I strongly recommend Turley’s “Rage snd the Republic”, which uses Thomas Paine’s life to illustrate the importance of separation of powers and a Constitution that intentionally hobbles the majority’s ability to do whatever damn thing crosses their minds. Paine was a central figure both in the American Revolution and then, because his unflinching belief in pure democracy put him at odds with the post-Revolutionary Founders, in the French Revolution, which took the horrible path socialism always takes — Paine himself was imprisoned in France despite originally being a leading advocate of the French Revolution, and escaped execution only by the merest chance.
And then Paine alienated the entire American public by venomously personally attacking George Washington for "not doing anything" to get him released from prison in a country he'd chosen not just to visit but to become a member of its revolutionary government.
Problem was, Washington was busily securing his release. The American people never forgave Paine.
Turley’s account of the profound error in imagining there is any such thing as a “public will” was eye-opening. It leads you to go beyond “majoritarianism” (already a mistake) to the belief that anyone who opposes the majority (or eventually the oligarchy who claim to represent the majority) must be a traitor. This is a trope I hear far too often these days both from both the left — “our democracy” — and the right — “Flight 93 election”.
So you execute the royals, and then the aristos, and then the constitutionalists, and then the revolutionaries/populists who aren’t *quite* revolutionary/populist enough, and in the end you have that three-way stand-off from the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly or that Spider-man meme. And then Napoleon or Augustus comes in to “restore order” and the republic is dead. Robespierre started out as something close to a Madisonian constitutionalist, ended up overseeing the Terror, and finally was beheaded himself as a backslider.
We were so very lucky that our Founders had studied enough history to know the pitfalls of democracy, which leads to tyranny Every. Single. Time. Would that modern “thinkers” had the same level of education even of relatively recent history. But I guess “real democracy” has “never been tried.”
"Socialism’s Bloody History" The "bloody history" is that hardly any of the last two generations of Americans has been 'taught' any "History!" America is graduating High Schoolers that read at only an 8th grade level, and are competent at only about a 5th grade level in math. Little to no American history is taught at any grade level. Ask them who the first president of the United States was, and you get answers like 'Bill Clinton.' In my day, we learned about the Pilgrims and their struggles to just survive, by the time we reached the 5th grade! Collectivism, Socialism, Communism, whatever you want to call it, has FAILED throughout history wherever it was attempted. All of these whacks today, that would have America implement any such nonsense, should be REQUIRED to spend one year in any Socialist/Communist country of their choice. If they SURVIVE, they may be allowed to return, but only if they have experienced their EPIPHANIES! As is said far too often in America today, "You Just Can't Make This Schiff Up."
Experience is largely transferable.
👏👏👏 An absolute masterpiece! The Democratic Party would do well to circulate this article among the party faithful!
America 250 Book Club 🇺🇸🫡❤️🤍💙🎇🎆📚📖 This Edition: The Roaring 20s
* The High Tide of American Conservatism: Davis, Coolidge, and the 1924 Election by Garland S. Tucker III
* Bubble in the Sun: The Florida Boom of the 1920s and How It Brought on the Great Depression by Christopher Knowlton
* 1920: The Year of Six Presidents by David Piestrusza
* The St. Valentine's Day Massacre: The Untold Story of the Gangland Bloodbath That Brought Down Al Capone by William J. Helmer
* Prohibition: Thirteen Years That Changed America by Edward Behr
* Harlem Renaissance by Nathan I. Huggins
* Herbert Hoover and the Jews: The Origins of the "Jewish Vote" and Bipartisan Support for Israel by Prof. Sonja Schoepf Wentling & Dr. Rafael Medoff
* The Second Coming of the Invisible Empire: The Ku Klux Klan of the 1920s by William Rawlings
* Eliot Ness: The Real Story by Paul W. Heimel
* Empire Statesman: The Rise and Redemption of Al Smith by Robert A. Slayton
* Charles Gates Dawes: A Life by Annette B. Dunlap
* Some Sort of Epic Grandeur: The Life of F. Scott Fitzgerald by Matthew J. Bruccoli
* The First Yankees Dynasty: Babe Ruth, Miller Huggins and the Bronx Bombers of the 1920s by Gary A. Sarnoff
I strongly recommend Turley’s “Rage snd the Republic”, which uses Thomas Paine’s life to illustrate the importance of separation of powers and a Constitution that intentionally hobbles the majority’s ability to do whatever damn thing crosses their minds. Paine was a central figure both in the American Revolution and then, because his unflinching belief in pure democracy put him at odds with the post-Revolutionary Founders, in the French Revolution, which took the horrible path socialism always takes — Paine himself was imprisoned in France despite originally being a leading advocate of the French Revolution, and escaped execution only by the merest chance.
And then Paine alienated the entire American public by venomously personally attacking George Washington for "not doing anything" to get him released from prison in a country he'd chosen not just to visit but to become a member of its revolutionary government.
Problem was, Washington was busily securing his release. The American people never forgave Paine.
Turley’s account of the profound error in imagining there is any such thing as a “public will” was eye-opening. It leads you to go beyond “majoritarianism” (already a mistake) to the belief that anyone who opposes the majority (or eventually the oligarchy who claim to represent the majority) must be a traitor. This is a trope I hear far too often these days both from both the left — “our democracy” — and the right — “Flight 93 election”.
So you execute the royals, and then the aristos, and then the constitutionalists, and then the revolutionaries/populists who aren’t *quite* revolutionary/populist enough, and in the end you have that three-way stand-off from the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly or that Spider-man meme. And then Napoleon or Augustus comes in to “restore order” and the republic is dead. Robespierre started out as something close to a Madisonian constitutionalist, ended up overseeing the Terror, and finally was beheaded himself as a backslider.
We were so very lucky that our Founders had studied enough history to know the pitfalls of democracy, which leads to tyranny Every. Single. Time. Would that modern “thinkers” had the same level of education even of relatively recent history. But I guess “real democracy” has “never been tried.”
"Real democracy", like anarchism, can only end in totalitarianism.
"Socialism’s Bloody History" The "bloody history" is that hardly any of the last two generations of Americans has been 'taught' any "History!" America is graduating High Schoolers that read at only an 8th grade level, and are competent at only about a 5th grade level in math. Little to no American history is taught at any grade level. Ask them who the first president of the United States was, and you get answers like 'Bill Clinton.' In my day, we learned about the Pilgrims and their struggles to just survive, by the time we reached the 5th grade! Collectivism, Socialism, Communism, whatever you want to call it, has FAILED throughout history wherever it was attempted. All of these whacks today, that would have America implement any such nonsense, should be REQUIRED to spend one year in any Socialist/Communist country of their choice. If they SURVIVE, they may be allowed to return, but only if they have experienced their EPIPHANIES! As is said far too often in America today, "You Just Can't Make This Schiff Up."
Amen.