WHY SHOULD THEY HAVE FAITH IN PEOPLE WHO HAVE NO FAITH IN THEM? (via Tom Corcoran):

Democracy, thy friend is fickle: What a strange moment for the left to lose faith in representational government (Ross Terrill, February 11, 2005, Chicago Tribune)

Why has the historic switch of partners occurred? The left of center parties embraced identity politics from the 1970s. Gays, minorities, women, others were cultivated as building blocks for a progressive edifice. But the "rights" of blocks cut against democratic principles. The individual going to the ballot box does not want to be taken for granted in deference to identity blocks.

Other factors include the left's discovery that courts help the cause of social engineering more readily than ballots, and the appalling role of money in elections. The latter is equally present on the right (I could write a whole column about some conservatives' wobbling on democracy).

Liberals' attachment to a notion of "international community" also dilutes democratic principles. If the UN chief, Kofi Annan, says our actions in Iraq are illegal, he must be correct, intuits the left, and the American majority must be wrong. Kerry's "global test" for American military action abroad is a lapse from democratic principle, no less than his tepid stance on Iraq's election.

Not least, the left cultural gatekeepers of our time in the media and academia have come to picture themselves as rivals of democracy. Telling us how we are going to vote (polls) and then why we voted (more polls) is a usurpation of democracy. Consider the arrogance of the exit poll; CNN announces the result before the result exists! Voter, the system is not yours to infuse from below; it is the media priests' to re-engineer from above.

What a strange moment for the left to lose faith in democracy. The Soviet Union and other Leninist dictatorships gone in a puff of smoke. Democracy taking root in Latin America. In East Asia, South Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan, Mongolia and Thailand all newly democratic. Throughout the 20th Century, war and authoritarianism were inseparable. For 30 years, democracy and free markets have surged and no war has occurred anywhere on the scale of Korea and Vietnam, let alone World War I and World War II.

Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh recently told "Democracy Now!" radio that America was in a bad way because "eight or nine neo-conservatives" have "grabbed the government." Not mentioning that Bush was elected by 51 percent of the American people, Hersh did detect a ray of hope. One "salvation may be the economy," Hersh, a writer I generally admire, said regrettably. "It's going to go very bad, folks. You know, if you have not sold your stocks and bought property in Italy, you better do it quick." A left that sees a lousy economy as political salvation and frets about stocks and a villa in Italy is not the idealistic, worker-respecting left anymore. Certainly it is not a believer in democracy.

Mr. Terrill somehow misses his own point: the Left was never much interested in democracy but was willing to use its forms when the Crash and Depression temporarily gave it a majority in the U.S.. Over the last quarter century, as the nation has reverted to the more conservative norm, they've understandably become disenamored with democracy.

Posted by Orrin Judd at February 12, 2005 2:01 PM