Today is the day we vote in Indiana….or is it Idaho….or maybe…..the Hell with it……somebody is voting somewhere.
The 2016 election has brought a lot of opinions especially when it comes to one Donald Trump…..it depends where you stand on the political spectrum on which of those opinions you will embrace…..
Never let it be said that I am not fair in my condemnation of ALL candidates……
But I think that some are missing the concept of democracy…..or “the will of the People”….right or wrong……
I read an interesting op-ed about Mr. Trump and democracy…..
The “conservative intelligentsia” is anything but intelligent when it comes to Donald Trump, writes John Feehery at the Hill. Among those he calls out is David Brooks of the New York Times, who last week called Trump’s candidacy a “Joe McCarthy moment” for the party. But Feehery also cites comments of a similar nature from the likes of George Will (see here), Michael Gerson (here), and Ross Douthat (here), all of whom seem to think that Trump is the personification of evil who will do long-term damage to the GOP unless stopped. “To these so-called smart people, I say: Stop being so stupid,” writes Feehery.
This opposition to Trump reveals “their biases against democracy and the will of the people,” he argues. Instead of knocking him down, they should pay more attention to why Trump is so popular, writes Feehery, who provides some theories of his own: Trump is a “real outsider who represents real change,” he has explicitly denounced the Iraq War as a mistake, and his economic message (“the middle class is getting screwed by the political class”) is resonating. Most Trump supporters “are by no means stupid, irrational, racist or anti-democratic,” writes Feehery. They’re just tired of the status quo and see Trump as the only candidate who can destroy it. Click for his full column. (Or for Andrew Sullivan’s opposing view.)
This is by NO means my endorsement of Trump in this election…..I found the article a good one and bit of a thought making piece…..
Plato thought democracies were especially susceptible to “tyranny” the longer they lasted and the more democratic they became, and the US seems to be in exactly the kind of “late-stage democracy” ripe for such a thing.
In conclusion, it should be noted that, in modern times, a democracy is considered one of the more ideal forms of government, considering the value many people tend to place on individual liberty and the freedom to choose one’s own path in life. However, Plato’s criticisms should be kept in mind when determining the merit of a democratic government. Oh, would it not be great to have a democracy of philosophers, who would pursue truth and wisdom! Alas, we are only human, and susceptible to many evils and lies. The trick is to prevent such ignorant people from becoming the majority. At times, it seems nigh impossible to do so; curse our stupidity!
(Matt Brazil)
‘Plato thought democracies were especially susceptible to “tyranny” the longer they lasted and the more democratic they became, and the US seems to be in exactly the kind of “late-stage democracy” ripe for such a thing’
Pray tell,since when was the U.S.A. a democracy or a kind of late stage democracy…
4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse to you….u tube.
The education of the people is paramount for a true democracy….
Neo liberalism and the decline of the west…….
I see Trump as part of the revolution….
;(
Yep, but does he know it?
Yes…..of course!
For some strange reason your blog has been ending up in my junk mail….
It has since corrected…..I had problems last night with the internet…seems to have passed.
That is okay as long as it is not toilet paper….LOL
Shut Up!
😉
“The trick is to prevent such ignorant people from becoming the majority.”
But the goal of the political & economic Powers That Be is the complete opposite. Both politics and the economy is almost completely dependant on idiots voting against their own interests (or not voting at all) and mindlessly buying whatever crap is pitched to them.
Guess who is winning?
I actually believe that if the people vote the Donald in, it is the will of the people and therefore an example of the Democratic Process. If we voted to become a Communist State, that act would be Democratic. If we were overthrown that would be different. Democracy means government by the uneducated, while aristocracy means government by the badly educated. ~ G K Chesterton
First, loved the opening…”Today is the day we vote in Indiana….or is it Idaho….or maybe…..the Hell with it……somebody is voting somewhere.” Big giggle, if you can imagine a rough looking gray-haired old man giggling….
The rest, though was less humorous, and much more thought provoking, as already indicated above.
In another treatise on politics, The Rise and Fall of the Athenian Republic, the author classified all societies, but especially democratic societies, as evolving through stages. By his standards, we are in the ‘complacency’ stage, leading inexorably to complete collapse.
This time, it will be a world-wide phenomenon, because of the part that almost everyone forgets in their calculations of what may happen, to wit: there are already a couple billion or more people on the planet than it can comfortably support. The climate is going to make the acquisition of food, and fresh water, (don’t ask about space) more and more difficult as time goes on, at an ever increasing rate, while at the same time, the number of people will begin to approach a point where no possible advances in technology, or agriculture, can keep up with the increase.
To add just a bit more cheer to your day, we may not have a hundred years to figure it out, for the possible changes to our environment conceivably could make it moot, in matter of seconds, in a number of ways already apparent. Think melting permafrost…. and the catalytic effects of ammonia on gaseous mixtures, such as the one in our atmosphere. (Review an advanced high school chemistry book, or google it….)
Things are looking a trifle ‘iffy’ for Homo Suicidus”, I’m afraid….
I’m also thinking even electing a Frump isn’t our biggest worry….
gigoid, the dubious
Let’s face it dubie, electing anyone is not our biggest worry…as you said; permafrost, gaseous mixtures, Monsanto, THE BOMB, collapsing economies and hey we’ve already got the Japanese meltdown debris off our coast, here in CA. No who wins the presidency, while it matters to me,, IS NOT OUR WORSE WORRY, not even close to top of the list! DRU Oh and I’m going to have to write down Homo Suicidus.
I am pleased that you got a smile…..and I agree A Frump is not the biggest worry….only a mild irritant…..chuq