The ruling class only cares about democracy when it helps them

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan once remarked that ”[d]emocracy is like a streetcar. When you come to your stop, you get off.” Say what you want about the Turkish president and his extravagant political ambitions, but Erdogan’s statement reveals an uncomfortable truth about the present state of democracy in the West.

Article by José Niño from Mises.

Irrespective of the political system, be it so-called liberal democracies or the managed democracy Mr. Erdogan presides over, democracy functions as just one of many tools in a ruling class’s toolbox to control their subjects. Even in America, where citizens are constantly reminded, from their high school civics classes all the way to TV broadsides, that democracy is what makes America exceptional among countries, democracy is cynically exploited to advance certain political agendas.

Technocratic administrators frequently pay lip service to democratic values while appearing on TV or during their lucrative speaking tours, but when pitted in the arena of real-world politics, they will quickly change their tune.

The very same technocratic class who hoots and hollers about the sacrosanct principles of democratic governance will go out of its way to denounce voters when they rise up and vote against candidates or proposals the ruling class angles for. Philosophical consistency does not come easily for individuals bent on making public administration the pillar of governance.

On the rare occasions when those dastardly plebeians scuttle the political class’s machinations, they scramble to find ways to “rectify” the behavior of their wayward subjects. One common way political gatekeepers nullify the will of their voters is through the use of federal courts.

Just ask California voters about democratic values. Their democratic input was nullified when they decided to vote in favor of Proposition 187, a ballot proposition that would have restricted public assistance for illegal aliens. Even after a decisive 58 percent–41 percent vote, activist courts were ready to overturn the results of Proposition 187. Federal judge Mariana Pfaelzer issued a permanent injunction of the ballot initiative, which later led to her ruling it unconstitutional in 1997. In the aftermath of Pfaelzer’s ruling, Proposition 187 remained stuck in the appeals process and was finally laid to rest when Democratic governor Gray Davis decided to not appeal the federal court ruling and instead asked a federal court to mediate a compromise in 1999.

Similarly, Proposition 8, a constitutional amendment that would have banned same-sex marriage, faced great resistance from the court after a controversial referendum in which California voters approved the measure by a margin of 52 to 48 percent, with substantial support from minority groups such as blacks and Hispanics. As with Proposition 187, a federal judge struck down Proposition 8 in 2010. The usual litigatory proceedings took place after the federal district ruling, but the gay marriage question would finally be settled once and for all after the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision. States from California all the way to the reddest of states in the Deep South fell in line with little resistance after this landmark decision that legalized gay marriage nationwide.

The aforementioned examples of judicial overreach highlight a new trend that has taken shape in Western politics in the last century. Historian Paul Gottfried observed that in liberal democracies with strong judiciaries, the prevailing political arrangement in the majority of Western governments, referendums are routinely squelched through political or judicial maneuvers. To further rub salt in the wound, this political interference from the top is usually done in the immediate aftermath of ballot initiatives that did not sit well with the political hall monitors.

The political results of these controversial referendums aside, the most salient consequence we can take away from the last few decades of judicial activism is the emergence of a kritarchy; a political order in which judges rule over the people. The ascendant kritarch class, along with functionaries in the administrative state, has worked assiduously to chip away at the sovereignty of states, counties, and municipalities.

For a country that struts around lecturing other countries about not being sufficiently democratic, it’s amusing how democratic values get cast by the wayside when the regime receives a credible challenge from below. Yet, on issues that remain divisive among America’s many political factions, we are led to believe that nine robed lawyers with lifetime tenure can make rulings that line up with the political values of more than 330 million people; all while comporting with American constitutional principles. Color me highly skeptical of such a prospect.

If the political class were serious about democracy, they would devolve power to legislatures or voter referendums at the state level. America still has a federalist system, despite DC’s constant attempts to gut it, that fosters diverse forms of democratic expression when it’s allowed to operate freely. But that democratic mirage quickly evaporates when the federal government starts overstepping its boundaries and makes attempts to overturn the decisions of state governments or voter initiatives.

There are valid criticisms of democracy and concepts of “popular will” especially in the context of a modern mass democracy largely engrossed by mass hysteria and indoctrination coming from the education system, corporate media, and entertainment. However, ballot initiatives at the state and local level do manifest a more organic form of democratic action that aligns with the parochial interests of voters in a given jurisdiction.

A more practical alternative to the current arrangement is to shift toward small-scale democracy à la Switzerland, which is more in line with the principles of classical liberalism and protects subsidiarity. The notion of using DC governing bodies to pass measures that represent the “general will” of all Americans—a polarized population of more than 330 million people with distinct cultures and political peculiarities depending on the region they reside in—is a pipe dream if there ever was one.

Democracy proponents’ efforts would look more credible if they strived to make, nullification, decentralization, and even secessionism integral parts of regular political discourse. As long as the present managerial model is kept intact, there is scant reason to believe democratic accountability will ever take place in American politics.

