One Election Away From Losing Our Freedom

Freedom Outpost

Daniel Greenfield

Putin’s little fingers in the Ukraine, Cuban agents in Venezuela and the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt all remind us how uniquely vulnerable democracy is totalitarianism. In the United States, cities aren’t burning and streets aren’t filling up with bloodied bodies, but the government of phone and pen also shows us that we are always one election away from losing our freedom.

When a political system becomes polarized between the forces of freedom and the forces of totalitarianism, then the forces of freedom have to win every single election. Meanwhile the totalitarians only have to win one election and then spend the rest of time reconstructing civic institutions, mobilizing thugs and making it structurally impossible for the other side to compete.

Even if the other side occasionally wins elections, the totalitarian process continues chugging along because the totalitarian side follows no rules while holding its opponents to above and beyond the letter of the law. The law constrains the ability of the law-abiding party to undo the work of the totalitarian party, but not the ability of the totalitarian party to pursue its agenda and undo the work of its opponents.

When one side is on a long march through the institutions while the other seeks consensus, the long marchers will win.

A democratic political system in which a leading political faction is totalitarian cannot endure.

We understand the practical lessons of that in Egypt, but less so in the United States. A political process that included the Muslim Brotherhood could not continue. Everyone except Obama Inc. prattling on about inclusive politics understood that. The rightfully elected status of Morsi did not matter. What did matter was that the Muslim Brotherhood could not and would not work together with anyone. It did not want an open political process, it wanted absolute power.

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Reposted with permission