My Endorsement of President Donald Trump for Re-Election - Part 8, Trump is "Bad" for Democracy But That's a Good Thing!

"Democracy is two wolves and a sheep debating over what to have for lunch." -source unknown but oft attributed to Benjamnin Franklin

One political dogma I have often criticized is democracy. Exactly, what is democracy? I do not even think the proponents of democracy know quite well what democracy is. In one breath, they'll say "majoritarian rule" but in the next, they will say the will of the majority to impose its views on the minority. Well the second part is a good thing. Democracy is the will of the majority to impose its views and policies on the minority. Simply put, you cannot consistently claim that democracy is about majoritarian rule while claiming that the majority is prohibited from imposing its views and will on the majority. This is why Murray N. Rothbard rightly critiqued democracy as "a system replete with inner contradictions" (Man, Economy and State with Power and Market, 1279).

"Does the system of democracy permit itself to be voted democratically out of existence? Whichever way the democrat answers, he is caught in an inescapable contradiction." (12879) If the majority can vote to end democracy, then it is a self-terminating system of government. If the majority cannot achieve this, then democracy cannot purport to effectively establishing a government but is merely symbolic. "So if the majority wishes to end the voting process, democracy cannot be preserved regardless of which horn of the dilemma is chosen." (1280 If democracy is about "change" then it must let itself be voted out of existence. If democracy is about majority rule, then it must allow the majority to either elect a dictator or undemocratic policies. If democracy is merely a matter of cooperation, on the other hand, then it must permit the minority to have as much equal ruling power as the majority. The internal contradictions are only extrapolated in democracy.

In 2016, Donald Trump won the Presidency with 46.1% of the nationwide vote compared to Hillary Clinton's 48.2% of the nationwide vote. While this is inherently an undemocratic, non-majoritarian victory, it is impossible to tell who would have come out and voted differently and where and in what states had the election rules been based on a strict majority. Of course, this isn't even in a direct democracy. A direct democracy involves the people voting on policy changes but an indirect democracy involves people voting for others to vote for the policies they want. American politics does not have and never will have a direct democracy because the elected politicians love power too much. That may seem cynical but it is fact. If majoritarian rule ever did enter into this country, you would see a lot of policies changed that the politicians of both parties have stated they want. Voting for a person to carry out policies requires more complicated studies than merely voting in regards to policies. The real culprit against democracy in this country is the personality tests we've turned local, state-wide, and federal elections into. Democracy in America is a mess.

This is why democracy is something worthwhile to consider being nuked. Without democracy, people aren't worried about who is leading them nor voting them out. This is so abundantly and overwhelmingly obvious. Democracy is a system set up for failures. There is a point in which democracy even becomes nothing more than a fragile religion. If Trump is "bad for democracy" or an "assault on American democracy" then that is actually a good thing. The democratic system is filled with contradictions and fallacies. The least concern is an assault on democracy or voting rights. Rather, the strongest concern is the fight for individual liberties. The natural rights of life, liberty, and property. The freedom of speech, free exercise of religion, freedom to associate and peaceably assemble, freedom of the press. It is when these things are taken away that we transpose into collectivism and totalitarianism. If democracy becomes a threat to those freedoms, then democracy must step aside.

Orwell spoke this warning in his novel 1984 in the torture scene. The character Winston is being forced into the collective brain of society. The collective brain of The Party. It is democracy and majoritarian rule when unleashed to fulfill their concepts that can quickly become a threat. Orwell probably never meant that interpretation but as Rothbard has pointed out, the democratic system is rife with contradictions. Democracy is literally a modern day god that is worshiped by the adherents of its religion who cannot see where it will inevitably lead.