American Totalitarian Democratism

[ltlee1]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/democracy-by-and-for-the-elites-biden-wilson-jefferson-democratist-popular-rule-threat-america-tocqueville-11664114737

"President Biden’s Sept. 1 speech in Philadelphia on “unity” is a poignant example of the confusion surrounding the concept of democracy. Mr. Biden declared that MAGA Republicans threaten “the very foundations of our republic.” The phrase a “threat to American democracy” is so commonplace these days that it hardly carries any meaning—except that it encapsulates the reigning ideology of our time, an ideology so pervasive that it almost goes unnoticed. It is like the air we breathe.

I call it democratism. It is an imaginative and idealistic understanding of popular rule that disdains ordinary people and looks to a cadre of so-called experts to operate the levers of power. Under this ideology, “democracy” and “the people” are rhetorical cover for the will of the elites. Think of social media’s censorship of misinformation in the name of “supporting democracy” and “upholding free expression.” How is it that censorship passes as upholding free expression?

“War is peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength” from Orwell’s “1984” comes to mind, but there is a long tradition in the West of this paradoxical interpretation of democracy. Enlightenment-era thinking, and arguably even Plato, puts forth the thought that an ahistorical ideal of justice ought to act as the primary guide to politics. Jean-Jacques Rousseau applied this idea in “The Social Contract.” The general will, Rousseau says, is what the popular will ought to be, even if it isn’t expressed by actual living people. The general will conveniently requires the translation of a wise legislator for its instantiation.

Many of the most vocal champions of democracy, from Thomas Jefferson to our own day, have been advocates of this Rousseauean inversion, using the word “democracy” as justification for what would otherwise be naked authoritarianism. "

[ltlee1]

The author Emily Finley earned her Ph.D from Stanford University with a dissertation
entitled “Enchantment of the Modern Age: Toward a Definition of Democratism”.
Her new is book entitled "The Ideology of Democratism."

[bmoore]

Emily Finley holds a Ph.D. in Politics from The Catholic University of America.

[ltlee1]

Yes. You are right. My mistake. And currently a postdoc in Stanford University.

[ltlee1]

On Monday, September 26, 2022 at 12:01:10 PM UTC, ltlee1 wrote:

Emily Finley's conclusion is previous US leaders had been using the word "democracy" as justification
for what would otherwise be naked authoritarianism. But the situation is a lot worse per Michael Sandel's
"Democracy’s Discontent: A New Edition for Our Perilous Times." Namely, the US system still does not
have a philosophy concerning the public at large.

'In a new edition of Democracy’s Discontent, Sandel argues that procedural liberalism’s success in keeping
serious political discussion and debate out of the public realm for as long a time as it has is “at the heart
of democracy’s discontent.” Americans have lost faith in the possibility of self-government, and they are
frightened by the disintegration of community they see happening all around them. Twenty-six years since
Democracy’s Discontent was first published, Sandel writes that this way of thinking has brought us to a
political precipice—a moment when the combination of frayed social bonds and intense political polarization
calls into question the very future of the American experiment."

Emily Finley + Michael Sandel lead to the conclusion that US democracy, at present, is headless authoriatarianism.
Political leaders are often not in the loop of democratic political decision making regarding public values and
tangible public benefits.