Simon O'Connor: Democracy being 'Left' behind

The progressive left are obsessed with 'threats to democracy' but seem willfully oblivious to their own anti-democratic behaviours which are arguably democracy's greatest domestic challenge today.

Since the result of the United States’ Presidential election, there has been much talk of the ‘threat to democracy’ by Donald Trump and the right-wing. Now, there are many threats to democracy both domestic and international. As we all should appreciate, democracy is a fragile gift and one comparatively new in human history.

I want to argue that the greatest domestic current challenge to democracy is actually from the progressive left of politics. In some ways, all the talk of Trump and the Right is a distraction from the very clear anti-democratic dynamics being driven by the left.

For those time poor and not able to read this Substack fully – my argument is simple. Decrying and deriding the voters’ choice is not supporting democracy. As one former colleague used to say, “the voters are never wrong”. However, we are seeing commentary from the progressive left that drips with contempt for the ordinary voter. This contempt when placed alongside increasing ‘lawfare’, calls for censorship of divergent views, deplatforming of academics (among other), and biased gaslighting reporting are ultimately a threat to democracy as it seeks to take control away from the voter and centralise power in those who, supposedly, ‘know best’.

As we observe the reaction to the election results in the United States, we see from Democrat elites a culture of blame directed at the voter. Americans who voted for any other party are being labelled misogynist, bigots, racists, and a host of other derogatory names. The Democrats are eating themselves alive as they attack their own traditional voters for daring to push back against incompetence and wokery.

How on earth the Democratic Party expects to attract people back to them, when they deem such people bigots and publicly call them racists is a mystery to me!

This reaction is inherently anti-democratic for it suggests the only valid vote is a left-wing vote. Those who choose another path are to be mocked, derided, and isolated. The latter dynamic is worryingly illustrated by how some in FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency) chose to withhold support from cyclone victims who had Trump signs on their lawn.

Now, to give credit where it is due, President Biden did speak far more democratically when he said in a post-election speech:

“Campaigns are contests of competing visions. The country chooses one or the other. We accept the choice the country made. I’ve said many times you can’t love your country only when you win. You can’t love your neighbor only when you agree.

Something I hope we can do no matter who you voted for is see each other not as adversaries but as fellow Americans, bring down the temperature.”

He is right and yet his words are in stark contrast to the waves of progressive attacks on those they disagree with.

There are many more worrying signs of this progressive threat to democracy. During the Biden Administration, we saw the gaslighting of anyone who questioned the President’s left-wing narrative. This was led by the administration itself but amply supported by mainstream media. Biden’s cognitive decline is of course the most obvious example, but we can also point to many other examples including the Hunter Biden laptop issue and Twitter files (the latter exposing the Biden administration pressuring social media companies to keep a single narrative on covid matters).

The increase of ‘lawfare’ is also evident, with Trump himself and supporters experiencing the weaponisation of the courts by the Democrats. This is not to say there is no merit in some of these cases, but the increasingly widespread use of the courts to silence critics is deeply anti-democratic. Alongside this, we also saw the Department of Justice under instruction by the Biden administration to harass those with opposing views to the left. Pro-lifers and traditional Catholics were two particular targets among others.

My hope is that the Republicans, now in power, will not replicate these anti-democratic dynamics.

Then there is the ongoing disingenuous reporting, including here in New Zealand. The fourth estate is meant to hold all sides to account, not amplify one side’s perspective. We are currently being fed a near-singular diet of headlines about celebrities looking to flee the US or others fearing an authoritarian dystopia developing. I would suggest, this hardly reflects the views of the over fifty percent of American citizens who voted for the Republicans. The sub-narrative is clear – the ordinary voter is wrong and not to be trusted.

Reporting of candidate’s spending has also been completely biased. Headlines roar that ‘Trump’s victory is a major win for Elon Musk and big-money politics’ while simultaneously ignoring Harris having received much greater donations than him. This is why the election results can be understood as a rejection of mainstream media and instead a victory for new platforms such as podcasts (think Joe Rogan) and X.

Selective reporting should also be quickly addressed. Trump has just appointed the first ever woman to the role of White House Chief of Staff – Susie Wiles. This is very significant, but very little has been said in legacy media because she is right-wing. Had this been a Democrat appointment, there would have been endless fawning accounts of how she was ‘breaking the glass ceiling’. The same was evident when Giorgia Meloni became Italy’s first female Prime Minister.

All of this paints a worrying picture about the health of democracy in America and in the West. The threats to democracies are broad and real, but I would maintain the events of recent weeks in the United States illustrates an acute problem originating from the progressive left. They believe they are right, and the voter is wrong. That’s a problem.

Simon O'Connor a former National MP graduated from the University of Auckland with a Bachelor of Arts in Geography and Political Studies . Simon blogs at On Point - where this article was sourced.