“A country cannot subsist well without liberty, nor liberty without virtue, nor virtue without citizens.” —Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Having started a “dirty revolution,” globalists and progressives are destroying both democracy and America.
There were elections recently in two countries happening almost simultaneously: in the USA and in the Republic of Moldova. As one might expect, the elections in Moldova were fair, transparent, and open. The elections in the U.S. in contrast were accompanied by numerous falsifications, fraud, manipulation, cooperation of one of the parties with criminal structures, and threats of mass pogroms in the event of an “unfavorable” outcome.
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
This is not a fantasy novel or a satirical pamphlet. This is a sad reality: the stronghold of liberal democracy has sunk to the level not of Russia or Belarus but of Venezuela, Zimbabwe, and Kyrgyzstan.
No one can predict the development of events in the foreseeable future. But the main losers have already been distinguished — the democratic system, as it is, and the United States.
True democracy is based on the idea of the Social Contract. According to Rousseau (The Social Contract, Book II, Ch. VI; see p. 180 here)*:
Then from the public enlightenment results the union of understanding and will in the social body; and from that the close cooperation of the parts, and, lastly, the maximum power of the whole. Hence arises the need of a legislator.
In my book “Agony of Hercules or a Farewell to Democracy (Notes of a Stranger),” I wrote the following (see Section 3-1):
Such … conception of the democracy formed the basis of the subsequent political philosophy: John Dewey’s idea of a fruitful and friendly competition between all citizens for the sake of the common wellbeing; Robert Dahl’s concept of the representative democracy as various social groups of population striving for a consensus; Peter Singer’s formula of the peaceful and fair compromise. Joshua Cohen believed that a well-reasoned dialogue can solve all the problems. Amartya Sen focused on striving and the need of law-abiding citizens to shape social values by sharing relevant information.
Democracy, as Dahl argues quite reasonably, is by definition better than all other systems of government, because it gives a maximum freedom and extensive civil rights to an individual, imposing however a strong moral responsibility.
Let’s point out the common core aspect of all these theories: They emphasize the importance of “moral responsibility.” People may differ in opinions on how to solve a particular problem, which problems are primary, and which of them are secondary. However, they should originally strive for a common prosperity, respect opinions of opponents, and follow decisions of the majority. Well-being of the state should be their ultimate common goal, and any deliberate attempt to damage it should be deemed as an obvious crime.
Take away the concept of “moral responsibility,” and democracy will turn into an ugly parody of itself. This is exactly what has happened before our eyes. Intimidation, falsification, and fraud are inevitable parts of totalitarian regimes, but they are fatal to the very idea of democracy because they inevitably turn democracy into kleptocracy. In such a case, the Social Contract becomes a fiction.
What is the point of going to the polling place if your vote will be thrown into the trash or stolen? If state institutions are losing the trust of ordinary people, then what is their value in principle? To feed a giant bureaucratic apparatus? If a debate turns into a power squabble between Big-Endians and Little-Endians, then do we really need these parties at all?
The Constitution is turning into a meaningless word; civil rights into a piece of paper. On paper, the Stalinist constitution was also the fairest in the world.
The personal responsibility of individuals, commitment of all social groups and parties to freedom, honesty, and transparency – these form the basis of a democratic system. Otherwise, democracy turns into a mere façade for totalitarian regimes as they parade their pseudo-democratic institutions, as in Russia, Turkey, Iran, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe. “Democracy is when the Democrats win,” Russians joke today. Unfortunately, it’s hard to argue.
Up until now the American democracy was a role model for the world. Even those who hated it were forced to reckon with it. In Belarus, Burma, and Iran, masses of people believed in the “light from the Potomac Hill.”
But who, being of sound mind and firm memory, would want to imitate America today? It turns out that the emperor was naked. And, in a grand turn-about, authoritarian regimes received a gift that they could not have imagined in their most cheerful dreams: America, which always so intrusively taught them about democratic freedoms and human rights, has made its own sacred values a mockery.
It is as if church clergy, led by the Pontiff, came to St. Peter’s Basilica to publicly desecrate it. If the oldest and the most powerful democracy failed, what can we expect from the relatively young and much weaker democracies in Europe, such as Germany, Italy, or Spain, not to mention Latin America, Asia, and Africa?
American globalists, neo-Marxists, and progressives have devalued the very concept of democracy. And, what is even sadder, they blew up the U.S. as a nation-state from within.
The U.S. is a young country with a relatively short history. It was conceived and created by the Founding Fathers to be the grand project of a free society that prioritizes equality, social success, and civil rights. The “American tree” does not have deep and branched roots, like the countries of Eurasia. It has no other dominant paradigm, except democracy, freedom and equality; no other cultural or national epic, mythology and archetypes, from which one can draw strength for the country at critical moments of history.
America does not have a glorious past, as Italians or Greeks do. It had no magnificent empires, as Britain, France, Russia, or Spain had; no triumphant breakthroughs in philosophy, such as British rationalism, the French Enlightenment, or the Italian Renaissance. America doesn’t possess the heritage of one of the greatest cultures, like Italy, Austria, and the Czech Republic, or deep religious rootedness, as in Poland. Yes, today the Swedish society looks helpless and confused, losing power in their own country. But behind the Swedes there are the mighty shadows of Odin, the Vikings, Gustav Adolphus and Charles XII, and they can breathe new strength into the tired nation.
Who could imagine a hundred years ago that the persecuted, humiliated European Jews, deprived of all kinds of military skills, would win victories over much stronger enemies and create one of the most successful states of our time? Who could imagine that a poor, fragmented China would become a superpower in just a couple of decades?
Historical memory gives wings, hope, and self-confidence. Perhaps, even in secular France, the image of Joan of Arc will help a French people demoralized by postmodern culture, and restore the faith of their forefathers in themselves.
Destroying the very idea of democracy, the globalists and progressives are depriving America of its origins of strength, leaving behind only a disoriented and fragmented consumer society. Samson without his hair ceases to be Samson. Blinded and humiliated, lingering without its democratic core, America would become easy prey for the modern Philistines. Indeed, we may conclude this is the main goal of the current “dirty revolution.”
* Alexander Maistrovoy refers here to Rousseau’s construct of a public will, one of the core elements of a social contract in which the individual contributes to and also bows to the public will. The need to express and execute the public will creates the need for lawmakers. [- Ed.]
