Democracy and the Democrats

It is not sufficiently remarked upon that many Democrats have an increasingly difficult time believing in democracy (you can level criticisms at Republicans here too, but those already get far more play, and please anyone who invokes the concept of equivalence here is just a mood-affiliating, internet knee-jerk dummy).  To put it bluntly, many Democrats have arrived at the position that democracy works satisfactorily only when it delivers sufficiently low gas prices!

See my previous post, and also the new column by Krugman.”Will Gas Prices Doom Democracy?”.  All rhetorical contortions notwithstanding, I don’t see how many current Democrats avoid an implicit or maybe even explicit super-charged skepticism about, yes, democracy.

And it is increasingly hard to blame either “Big Tech” (largely run by Democrats), or campaign finance reform, which now on net is the friend of the Democrats, not the Republicans, at least at the national level.

Matters are easier for the classical liberal.  Classical liberals are used to the idea of very bad politicians being elected.  If some of those politicians become worse yet, that is highly unfortunate but it does not shake the underlying worldview to its core.  Classical liberals also view government as pretty inefficient, often craven, inconsistent, and in many key matters unmanageable.  That isn’t always so great!  But it does provide some layers of protection against the very worst actors and their possible intentions.

I believe that in October 2022 the classical liberal case for democracy rests on firmer foundations than does the Democratic case for democracy.