No coincidence that the slogan was popularized by the John Birch Society, who specialized in ignorant nonsense from the far-right fringe https://t.co/2fEuKkmtBT
— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) May 13, 2023
So this argument appears as early as 1955, in the book You and Segregation.
Which gives you all the context you need for this discussion. The John Birch Society probably picked it up from Talmadge (author of the book) and certainly carried on using it because democracy is when the wrong people vote. At least, that’s the real argument.
But the U.S. is a democracy. What it is not is a direct democracy, where all decisions of government are made by plebiscite. It is a republic, but “republic” is not a form of government antithetical to democracy.
It’s not a phrase that really means anything, which is the first indication it’s a dog whistle, a phrase with a “code” meaning that separates the knowledgeable from those who are the problem. They don’t really care what the form of government is, they care about who is in charge. And the problem is, they say, the wrong people are; or want to be. So let’s define government as excluding them from power.
Which means the past isn’t over, and isn’t even past. Or, as Ecclesiastes put it, there’s nothing new under the sun:
I cannot emphasize enough that this is a lie first promulgated by the KGB in 1967, and that RFK Jr is acting as a useful idiot for the Kremlin. https://t.co/PeSm6JGi00
— tim weiner (@Folly_and_Glory) May 10, 2023
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