Why Is the Left Worried Suddenly About the End of Democracy?

Victor Davis Hanson
American Greatness

What is behind recent pessimistic appraisals of democracy’s future, from Hillary Clinton, Adam Schiff, Brian Williams and other elite intellectuals, media personalities, and politicians on the Left? Some are warning about its possible erosion in 2024. Others predict the democracy downturn as early 2022, with scary scenarios of “autocracy” and Trump “coups.” 

To answer that question, understand first what is not behind these shrill forecasts. 

They are not worried about 2 million foreign nationals crashing the border in a single year, without vaccinations during a pandemic. Yet it seems insurrectionary for a government simply to nullify its own immigration laws.

They are not worried that some 800,000 foreign nationals, some residing illegally, will now vote in New York City elections. 

They are not worried that there are formal efforts to dismantle the U.S. Constitution by junking the 233-year-old Electoral College or the preeminence of the states in establishing ballot laws in national elections. 

They are not worried that we are witnessing an unprecedented left-wing effort to scrap the 180-year-old filibuster, the 150-year-old nine-person Supreme Court, and the 60-year tradition of 50 states, for naked political advantage. 

They are not worried that the Senate this year put on trial an impeached ex-president and private citizen, without the chief justice in attendance, without a special prosecutor or witnesses, and without a formal commission report of presidential high crimes and misdemeanors. 

They are not worried that the FBI, Justice Department, CIA, Hillary Clinton, and members of the Obama Administration systematically sought to use U.S. government agencies to sabotage a presidential campaign, transition, and presidency, via the use of a foreign national and ex-spy Christopher Steele and his coterie of discredited Russian sources. 

They are not worried that the Pentagon suddenly has lost the majority support of the American people. Top current and retired officers have flagrantly violated the chain-of-command, the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and without data or evidence have announced a hunt in the ranks for anyone suspected of “white rage” or “white supremacy.” 

They are not worried that in 2020, a record 64 percent of the electorate did not cast their ballots on Election Day. 

Nor are they worried that the usual error rate in most states of non-Election Day ballots plunged—even as an unprecedented 101 million ballots were cast by mail or early voting. 

And they are certainly not worried that partisan billionaires of Silicon Valley poured well over $400 million into selected precincts in swing states to “help” public agencies conduct the election. 

What then is behind this new left-wing hysteria about the supposed looming end of democracy? 

It is quite simple. The Left expects to lose power over the next two years—both because of the way it gained and used it, and because of its radical, top-down agendas that never had any public support. 

After gaining control of both houses of Congress and the presidency—with an obsequious media and the support of Wall Street, Silicon Valley, higher education, popular culture, entertainment and professional sports—the Left has managed in just 11 months to alienate a majority of voters. 

The nation has been wracked by unprecedented crime and nonenforcement of the borders. Leftist district attorneys either won’t indict criminals or let them out of jails or both. 

Illegal immigration and inflation are soaring. Deliberate cuts in gas and oil production helped to spike fuel prices. 

All this bad news is on top of the Afghanistan disaster, worsening racial relations, and an enfeebled president. 

Democrats are running 10 points behind the Republicans in generic polls—with the midterms less than a year away. 

Joe Biden’s negatives run between 50 and 57 percent—in Donald Trump’s own former underwater territory. 

Less than a third of the country wishes Biden to run for reelection. In many head-to-head polls, Trump now defeats Biden. 

In other words, leftist elites are terrified that democracy will work too robustly

After the Russian collusion hoax, the two impeachments, the Hunter Biden laptop stories, the staged melodramas of the Kavanaugh hearings, the Jussie Smollett con, the Covington kids smear, and the Rittenhouse trial race frenzy, the people are not just worn out by leftist hysterias, but also weary of how the Left gains power and administers it. 

If Joe Biden were polling 70 percent approval, and his policies 60 percent, the current doomsayers would be reassuring us of the “health of the system.” 

They are fearful and angry not because democracy does not work, but because it does despite their own media and political efforts to warp it.  

When a party becomes hijacked by radicals and uses almost any means necessary to gain and use power for agendas that few Americans support, then average voters express their disapproval. 

That reality apparently terrifies an elite—which then claims any system that allows the people to vote against the Left is not people power at all.

Share This

13 thoughts on “Why Is the Left Worried Suddenly About the End of Democracy?”

  1. Thank you. An excellent analysis, as well as a listing of recent abuses against the Republic, due process, and the rule of law. One might add the weaponization of the Department of Justice against the concerned parents of school children and in support of civil bureaucracies controlled by Democratic party. This even more perverse as study after study shows that parental involvement is crucial to student success in K to 12. Instead, the legal weapons developed to fight international terrorism are now being repurposed against American citizens who, exercising their First Amendment rights, are seen as dissenters from an utopian and nihilistic agenda for social transformation which has been imposed without consent.

  2. They’re not worried about democracy. They’re worried the facade of “democracy” they use to hijack elections is eroding and will impact their authoritarian coup’s success

  3. VD Hansen
    You should mention that the rhetoric is for political propaganda purposes only.
    Not all of your new followers know that.
    Granted, most of us do know that.
    G

    1. ‘On the day of election’. I believe he meant all the mail ballots. A strong purpose of a single, in-person Election Day was to avoid potential fraud. Impractical to think that election officials really checked the signatures of every mail-in voter.

  4. This is the new “They’re killing children!” mantra. Insert your own hyperbolic claim as you see fit, if the one you’ve been using no longer has any effect.

  5. Democracy is contingent on the economy and the Dems know it . So they are cleverly trying disguise looming economic recession/depression as the “End-of Democracy” – As if the government going deeper into debt for the purpose of social and economic egalitarianism equates democracy.

  6. Polls have shown to be highly questionable where Republicans overperform compared to what pollsters spew, which means the drubbing and Joe from Scranton’s approval are much worse than what is being advertised.

    With the endless stream of negative news stemming from DC, leftists are becoming more unhinged in their rhetoric and actions. Imagine the stops Dems are going to pullout to try and hold on to power in the midterms, such as:

    * No voting unless vaxxed
    * All voting mail-in ballots
    * Voter intimidation

    False flags, new variants, new restrictions and much more are on the table. No way progressives allow an honest assessment at the voting booth to take place.

  7. Yep, this deranged president and his band of merry idiots are going to take us to a place where we’ve never been before so buckle up!

  8. Whatever the left did in the 2020 election, however you interpret that, they got away with it. So it is certain that they will do it again in 2024, and again, and again–until they are stopped.

    Who will stop them? And how will they do it?

    Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *