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The Howl Against Democracy
The parallel with the #NeverTrump people is striking.
Well, if it's fair to ignore the majority if the brilliant minds of the elite think it best then it's certainly also fair to ignore the rights of the minority if, in our own wisdom, we deem the minority to be an arrogant self important double dealing bunch of self serving toffs. So it's rather surprising to find the elite so quick to trash the traditions of orderly democracy since that's the only thing saving them from crowds of irate citizens with pitchforks.
There’s a delicious irony to Remainers’ branding of Leave voters as confused individuals who have simply made a desperate howling noise, whose anti-EU vote was a ‘howl of anger’ (Tim Farron) or a ‘howl of frustration’ (JK Rowling). Which is that if anyone’s been howling in recent days, it’s them, the top dogs of the Remain campaign. They are howling against the demos; raging against the people; fuming about a system that allows even that portly bloke at the end of your street who never darkened the door of a university to have a say on important political matters. That system we call democracy.
...Media commentary has dripped with contempt for the moronic people. ‘Some of the oldest and whitest people on the planet leapt at a chance to vote against the monsters in their heads’, howled a writer for Esquire. There’s much talk about the people being ‘manipulated’ by lies and misinformation, as if they’re lifeless putty in the hands of the likes of Farage. Some have gone so far as to twist the definition of democracy in an attempt to rubbish the people’s will. ‘The idea that somehow any decision reached anytime by majority rule is necessarily “democratic” is a perversion of the term’, says Harvard professor Kenneth Rogoff. Sometimes, democracy means making sure the people ‘avoid making uninformed decisions with catastrophic consequences’, he says. So it can be democratic to thwart the majority’s wishes if we think they’re stupid. And they have the gall to talk about manipulation.
The parallel with the #NeverTrump people is striking.
Well, if it's fair to ignore the majority if the brilliant minds of the elite think it best then it's certainly also fair to ignore the rights of the minority if, in our own wisdom, we deem the minority to be an arrogant self important double dealing bunch of self serving toffs. So it's rather surprising to find the elite so quick to trash the traditions of orderly democracy since that's the only thing saving them from crowds of irate citizens with pitchforks.