Jonathan Swift (the satirist of my heart), once famously wrote, “Reasoning will never make a Man correct an ill Opinion, which by Reasoning he never acquired.”  Or more commonly phrased today, “It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into.”

 

It seems reasonable to desire the presence of reason in debate, for no point hits the mark unless the mark is grounded in reality.  It is unfortunate to note; however, that discourse in this country is now and has been for some time completely devoid of reason.  People of all kinds of political allegiances shout and cry and slight and laugh and patronize.  There is no listening, and when there is listening, people only hear what they want to hear.  In a society that preaches tolerance, there is very little tolerance for those who have different opinions than the exalted “Tolerant,” and this is found on both sides of whatever ideological aisle one occupies. 

 

Appeals to “bias” and “privilege” are used to immediately undermine and discredit differing opinions, though to assume inherent bias in another is, ironically, bias in itself.  Even Webster’s Dictionary changes the definition of words in order to pander to political proselytizing.  The Cancel Culture, like a sixth grade bully, ridicules and ostracizes those who would challenge the liberal status quo.  

 

In this country there has always been a freedom to have a different opinion.  This is why we vote for candidates who share the same views and who vow to pass legislation that will frame our society with the values and virtues (or lack thereof) and interests that we would like to see expressed.  If we did not acknowledge different opinions, there would be no point in a democracy.  However, the problem in recent times is that in this unraveling of reasonable discourse, we are not able to rationally debate issues or test premises.  Instead, we must talk over the other and appeal to emotion based appetites in order to engender a “mob following” and influence popular attitudes with the overwhelming pressure to virtue signal.

 

NB: If your virtue has to be signalled or mandated then it may not actually be a virtue.  

 

The transition from broad-based politics to identity politics has been instrumental in feeding this phenomenon.  Identity politics means that based on my skin color, gender, sexuality, ethnicity I am expected to vote in a certain manner or adopt a certain ideological attitude.  The problem with this approach is that it reduces me to my qualities and leaves no room for the autonomy, growth, or choice that are essential for the evolution of rational beings.  It is the penultimate social evolution before the formation of a caste system in which these identity qualities would be assigned a value by the tyrannical majority (as Tocqueville warned us) and stratified according to preferential-if I may still use the word-importance.  

 

What has been most interesting to note during this election process has been the insistence by both sides that to elect the opposing candidate would be the “death of democracy” or the “end of America.”  Logically, this could not be the case in both situations unless both candidates represented a radical change to American values and their democratic foundation.  

 

So is democracy truly on the operating table?

 

A few things we can observe.  There has been an insurgence of hate in this country.  There is hatred against America, against America’s founding, against American patriotism, against America’s worldly position, against America’s reputation as the freest and best country in the world.  The United States has been a place for dreamers and for protection of religious freedoms, two qualities that attract immigrants from around the world who flee the very types of governments that many now are pushing to install here in our country.  I sometimes wonder, if America is the greatest country in the world, why there is such a disgruntlement with the status quo.  

 

But such is the nature of humanity, there are revolutions in every generation, new ideas which are really old ideas.  If Communism didn’t work in the Soviet Union, surely it will work here.  The liberal idea that human nature is malleable and can ultimately be perfected through government is the reason these systems have failed time and time again.  Government cannot solve all the problems of society.  Utopia is not possible.  Poverty will never be eradicated and that is good, because the Lord tells us, “Blessed are the poor.”  Virtue cannot be legislated, but human law should be in line with natural law and as Thomas Aquinas says, “law is an ordinance of reason for the common good.”

 

Care for the common good and love of neighbor, even if masked behind platitudes and slogans, is something that I do believe is at the heart of most Americans.  Whether by ignorance or simply by defaulting to the bandwagon phenomenon, people are easily swayed by popular opinion and there is not a healthy environment for developing critical thinking and good-faith debates.  Though it is understandable that it has been difficult of late to see beyond the faces, tweets, and sputterings of these candidates and get to the policies underneath.  

 

What I do know is that if America becomes a Socialist or Communist country, then it is no longer the America that the world has looked upon as “free” and “brave.”  It would look radically different.  If the Supreme Court is stacked by adding extra seats to intentionally give advantage to one ideology, that is not the America that was founded with a “balance of power.”  If two extra states are added to the United States effectively morphing the two party system (albeit a flawed system) into a one party majority, then this gives way to the presence of tyranny.  If science is only appealed to when convenient, but ignored if it asserts basic biological principles such as life or sex, it will no longer be an objective observation of reality and instead become a political puppet.

 

Maybe I’m just not “woke” enough.  But I’ve been around long enough to know that truth is objective, and though it may be resisted for a time, it won’t be long before the bottom falls out on all the deception.  Whether it is now or in four more years time, there will be a reckoning.  And the country that cried “woke” will be Left all on its own in this pit of progressivism.  

 

Is democracy on the line?  I think so.  But one vote won’t change that.  It is a culture war that will be played out across all the lives of those who pledge allegiance to their various gods. What we must preserve to the best of our abilities is the very heart of democracy: respect for opposing views.  A climate of hatred sows only discord.  We must routinely allow for the challenging of our own ideas.  If everyone believed the same exact thing then we would either be living in a utopia or a despotism….and utopia is not possible.  

 

Depending on your own viewpoint, you may beg to differ.  And I myself would respectfully disagree-all thanks to this great gift of democracy.