Retiring Guy's Digest: The irresponsible Donald Trump as Tocqueville's democratic despot

Headline: New York Times, 10/15/2023

“Our contemporaries,” Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in 1840, in the second volume of “Democracy in America,” “are constantly excited by two conflicting passions; they want to be led, and they wish to remain free.” The result was a peculiarly American compromise, an abiding tension between state power and popular sovereignty.

Tocqueville had faith that Americans could keep the two in balance. At the same time, he warned against a slide into “democratic despotism.” The people, he wrote, might someday vote to cede their power and place the government “in the hands of an irresponsible person or body of persons.” Having witnessed the rise of American democracy, Tocqueville also, it seems, foretold its decline. [emphasis added]

Related posts:

2023

2024 presidential nomination poll: GOP voters continue to support the guy who will be goose-stepping with Hitler in hell. (11/17)

2024 GOP presidential nomination: GOP voters continue to support the guy who will be goose-stepping with Hitler in hell. (11/15)

2022

The Nazi roots of MAGA. (8/9)

2021

In 21st century America, businesses use roadside message signs to show approval of the Trump regime. (2/17)

Adolf Hitler:National Socialism:: Donald Trump:Republican Party (Uust Following Orders edition). (1/18)

2020

The Hitler Oath and the Trump Purge. (2/23)
Once again, Donald Trump threatens to take a page from the Nazi Party/Adolf Hitler playbook. (2/22)

This day in history side by side. (2/10)