Why Do Conservatives And Republicans Hate Democracy?
There was a time in this country when a party lost an election they became the reasoned voice of the opposition. The brilliance of the American experiment has always been the peaceful transfer of power and the respect that the losing side had for the results of elections. Conservatives spent the Bush years telling us that simply allowing democratic elections was the panacea that would solve all the ills of any land, but they seem to only mean democratic elections that go their way. Their politics comes before the nation.
Ever since the 44th President of the United States was sworn in, in accordance with the overwhelming vote of the American people and with the Constitution written by the founding fathers, the Republican party and conservatives as a whole have done everything they can to not only say that they disagree with him but also to say that he is not a legitimate President at all. But this gets to a deeper issue, that conservatives and republicans do not believe in democracy or elections. The Bush administration demanded that the Palestinian Authority proceed with elections no matter what. The elections went off and Hamas came to power, so the Bush Administration promptly stated they would not recognize the government that came to power in the elections they demanded come hell or high water. Now I don’t think a terrorist organization like Hamas should be recognized, but again you don’t always get what you want when you give people a choice. But you don’t get to pick and choose which elections to recognize and which you get to ignore if democracy is always right. Also when it comes to Honduras democracy has become a bad thing in the eyes of conservatives. When Chavez groupie but democratically elected President Manuel Zelaya was overthrown in a military coup suddenly coups were cool. No matter that the nuance of the story was too much for their childlike view of democracy to handle, and that it gives a really confusing message to those who look to us to lead in Latin America. The result of an election was not what they wanted. The only democracy that conservatives see is the one that puts them in power, all others are abberations and illegitimate. Now Honduras is probably better off without Zelaya, but if a pro-American leader was removed it would be an affront to democratic values in the minds of conservatives. But conservative hate for the results of democracy is really evident when it comes to the 2008 U.S. Presidential election.
Now many conservatives tell you that elections matter. When advancing the Bush administration’s agenda Dick Cheney said in reference to winning, that “This is our due.” Now the American people in their righteous might voted 10 million more times for the Hawaiian born Senator from Illinois, as opposed to the Panamanian born Senator from Arizona. President Obama bested Senator McCain by 192 votes in the Electoral College. His birth in the State of Hawaii has been confirmed by it’s Republican governor and his birth certificate is available to anyone who simply does an image search in any search engine for “Barack Obama birth certificate.” But suddenly what would have been an overwhelming mandate if the numbers had gone for McCain has become a stolen country in the eyes of conservatives and Republicans. The country left them behind, and they lack any alternative idea to counter the President’s agenda, and their only reaction is to say the President isn’t even a citizen. Democracy they can’t believe in, but the idea that some single woman 47 years ago had a boy in Kenya and had the piece of mind to call a Hawaiian paper to have a birth announcement placed because she had the foresight to know he could be running for President, that’s plausible.
Now these geniuses advocate overthrowing the Democratically elected government of the United States. When will conservatives explain why they hate Democracy?
Related posts:
- Conservatives Forget Democracy To Spite Their Favorite Boogie Man
- Democracy Is Now For Sale, As Republicans Adhere To Worthington’s Law
- Deconstructing The Sudden Conservative Disdain For Democracy
- Conservatives Were For Their Deeply Held Beliefs, Before They Were Against Them
- Why Liberals Really Hate Sarah Palin
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Hooray for disjointed ramblings!
Lets hope so! Because we ARE a republic, NOT a democracy, I wish our politicians understood that and would understand the constitution.
Marc makes a point so often lost on fans of both major parties (but insisted upon by our founders).
It’s no surprise that Bush was called “unelected” for eight years and Obama is still being called “un-American.” Most Americans have accepted the false idea that their government’s legitimacy is based upon a plurality of votes!
We can determine a leader’s authority to govern by his or her fidelity to the Constitution that enumerates their legitimate powers. But since neither party is pushing many candidates who can handle that responsibility, they both turn to technicalities like dimpled chads and birth certificates to undermine their opponents.
Long live the Republic. Down with majoritarian rationalizations from both collectivist parties.