I did a post recently that had a great many anti-liberal real or fake “leftists” trying to tell me what’s what and through that great rushing torrent of noise some issues emerged I’d like to discuss this week, let’s call it the clash between egoism and democratic values.
My main observation about anti-liberal real or fake “leftists” is the issue they seem concerned to address is not changing the views of other voters, indeed they rarely mention such matters, but schemes to force the leadership of the Dem Party to meet their demands, play king maker, etc.
I saw two justifications for this view. One justification I heard quite a lot was that democracy, or our type or level of democracy anyway, has no real significance and hence they don’t really care how other people vote, they simply want to force politicians to do as they say some old way. I saw many varieties of this argument: voters are ignorant, stupid, deluded, easily manipulated, incompetent, led about by economic power, media, etc. Basically just the traditional Marxist take on what they derisively call “bourgeoise democracy.” They’re the Vanguard of the Proletariat. The other justification was to just assume other voters already agree with them, but politicians routinely ignore the voters to pursue their own agendas. This is the “I, the People” or “The System Is Broken” line that casts elected politicians in our democratic system as virtual hereditary despots.
I’m not really interested here in addressing the arguments, so just telegraphically, the ethos of democracy is not based on the supposed intellectual prowess or ethical insight of voters but on consent of the governed, and what evidence are we using of that if not voting as best we can manage? No, the interesting thing to me is one can hear the same arguments from conservative, right wing, Republican fascists. Specifically, voters are too ignorant to resist leftist ideas, their opinions are irrelevant, but also all voters really agree conservative values but politicians ignore them. In other words, whatever views distinguish the real or fake anti-liberal “left” from the conservative right wing, they seem on the same page with respect to one thing: their assessment of democracy and people who accept and support it. While the conservatives, right wingers, go on and on about the “sheeples” they suppose take voting and democracy seriously, grant it significance, the real or fake anti-liberal “leftists” go on and on about those who work within the context of democracy inaptly designated “centrists.” I say inaptly because supporting democracy says nothing really about one’s views on any other issue, and one can thus hardly be assumed to hold a “center” position on say, conservative economics / market utopianism versus real economics or indeed any other issue.
The congruity of the arguments and aims at the level of attacking the democracy we have, denying its significance, is one thing that leads me to associate real or fake anti-liberal “leftism” with right wing trollery. The other is the complete lack of any corresponding political party or movement. However, I also see the egoism and anti-democracy sentiment of conservative, right wing, Republican ideology that saw its apogee in the 1980s conservative Reagan Revolution may have so thoroughly poisoned popular culture in the USA that anti-democracy sentiment may transcend many other differences.
Whatever the cause, the USA seems full just now of voters who suppose democracy doesn’t matter, voting doesn’t matter, talking to voters doesn’t matter, nothing matters beyond stratagems to force politicians to do as one demands. It’s why I say pro-democracy liberals / progressives / democratic leftists are really fighting what at least appears a two-front war, although possibly really only a one-front war with part of that front occupied by false flag trolls in the form of a fake anti-liberal “left.” I would ask everyone to consider the relative significance of the political mechanism by which policy decisions are meant to be made relative to particular decisions, results, outcomes. Determine the political significance to you, if any, of discourse, democracy, voting. Act accordingly.