American politics is already dominated by pollsters, fact checkers, social media hall monitors, and the corporate press, who are constantly trying to manufacture consent and mold the public’s political views. As the technocratic state cements its hold, the very act of voting will wither away and become a worn-out artifact of a bygone era.

Dwelling on the past and trying to restore a previous epoch of perceived tranquility surely evokes starry-eyed nostalgia, but it’s not a serious answer to the most pertinent issues of our time. The path to bringing about an iota of sanity in American politics will not involve using strategies that are found in your everyday civics textbook. Nor will it be achieved by pulling the lever for whatever establishment-approved candidates are up for federal office.

In all likelihood, Americans will have to piggyback on existing trends—be they successful state measures such as constitutional carry or gradual moves toward the nullification of unconstitutional laws—to fight against government overreach. True resistance will come from state and local governments who reject politically approved behavior and openly start defying the Supreme Court by nullifying its decisions that run afoul of local laws and customs. In the local domains, everyday citizens can at least exert some influence over political bodies.

The key is that local bodies don’t act like doormats when the federal government overreaches. By participating in the federal election circus and allowing it to trample all over the sovereign actions of states, Americans are giving the feds the greenlight to continue pulling unconstitutional stunts.

There’s a much stronger chance of getting the federal government to change its ways when lower levels of government make it sweat by nullifying and refusing to recognize its unconstitutional behavior. Americans who are serious about democracy will find more fertile ground at their state legislatures and city halls than in the Beltway.

The nomenklatura’s hollow appellations to democracy are nothing but a ruse to obfuscate an agenda that’s exclusively focused on centralizing political power. In order to orient America toward more localism, the first step is for people to see through the smoke and mirrors that keeps them wedded to concepts that do not comport with political reality. From there, localist mechanisms can be employed to throw a wrench in the managerial class’s plans and remind DC leaders that their plots will regularly be met with pushback from below.

‘The Purge’ by Big Tech targets conservatives, including us

Just when we thought the Covid-19 lockdowns were ending and our ability to stay afloat was improving, censorship reared its ugly head.

For the last few months, NOQ Report, Conservative Playbook, and the American Conservative Movement have appealed to our readers for assistance in staying afloat through Covid-19 lockdowns. The downturn in the economy has limited our ability to generate proper ad revenue just as our traffic was skyrocketing. We had our first sustained stretch of three months with over a million visitors in November, December, and January, but February saw a dip.

It wasn’t just the shortened month. We expected that. We also expected the continuation of dropping traffic from “woke” Big Tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter, but it has actually been much worse than anticipated. Our Twitter account was banned. Both of our YouTube accounts were banned. Facebook “fact-checks” everything we post. Spotify canceled us. Medium canceled us. Apple canceled us. Why? Because we believe in the truth prevailing, and that means we will continue to discuss “taboo” topics.

The 2020 presidential election was stolen. You can’t say that on Big Tech platforms without risking cancellation, but we’d rather get cancelled for telling the truth rather than staying around to repeat mainstream media’s lies. They have been covering it up since before the election and they’ve convinced the vast majority of conservative news outlets that they will be harmed if they continue to discuss voter fraud. We refuse to back down. The truth is the truth.

The lies associated with Covid-19 are only slightly more prevalent than the suppression of valid scientific information that runs counter to the prescribed narrative. We should be allowed to ask questions about the vaccines, for example, as there is ample evidence for concern. One does not have to be an “anti-vaxxer” in order to want answers about vaccines that are still considered experimental and that have a track record in a short period of time of having side-effects, including death. One of our stories about the Johnson & Johnson “vaccine” causing blood clots was “fact-checked” and removed one day before the government hit the brakes on it. These questions and news items are not allowed on Big Tech which is just another reason we are getting canceled.

There are more topics that they refuse to allow. In turn, we refuse to stop discussing them. This is why we desperately need your help. The best way NOQ, CP, and ACM readers can help is to donate. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well. We are on track to be short by about $4100 per month in order to maintain operations.

The second way to help is to become a partner. We’ve strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn’t seem necessary. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills. We had 5,657,724 sessions on our website from November, 2020, through February, 2021. Our intention is to elevate that to higher levels this year by focusing on a strategy that relies on free speech rather than being beholden to progressive Big Tech companies.

During that four-month stretch, Twitter and Facebook accounted for about 20% of our traffic. We are actively working on operating as if that traffic is zero, replacing it with platforms that operate more freely such as Gab, Parler, and others. While we were never as dependent on Big Tech as most conservative sites, we’d like to be completely free from them. That doesn’t mean we will block them, but we refuse to be beholden to companies that absolutely despise us simply because of our political ideology.

We’re heading in the right direction and we believe we’re ready talk to patriotic investors who want to not only “get in on the action” but more importantly who want to help America hear the truth. Interested investors should contact me directly with the contact button above.

As the world spirals towards radical progressivism, the need for truthful journalism has never been greater. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report going.

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