOB RULE.. by an elite Ugh!.. or mobsters..

[nathanbedford]

Well done.