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THE VIEW FROM HERE - Pavlov showed that a dog can be conditioned to automatically behave in a certain way. His experiment was to ring a bell just before feeding the dog so that the dog would salivate upon hearing the bell ring when there was no food present. Pavlov actually used a metronome, but today everyone thinks it was a bell.
Americans behave the same way. They are easily conditioned to react favorably upon hearing a certain word. “Democracy” has become one such word for Americans. Pavlov, however, did not lace his dogs’ food with poison so that the dogs thought they were getting a yummy treat when in reality, they were being slowly killed. That is how politicos, however, have used certain “idiot words” such as “democracy, freedom/liberty, and equality/equity.” The term “idiot words” is used rather than “meme” to emphasize that it takes an idiot not to realize what’s happening.
How Idiot Words Ruin the Nation
Democracy and equality are inherently bad, while Liberty was initially good, but has been turned upside down and inside out to become the most idiotic of all.
The Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution were written by men who were educated in political philosophy from Plato through John Locke. Recognizing that most people were illiterate and ignorant of political philosophy, they endeavored to constrain the evil influence of power and factions (Federal Paper #10) by reducing the public’s role of voting. The Constitutional Convention soundly rejected forming a democracy where everyone’s rights rest on the whim of the voters. Instead, they fashioned a Republic, where the rule of law was supreme. [Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Org., 597 U.S. ___, (2022), however, rejected the claim that women have inalienable rights.] A republic, however, is a complex form of government as it balances and checks the accumulation of power at every turn, while at the same time granting the government enough power to function and protect individual inalienable rights.
Because the consent of the governed needed some way to impact the government, voting was given a limited role. The only body which was directly elected by the people was the House of Representatives and it had to run for re-election every two years. Since voters made foolish decisions, it was appropriate to afford them the opportunity to correct their errors every two years. The President was elected by electors and served for 4 years. The Senators were elected by State legislatures and served for 6 years, and Supreme Court Justices were nominated by the President and approved by the Senate. The theory was that the farther away from the voters, the more likely Supreme Court justices would be men of integrity and place the rule of law above all else.
The Passion for the Idiot Word “Democracy” Has All but Destroyed the Republic
When Lord Acton said, “Power tends to corrupt and absolutely power tends to corrupt absolutely,” he should have been more blunt and said, “Men are power mongering scoundrels who cannot be trusted not to steal everything in sight.” From the power mongers’ standpoint, the problem with a Republic is that the rule of law too effectively controls their behavior. As long as there is a standard independent of the whim of the voters, there is always a core of integrity to which some people can point and demand that the rule of law be the ultimate arbitrator. The best way to destroy the checks and balances of the Republic is to declare over and over that we are a “democracy” and each time some politico declares that we are a “democracy,” he/she promises some sweet treat like Pavlov gave his dogs. Soon, the populace is conditioned to believe that we are a democracy. An educated populace would recognize that only charlatans take that route since under the Constitution, it is the Republic’s rule of law and not the passions of the majority, which is supreme. Honest men recognize that what they may want at any moment may not be wise, and they are thankful for a government which has institutions which reject their own mob mentality when it violates the law.
Both the Dems and the GOP Hate the Republic
Both parties labor under the insane delusion that they will soon gain the approval of the majority of the voters and vanquish the other. This is the promise which Nancy Pelosi’s Identity Politics and the wokers have made for years – when the minorities are the majority of the voters, they will replace the Whites. This belief is intellectual rubbish; it is firmly held by the Dem power structure but not by the minorities themselves who want a better life and not to wipe out 49% of the population. However, years of hearing that we are is a “democracy” and everything must be “equal” has filled the public’s mind with idiot ideas representing total foolishness.
Idiot words are filled with passion, devoid of an intellectual content. Gays will march under banners of equality when in fact they do not want equality; they want Liberty. As Justice Kennedy made clear in Lawrence v Texas 539 U.S. 558 (2003), all Gay rights are based on the individual inalienable right of Liberty and none are based on equality. Equality is not an inalienable right and was not a US Constitution right until Brown v Board of Education, 347 U.S. 483 (1954). Equality, like the idiot idea that the Second Amendment created an individual right to own guns, is a pernicious idiot word to divide Americans into US vs Them warring factions so that the 1% can funnel all the wealth to themselves.
Liberty started as an inalienable and constitutional right until it was turned into an idiot word by the Tea Baggers and then adopted by the Freedom Caucus. From a Machiavellian viewpoint, the devolution of the concept Freedom/Liberty to mean a crybaby’s demand, “I want what I want and I want it now” was brilliant. Not only did the Alt Right have their own idiot word, but it also caused the Dems to treat Liberty as an evil to be avoided. Rather, everything had to be equal and all people had to do was give up their power to Dems, who would then dole out to each group its daily portion. In Los Angeles, equity means everyone should be equally poor. Hence, LA Wokers are on a rampage to destroy single family residential neighborhoods, despite Kevin Keller’s (head honcho for the Hollywood Community Plan) effort to protect stable residential neighbors.
Nationally, Biden is so captured by the equity Wokers that he lacks the guts to hold the line on raising the debt ceiling. His capitulation will make America ungovernable. Historians will liken Biden’s cowardice with Chamberlain’s “peace in our time.” In a Republic, everyone expects the President to have integrity, but in a democracy, no one values integrity – just go whichever way the masses’ public opinion leans at a particular moment. Everyone lauds Harry Truman, but no one wants a President to act like Harry Truman.
The cancer of democracy has destroyed the Republic so that the rule of law means nothing. Instead, the idiotic notion of “democracy” has eaten away the essence of our Republic.
(Richard Lee Abrams has been an attorney, a Realtor and community relations consultant as well as a CityWatch contributor. The opinions expressed are his alone. You may email him at [email protected].)
