“We see this wonderful paradox today that democratic intellectuals want more democracy than the American people—who are not intellectuals—want. They speak for the people and ask for reforms that the people themselves haven’t thought of or aren’t demanding or wouldn’t care about really but for their intellectuals, who impose on them.”
Read More“Rule of the people requires that the power of the people be limited, spread out, and qualified, and argued out. “
Read More“He’s more authoritarian, but that’s just what democracy is, when it isn’t made moderate and deliberate by constitutions. So he’s the underside of our system. And he’s the very kind of enemy that we were warned against at the very beginning.”
Read More“So each thinks it’s losing, because it’s losing what it most wants. But if you look at those two things—economics and culture—that just goes back to the two rights in Locke: economics, private property; and culture, toleration. “
Read MoreA liberal democracy is a limited democracy. Without that immensely important modifier, democracy is ripe for tyranny.
Read More“So the intellectuals were no longer allies or friends of businessmen and became enemies. This happens with Rousseau. The whole idea of keeping together these two social currents of liberalism—namely, private property and toleration—gets lost. What we have today are mostly progressive intellectuals.”
Read More“But what the vast majority of Americans seem to see—at least according to the research conducted for “Hidden Tribes”—is not so much genuine concern for social justice as the preening display of cultural superiority.”
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The Identity Trap
I disagree with Mounk that this shift is sudden. It has been ignored, tolerated, and excused for decades. It is shameful that it took the overt antiSemitism displayed after October 7 for it to be recognized for what it is.
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