Previously, I made a brief survey of American students’ ominous decline in history and civics; the education establishment’s risible attempt to escape any blame; and the Left’s elation that its efforts to indoctrinate young minds increases as students’ knowledge in these subjects decreases. As quoted at the time:
The state-subsidized NPR bears the bad news to America’s parents and citizens: “[The 2022] history scores are the lowest recorded since the assessment began in 1994, and the new data mark the first-ever drop in civics . . . continuing a downward trend that began in 2014. Only 14% of students reached at or above ‘proficient’ mark in history, and in civics only 22% of students met the same benchmark.”
In sad truth, too, while this decline is hastening, it is not new. For Republican populist politicians who want to strengthen our free republic, the problem is not merely academic but practical: how can a center-right candidate court the votes of an electorate steadily losing its knowledge of history and civics?
The GOP’s Leftist opposition courts voters by advocating what they term “our democracy,” wherein their covert and inverted messaging is that self-government is selfish and dangerous, and those who support it are fascists. Due to this deluded definition, the Left contends it is championing “our democracy,” even as they destroy it to advance their autocracy.
From the United States of America’s birth and its foundational documents, our free republic is a revolutionary exercise in self-government. As such, citizens consent to delegate their sovereign power to the government to do only those things they and/or others cannot do for themselves. They are endeavoring to control their own destiny to the greatest extent feasible. They do not want to be governed any more than is necessary to protect their God-given, constitutionally recognized and protected rights, because they know an intrusive government will infringe upon their ability to make their own decisions in forging and pursuing their happiness.
In the Left’s ideology, their “democracy” means the unchecked power of a tyranny of the majority that will delegate their sovereignty (likely in perpetuity) to empower an elite of “experts” to control the citizenry, including themselves. Rights will be determined not by God but by this claque of elitists, who will trammel unfettered upon said rights as the mood moves the administrative state Leviathan.
This is the antithesis of America’s revolutionary experiment in self-government and, in fact, democracy – unless one is deluded enough to believe in “democracies” like the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. In a true democracy, the people remain sovereign not unelected bureaucrats. Yet, this is the basis of the Left’s administrative state: the rule of an elite who will map out and control the general populace’s pursuit of happiness and, indeed, all aspects of their lives.
Consequently, when elected officials abide and/or abet the rule of this elite and its ideology, the Left perversely deems it “democracy.” The Left’s rhetorical trick is a simple as it is insidious: it focuses on the process by which the sovereign citizens cede their rights not the result of it. To the Left, their “democracy” celebrates the means by which you subjugate yourself to the state; devolve from a sovereign citizen to a serf; and terminate America’s revolutionary experiment in self-government. Liberty must be sacrificed on the altar of the Left’s collective; and, yes, equality will follow, for dissent will not be suffered by the high priests of the Leftist elite.
The Left’s goal is the return of a hierarchical, feudalistic control of the populace without external restraints upon the elite governing them – namely, a 21st Century twist on the divine right of kings the American Revolution inverted when it booted out King George III and vested our fledgling nation’s sovereign power in the people. Today, however, we are in danger of the people ceding their sovereignty for the siren song of an illusory “safety;” and being governed by an imperial presidency and his or her unaccountable, baronial administrative elite. For those still tempted to cede their self-determination to the state in return for a Leftist autocracy’s illusory safety, a friendly reminder: in an autocracy, be it Left of Right, the only safety is in doing what you are told.
Sure, the public will likely be allowed to continue voting, but it will be only on those issues the state deems permissible for public discussion (but not for dissent), largely because the outcome has been predetermined. It will be like how the former Soviet Union risibly claimed it was “democratic”: “Of course you can vote…for your choice of communists.”
The Left’s duplicitous agenda to cajole and coerce the people into surrendering their sovereignty into the prehensile hands of a ruling elite is regressive, running counter to the expansion of human liberty, agency, and dignity; and it is a radical, dangerous, and autocratic counter-revolution to America’s revolutionary experiment in self-government.
Tragically, as the citizenry’s eroding knowledge of their country’s history and political system, the regressive Left will continue its remorse march to autocracy. For the Left, ignorance is a blissful boon for counter-revolution.
An American Greatness contributor, the Hon. Thaddeus G. McCotter (M.C., Ret.) represented Michigan’s 11th Congressional district from 2003-2012, and served as Chair of the Republican House Policy Committee. Not a lobbyist, he is a frequent public speaker and moderator for public policy seminars; and a Monday co-host of the “John Batchelor Radio Show,” among sundry media appearances.