Having listened to Dennis Prager for over a decade, I’d long ago learned that most Leftists are incapable of listening to, let alone understanding the views of conservatives. They’re so deeply entrenched in their own echo chamber that they seem impervious to any ideas that don’t meet the officially sanctioned Leftist narrative.
Traveling through SFO the other day, I saw the book, How Democracies Die, for sale. I had a strong suspicion of what it was about but held judgement until I did some research. Here is an extract:
America failed the first test in November 2016, when we elected a president with a dubious allegiance to democratic norms.
Donald Trump’s surprise victory was made possible not only by public disaffection but also by the Republican party’s failure to keep an extremist demagogue within its own ranks from gaining the nomination.
How serious is the threat now? Many observers take comfort in our constitution, which was designed precisely to thwart and contain demagogues like Trump. Our Madisonian system of checks and balances has endured for more than two centuries. It survived the civil war, the great depression, the Cold War and Watergate. Surely, then, it will be able to survive Trump.
Here’s another article along the same line.
So, without opening the book, how did I possibly know that it would be a highly biased screed against Donald Trump? Please refer to the first paragraph above.
Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt purport to be political scientists. The second half of that profession involves science, which is all about research and inquiry. Being a scientist does not mean having predetermined Leftist views and then forcing all data to adhere to those views.
If anyone ever gets the opportunity to interview either of these men, please ask them the following questions:
- Is directing police and spy agencies to secretly monitor private conversations of your political opponents good or bad for democracy?
- If senior members of the top police agency of a country decide that they will use their power to defeat a duly elected president, is that good or bad for democracy?
- If the mainstream media mostly takes the side of one political party and constantly attacks another political party good or bad for democracy?
- If most members of the mainstream media ignore facts coming out about the corruption and alleged illegal behavior of one political party, is that good or bad for democracy?
- If a political leader, and those around her, are found to have accepted large donations from foreign entities, is that good or bad for democracy?
- If people of one particular political stripe constantly call “racism” over everything they disagree with, is that good or bad for democracy?
- If students and others are permitted to silence any speech on college campuses that they disagree with, is that good or bad for democracy?
- If two Harvard professors, in the Political Science faculty of Harvard University, write a 320 page book about how democracies die and ignore all of the questions listed above, does that indicate they are more Leftist Political Hacks than scientists?
