Meh, who gives a shit what they think? About this, or anything else?
At this point, it would save everyone time if Democrats could simply point to a policy agenda item that isn’t going to save democracy — if such a thing exists.
If Republicans vote, they are killing democracy. If they don’t vote, they are killing democracy. The only way to “save democracy,” writes The Washington Post’s Max Boot, is to empower one-party rule — a position that probably sounds counterintuitive to anyone with a middle-school education. “Now you need to vote to literally save democracy again,” contends President Joe Biden, or we will lose our “fundamental rights and freedoms like the right to choose, the right to privacy, the right to vote — our very democracy.”
Chilling stuff. But it doesn’t end there. You will remember that by failing to “reform” the filibuster, which would entail authorizing the thinnest of fleeting majorities to shove through massive generational “reforms” without any national consensus or debate, we are also killing democracy. This has been the position not only of left-wing pundits and the New York Times editorial board, but also senators tasked with defending their institution. I wonder if they will support this democracy-saving fix next session, as well?
Then again, if we don’t nationalize the economy to avert a climate crisis, we are also killing democracy. “We’ve got to save democracy in order to save our species,” Jamie Raskin explains. And if we don’t empty the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to temporarily keep gas prices low to help Democrats win in 2022, we are killing democracy. “We find ourselves in a situation, where keeping gas prices low is key to preserving and strengthening the future of our democracy,” MSNBC’s Chris Hayes says.
We must allow the president to unilaterally create trillion-dollar spending bills and break existing private sector contracts by fiat. For democracy. We must pack the court to “save democracy.” We must create a Ministry of Truth to help with “strengthening democratic institutions.” We must vote for a Pennsylvania candidate who can’t cobble two consecutive coherent sentences together because the “fate of our democracy” is at stake, says our former president.
If you don’t support a partisan congressional investigation that’s circumvented basic due process norms, you probably hate democracy. If you aren’t self-flagellating and holding yourself accountable for the actions of Jan. 6 rioters, you are also bolstering the coming autocracy.
It’s an amusing enough column, and Harsanyi has always been a fine writer. In the end, though, it’s all just dog-bites-man stuff, offering nothing whatsoever new or earth-shattering. Personally, I find it grating at best to be lectured on “saving democracy” by practicing fascists. Not one of the above-mentioned sources will ever say anything of genuine interest or merit as far as I’m concerned, to judge by their record to date. Every man Jack of them can go straight to Hell for all me and remain there for the duration. And they can take their disingenuous “concern” for Our Sacred Democracy™ with ’em when they go, too.
Everything for the state, nothing for the individual.