This sinister "Great Reset" stuff suggests we really might be approaching the "end of history" this time - not with the worldwide acceptance of classical liberalism, but with its decisive rejection in favor of "soft" and "limited" authoritarianism.
The new consensus spreading among Western political elites is that some issues must be taken off the table, placed beyond the reach of voters, "settled" - and thus enforced - by power that cannot be subordinated to democracy.
In other words, the list of things "free people" don't get to vote against or refuse to accept grows longer. The size and power of centralized government swells to a scale undreamed-of by the founders of a constitutional republic. Very little of it can be voted out of office.
This is all supposedly justified in the name of protecting what remains of democracy, and sanding the rough edges off of capitalism. The elites tell themselves they aren't really authoritarians - they're just helping "true" liberty flourish by limiting and nourishing it.
The people cannot be allowed to make choices that would interfere with the government-provided "rights" of others - in other words, the socialized goods and services everyone is "entitled" to. People must be made "free" from want, from insult, even from the need to work.
Whatever remains of free society after those authoritarian boundaries are drawn will become the new playground sandbox of liberty - smaller, but safer and more comfortable. All that is not steel will be velvet. All that is not demanded will be provided.
The elite will find just the right amount of authoritarian control to protect The People. You'll still be allowed to own some capital, provided you use it the "right" way. You can be ambitious, but not greedy. You can speak sort-of freely, but only about approved topics.
This is now the great illusion of the 21st Century, brought into focus by the coronavirus pandemic, which will be employed to kill classical liberalism by supposedly "proving" that the most important challenges can only be tackled with authoritarian control.
The delusion will be that authoritarianism can be tamed and harnessed to protect "free" societies. Authoritarianism will become the sleek scientific, industrial, and moral engine that pulls free people into the new century and beyond.
The political class will tell you this is a modest and necessary imposition on liberty. They're just putting a few dangerous things where your adorable childlike hands can't reach them. They're just requiring you to accept a few more points of "consensus."
The list of commands you cannot refuse will get just a LITTLE longer, as will the list of questions you are not allowed to ask, the words you're not allowed to use, the things you cannot buy or sell, the alternatives you are not permitted to seek.
Very Smart People of unimpeachable moral authority and unquestionable wisdom will draw some heavy lines. You will be permitted to color within them as you wish, using the acceptable colors provided to you. You won't be allowed to be dangerous or unpredictable any more.
In every respect, it's the end of classical liberalism - the end of universal freedoms and inalienable rights, of absolute limits on political control. Constitutional limits on what you can vote FOR will be replaced by lists of what you aren't allowed to vote AGAINST.
You may get to elect some of the deciders, but you won't be making the big decisions, and you will not be allowed to reject the "consensus." When capitalism is dominated by politics, risk is replaced by consensus, and reward by entitlement. It's "safer," and smaller. /end
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Among the strangest features of GOP internal battles - be it NeverTrump, or conservatives displeased with nominees like McCain or Romney - is this notion that it would be better to throw an election to the Dems and hope a better Republican nominee comes along next time.
How can anyone still seriously think that way, especially after Obama's "Pen and Phone" dictatorship and Biden wiping his posterior with the Constitution to plow ahead with his student loan vote-buying scheme? No, guys, it is NEVER safe to just toss a few wins to the Dems.
Maybe it's a form of projection, a stubborn illusion that the Dem candidate might be relatively harmless and inert in office, as GOP leaders sometimes are. Those illusions should have been utterly shattered by now.
When pundits wrote a decade or two ago that corruption would become the big story around the world, I was skeptical. People love to COMPLAIN about corruption, sure, but few electorates are prepared to take decisive action against it.
Corruption is absolutely inherent to Big Government. Repeat after me, and teach your children: THERE ARE NO CLEAN BIG GOVERNMENTS. Amassing huge amounts of power and money in a central State is like dropping sugar cubes amid anthills.
One reason Big Governments never get clean is they have so many weapons at their disposal to distract the public from anti-corruption initiatives. Key segments of the electorate get paid off, too. Big Media is easily drawn into the cesspool and made comfortable.
It is difficult to combat totalitarianism through electoral politics because the whole point of totalitarianism is to seize control of elections. They terrorize and propagandize people for years, then hold a "vote" to find out if their techniques were at least 51% effective.
Defeating totalitarianism requires spirited resistance and good humor. Mock them and make them look ridiculous. They can't stand it, because they are driven by self-righteousness. Totalitarians are small people who need to feel large by joining herds and crushing outsiders.
Defy them at every turn. Go where you aren't supposed to go, say what you're not supposed to say, and do it all with a smile. Exhaust their resources while refusing to become demoralized. Raise the price of totalitarianism by bankrupting its corporate partners when possible.
The greatest threat to democracy at present is the deliberate effort to erase nationhood and citizenship through mass migration, against the express wishes of citizens.
You don't have much of a "democracy," much less a constitutional republic, if the ruling elite can ignore voters to erase the border and shower benefits and privileges on foreign nationals. It's an explicit rejection of national sovereignty.
You don't have any kind of "democracy" if the Ruling Class can use mass migration to create a new electorate that votes the way it wants. Votes have little power if the rulers can dilute them at will.
The Democrat Party grows increasingly less interested in pretending it cares about American citizens, or feels any sense of duty toward America as a nation. The Party was never really good at this, but at least it used to make some modest efforts.
As I've written previously, every Democrat thinks their Sacred Agenda is far more important than any vestigial sense of duty they might feel toward the American people. There is no "American people" to them, just groups of favored constituents and despised enemies.
America isn't really a legitimate nation under Dem ideology, which frees them of feeling any sense of responsibility to the country as a whole, or any weight of tradition that might interfere with their quest for power. They see not one nation under God, but the Balkans.
This once again has me thinking about how everything went nuts in American youth culture during the Great Anti-Bullying Crusade, which was really more about the Left studying and adopting classic bully tactics to impose its ideology on vulnerable young people.
One element of the growing social discontent in America today is that you have an entirely feminized Mean Girls ruling class wielding increasing levels of compulsive force to impose its ideology on an essentially masculine middle and lower class.
It's like those Middle Eastern countries where a Shiite minority rules over a restless Sunni population, or vice versa. Centralized power has grown to totalitarian levels, and it's concentrated in the hands of a political elite that shares nothing of the majority's worldview.