" Each share a quiet but unmistakable belief that ordinary citizens, left to their own devices, cannot be trusted to make the “right” decisions without guidance, nudging, or correction from above."
This belief has been part of a wing of our leadership since the constitution was written. The break between Adams and Jefferson, was, at it's core: Can the people make wise decisions?
Jeffersonian doctrine is that government governs best, which governs least. Adams on the other hand believed that man is a flawed and foolish being, who must be governed to ensure that he fails not in his duties to man, and posterity.
It's really the same issue that Europe has decided by going down the Adams school. 'People are stupid, they don't do things for their own or anyone elses best interests.' We can't get back to monarchy, so we'll instead do the Chinese Mandrin thing, and have a 'by merit' ruling class who are 'selected' by the 'best and brightest' to be the next generation of best and brightest."
I reject this view, but I can't pretend it's novel.
Here’s the quiet part out loud: a system where elections change faces but never direction isn’t democracy—it’s management. When power migrates from voters to bureaucracies, accountability becomes theater. That’s the appeal of the European model to certain elites: control without consequences. You can promise “democracy” while insulating real decisions from the people who are supposed to make them. Donald Trump doesn’t play that game, and that’s why he rattles them. Because once you strip away the language, the fight isn’t left versus right—it’s whether voters still matter at all. And that’s the whole ballgame.
Commenting that in the EU faces change but direction never does is as true here in the US as it is in Europe, we just haven't fallen as far yet. Does anyone doubt that if a Democrat wins the next presidential election that we'll revert as far to Obama as possible? That electing another Trump will just put the opposition into guerrilla mode, and they'll delay and obstruct as much as they can? Do you doubt that except for the MAGA failthful the old guard Republicans want nothing more than to be left alone to be the minority party that gets to complain but not govern? Look at history since Reagan - did any Republican president ever establish a direction for the state that was different than that of the Democrats except for Donald Trump? Was any other president attacked from all sides because he wanted to change the direction this country was going? I think that without consistent, aggressive action by American patriots we'll be Europe in less than 50 years. We need to not only get rid of career politicians, we must also neuter the bureaucrats who have so much undue influence on how the government actually works and for whom. I'm Jeffersonian to the end, and, and remember, under Jefferson's idea of government, if We the People make a mistake, we can fix it next time around because we have the power. It doesn't work that way under Adams.
Right on target. God help us.
" Each share a quiet but unmistakable belief that ordinary citizens, left to their own devices, cannot be trusted to make the “right” decisions without guidance, nudging, or correction from above."
This belief has been part of a wing of our leadership since the constitution was written. The break between Adams and Jefferson, was, at it's core: Can the people make wise decisions?
Jeffersonian doctrine is that government governs best, which governs least. Adams on the other hand believed that man is a flawed and foolish being, who must be governed to ensure that he fails not in his duties to man, and posterity.
It's really the same issue that Europe has decided by going down the Adams school. 'People are stupid, they don't do things for their own or anyone elses best interests.' We can't get back to monarchy, so we'll instead do the Chinese Mandrin thing, and have a 'by merit' ruling class who are 'selected' by the 'best and brightest' to be the next generation of best and brightest."
I reject this view, but I can't pretend it's novel.
Here’s the quiet part out loud: a system where elections change faces but never direction isn’t democracy—it’s management. When power migrates from voters to bureaucracies, accountability becomes theater. That’s the appeal of the European model to certain elites: control without consequences. You can promise “democracy” while insulating real decisions from the people who are supposed to make them. Donald Trump doesn’t play that game, and that’s why he rattles them. Because once you strip away the language, the fight isn’t left versus right—it’s whether voters still matter at all. And that’s the whole ballgame.
Commenting that in the EU faces change but direction never does is as true here in the US as it is in Europe, we just haven't fallen as far yet. Does anyone doubt that if a Democrat wins the next presidential election that we'll revert as far to Obama as possible? That electing another Trump will just put the opposition into guerrilla mode, and they'll delay and obstruct as much as they can? Do you doubt that except for the MAGA failthful the old guard Republicans want nothing more than to be left alone to be the minority party that gets to complain but not govern? Look at history since Reagan - did any Republican president ever establish a direction for the state that was different than that of the Democrats except for Donald Trump? Was any other president attacked from all sides because he wanted to change the direction this country was going? I think that without consistent, aggressive action by American patriots we'll be Europe in less than 50 years. We need to not only get rid of career politicians, we must also neuter the bureaucrats who have so much undue influence on how the government actually works and for whom. I'm Jeffersonian to the end, and, and remember, under Jefferson's idea of government, if We the People make a mistake, we can fix it next time around because we have the power. It doesn't work that way under Adams.