Party insiders and lobbyists are sometimes abominated because their activities are seen as “undemocratic.” Which they are — thank goodness. The Bill of Rights is undemocratic: It is a list of things you idiots don’t get to vote on. Civil rights are undemocratic: 50 percent plus 1 of this nation’s people do not get to revoke them, no matter how devoutly they wish it, and neither do 67 percent or 99 percent. Judicial review is undemocratic. The Senate, as originally constituted, was gently undemocratic, and we are poorer for the progressives’ having succeeded in remaking it as an even more arrogant version of the House of Representatives. In fact, most of the best parts of our constitutional order are undemocratic and act as counters to the popular passions of democracy, which our Founding Fathers understood, feared, and held in contempt for good reason.
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But these bogeymen provide welcome distraction from the real enemy. Who’s that? It’s the special-interest group that demands higher spending, lower taxes, and a balanced budget.
You know: Americans.
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