Tin Foil Hats

Thursday 20 June 2013 - Filed under Uncategorized

Perhaps it’s those on the left who should be donning their tin foil hats. Connor Friedersdorf at The Atlantic:

Critiques of democracy are as old as the excesses of the Athenian variety. Here’s a classic: The unmediated masses are as capable of doing an injustice as any aristocracy or tyrant. In America, it’s acceptable to say, as shorthand, that we’re living in a Western liberal democracy. But the fact is that we live in a federal, constitutional republic, because the Framers mistrusted democracy, and the vast majority of Americans retain a great part of that mistrust. We’ve extended the franchise, amended the Constitution to permit the direct election of senators, and we’re likely to eventually abandon the electoral college and elect presidents by the popular vote. But there is broad, deep support for anti-democratic features of our system, like the Bill of Rights.

All of this is totally uncontroversial — unless it is uttered by Senator Rand Paul, the national politician most likely to evoke irrational paranoia from the political press.

That sounds about right. If Rand Paul uttered that the sky is blue, those on the left would walk outside to check.

2013-06-20  »  madlibertarianguy