The War We Must FightWe may be too weak to fight the anti-woke Communism war in which Tom Klingenstein urges us to enlist. But it’s a war we must prepare ourselves for, as the enemy is ourselves.
By Ken Masugi
December 18, 2021
“And what is most repugnant to me in America is not the extreme freedom that reigns there, it is the lack of a guarantee against tyranny.”
“I have found genuine patriotism in the people; I have often sought it in vain in those who direct it.”
So observed the 19th century French observer of American democracy, Alexis de Tocqueville, when commenting on how juries strengthen democracy in America. Yet last week, Tom Klingenstein, the magnanimous patriot and chairman of the board of the Claremont Institute, recounted recent American trials and concluded from those observations that America may yet become a “totalitarian police state,” in the grips of “woke communism.”
In apparent contrast, Tocqueville thought juries (assisted by judges and lawyers) would educate themselves and other citizens in the republican virtues necessary to combat the weaknesses of democracy. They would bring reason and the good sense of the Anglo-American legal tradition to tame the passions that might overwhelm the deliberation in trials. In this way they would combat the chief weakness of democracy, as Tocqueville saw it: its tendency to produce tyrannical majorities.
Although they at first appear to be at odds, it turns out that Tocqueville and Klingenstein have far more in common than not. Tocqueville’s description of the tyranny of the majority resembles what Klingenstein and other astute observers understand in our time as “woke communism.” Comparing the two tyrannies forces us to consider the depth of the challenges we face.
Over 180 years ago, Tocqueville described legitimate democratic majority rule as “the moral empire of the majority.” He does not dwell on the term following its introduction, but he makes it clear that such a “moral empire” is the goal of his book. This “empire” would oppose both the tyranny of the majority and the rule of administrative centralization (a.k.a. bureaucracy)—something he concludes, with great foresight, is the likely fate of modern nations. By guaranteeing security and the material conditions of life,Tocqueville fears, the government of the future would enervate the lives of its former citizens, rendering them mere subjects.
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Source:
https://amgreatness.com/2021/12/18/the-war-we-must-fight/
