‘Our Democracy,’ Ukraine, and Tucker’s Episode Seven – The American Spectator

The people with those little blue-and-yellow flag logos on their social media profiles won’t like this very much at all, but what Tucker Carlson lets loose in the latest episode of his Twitter show is pretty hard to assail. Here’s the show, with a bit of commentary below:

Ep. 7 Irony Alert: the war for democracy enables dictatorship. pic.twitter.com/tk7aOZ4H6n

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) June 28, 2023

The episode isn’t really about Ukraine, despite the fact that it starts out with one of Carlson’s common criticisms of the narratives around that war — namely, that the Ukrainian regime is not much more virtuous than that of the Russians other than the fact it was the latter invading the former. It isn’t any particular defense of “democracy” to back Ukraine in this war; one might more reasonably say that it’s a defense of the concept of a nation-state or that it’s a fulfillment of commitments the U.S. government and that of its allies have previously made. (READ MORE: Is the Supreme Court Trying to Bring On a National Divorce?)

But “democracy?” As Carlson notes, Ukraine isn’t currently a democracy and won’t return to one soon. In America, we hold elections during wartime. We had two active wars going in 2004 when George W. Bush ran for reelection; the Vietnam War was active during the 1964, 1968, and 1972 elections; the Korean War was very much in progress during the 1952 election; and the 1944 election took place at the height of World War II.

Hell, we had the 1864 election in the middle of the Civil War, for crying out loud. And yet Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky says he can’t hold one next year because of a war.

Perhaps he’s right, but given the way the Ukrainian government has cracked down on its people with the war as an excuse, it isn’t really all that credible to say this is for “our democracy,” unless we want to closely examine what that term actually means.

Because the more you hear our political elite talk about “our democracy,” the more you realize they’re talking about something that isn’t very recognizable as standard democracy at all.

As Americans, when we think of democracy, what we’re really thinking of is a constitutional republic. Our founders were not particular fans of democracy; they thought of democracy as license for mob rule, and as such they built a fairly careful system of checks and balances that would constrain the popularly elected politicians within the law. By doing so, they established a highly successful republic of laws, not men, and that’s been a major key to preserving liberty in this country.

This isn’t just about Republicans vs. Democrats. It’s about states vs. the federal government, the executive vs. the legislative, either branch against the judicial, and so forth. It’s about aligning parts of the government to conflict with one another so that none can become too powerful either to abuse the other or to abuse the people.

But in “our democracy,” this amorphous thing you keep hearing politicians and media figures of a certain stripe bleating about, none of that is really the case.

Because in “our democracy,” the government is not constrained by the Bill of Rights not to abuse your rights. In “our democracy,” the government will simply contract with so-called private-sector entities and non-governmental organizations to abuse them. To censor you. To take away your business. To keep you from banking or gaining credit, or from engaging in other forms of commerce. Even to deny you an education or a job.

“Our democracy” is a place where there aren’t checks and balances. It’s a place where with the right connections and views and affiliations, you aren’t bound by the law — in fact, you’re above the law. Carlson notes that Hunter Biden can do what he likes, so long as “the big guy” gets his 10 percent, and Chinese communist oligarchs had better stick to “commitments made” and pay up — or else.

We don’t get to find out what the “or else” is in “our democracy,” because the weaponized Deep State doesn’t enforce the law but instead enforces the political status quo. And the will of the public in “our democracy” is greatly constrained by a censorious and disingenuous media that hides the truth from us and keeps us ignorant of the things we need to know to be informed voters.

Why do you think you were made to obsess for a whole week over the fate of a half-dozen rich people who stupidly boarded a poorly designed submersible craft to descend two miles to an ocean depth it wasn’t rated for? It’s not hard to understand — that was a distraction from the outpouring of evidence that your president took bribes from China and Ukraine. That’s what passes for news in “our democracy.”

And in “our democracy,” your vote is not important. Your ballot is. In “our democracy,” the collection of ballots is what matters, not the earning of votes. As ballots can be collected from illegals, those who’ve moved out of town, insensate nursing home patients, and even the dead, they’re far more useful.

You probably don’t want to live in “our democracy,” but you do. And in Ukraine, you have to support billions of your dollars flowing to kleptocrats — with almost certain kickbacks heading to your political betters here in America, for the sake of preserving “our democracy.”

But you’re not allowed to see the books. You’re also not allowed to ask when all this swag sent to the Ukrainians will end, or when the war will be brought to the negotiated settlement it so obviously will ultimately end in.

“Our democracy” requires an endless war in Ukraine, and an endless expense of aid. Because if that should falter, so will “our democracy.”

Carlson would point out, and he would be correct, that “our democracy” is a pitiful facsimile of what it was intended to be. It isn’t the “republic, if you can keep it” that Ben Franklin bequeathed us. And those touting it are woefully inadequate to the task of leadership in a truly free country.

Maybe one day we’ll be that again. On that day, it’s a good bet there will be no active war in Ukraine. And maybe the Ukrainians will experience their own democracy on that day as well.

This piece is cross posted from the Hayride.