Guest Post by Pat Buchanan
How does a democracy that has spawned within itself a powerful and implacable enemy deal with it?
What happens when democracy fails to deliver? What happens when people give up on democracy?
What happens when a majority or militant minority decide that the constitutional rights of free speech, free elections, peaceful assembly and petition are inadequate and take to the streets to force democracy to submit to their demands?
Our world may be about to find out.
Chile is the most stable and prosperous country in Latin America.
Yet when its capital, Santiago, recently raised subway fares by 5%, thousands poured into the streets. Rioting, looting, arson followed. The Metro system was utterly trashed. Police were assaulted. People died. The rioting spread to six other cities. Troops were called out.
President a Sebastian Pinera repealed the fare hike and declared a national emergency, stating, “Chile is at war against a powerful, implacable enemy who does not respect anything or anyone and is willing to use violence and crime without any limits.”
How does a democracy that has spawned within itself a powerful and implacable enemy deal with it?
Last week, tens of thousands of Lebanese of all faiths and political associations rioted in Beirut and Tripoli to demand the overthrow of the regime and the ouster of its president, speaker of parliament and Prime Minister Saad Hariri. All must go, the masses demand.
In Barcelona, Friday, half a million people surged into the streets in protest after the sentencing in Madrid of the secessionists who sought to bring about the independence of Catalonia from Spain in 2017.
In all of China, few enjoy the freedoms of the 7 million in Hong Kong. Yet, for five months, these fortunate and free Chinese, to protest a proposal that would have allowed Hong Kong residents to be extradited to China, stormed into the streets to defy the regime and denounce the conditions under which they live.
These protests have been marked by riots, vandalism, arson and clashes with police. “Hong Kong streets descended into chaos following an unauthorized pro-democracy rally Sunday,” writes the Associated Press. Protesters “set up roadblocks and torched businesses, and police responded with tear gas and a water cannon. Protesters tossed firebombs and took their anger out on shops with mainland Chinese ties.”
What are the Hong Kong residents denouncing and demanding?
They are protesting both present and future limitations on their freedom. The appearance of American flags in the protests suggests that what they seek is what the agitators behind the Boston Tea Party and the boys and men at Concord Bridge sought — independence, liberty and a severing of the ties to the mother country.
Yet, because the Communist regime of Xi Jinping could not survive such an amputation, the liberation of Hong Kong is not in the cards. The end to these months of protest will likely be frustration, futility and failure.
Perhaps it is that realization that explains the vehemence and violence. But the rage is also what kills the support they initially received.
In 1960s America, the first civil rights demonstrations attracted widespread sympathy. But the outburst of urban riots that followed in Harlem, Watts, Newark, Detroit and 100 cities after Martin Luther King’s assassination sent millions streaming to the banners of Gov. George Wallace in the campaigns of 1968 and 1972.
When the “yellow vest” protests broke out in 2018 in Paris, over a fuel tax, the demonstrators had the support of millions of Frenchmen.
But that support dissipated when protesters began smashing windows of boutique shops on the Champs-Elysee, assaulting police and desecrating monuments and memorials.
This reversion to violence, ransacking of stores and showering of police with bricks, bottles and debris, is costing the protesters much of the backing they enjoyed. In the trade-off between freedom and order, people will ultimately opt for order.
Yet, one wonders: Why are these outbursts of violent protests and rioting taking place in stable, free and prosperous societies?
Chile is the most stable and wealthy country in South America. Catalonia is the most prosperous part of Spain. Paris is hardly a hellhole of repression. And Hong Kong is the freest city of China.
If the beneficiaries of freedoms and democratic rights come to regard them as insufficient to produce the political, economic and social results they demand, what does that portend for democracy’s future?
For, despite the looting, arson and attacks on cops in Hong Kong, Xi Jinping is not going to order his satraps to yield to popular demands for autonomy or independence. Nor is Madrid going to accept the loss of Barcelona and secession of Catalonia. Nor is the conservative Chilean government going to yield to the street rebels and revolutionaries. Nor is Paris going to back down to the “yellow vests.”
Yet, one wonders: If the “end of history” and worldwide triumph of democratic capitalism thesis has, as most agree, been disproven, is it possible that the Age of Democracy is itself a passing phase in the history of the West and the world?
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Freedom and democracy are cyclical.
Freedom and democracy are mutually exclusive.
Only the anarchists are making much sense nowadays.
.22,
Let me fix that,
Only ‘anarchs’ are making much sense nowadays.
ANARCH: A sovereign individual. A person who believes in rights and power for the individual. A sovereign individual is often someone who doesn’t trust the government, wants more power in the hands of the individual, and who is willing to do things for his/her self.
ANARCHIST: One who seeks to overturn by violence all constituted forms and institutions of society and government, all *law and order, and all rights of property, with no purpose of establishing any other system of order in the place of that destroyed; especially, such a person when actuated by mere lust of plunder.
Any person who promotes disorder or excites revolt against an established rule, *law, or custom.
See: ‘anarch’ and ‘nihilist’.
*Constitutional
NIHILIST: Nihilism is the philosophical viewpoint that rejects, denies, or lacks belief in any or all of the reputedly meaningful aspects of life. Most commonly, nihilism is presented in the form of existential nihilism, which argues that life is without objective meaning, purpose, or intrinsic value.
Anarchists and nihilists are lost kissing cousins…think Antifa grunts..
He acts as though democracy is sacrosanct or something.
What did you expect?
This is softball columnist and quisling status quo .gov hack writer Pat Buchanan.
His whole mission is put people to sleep with adult bedtime stories.
There is no freedom in democracy or it’s associated system of so-called free elections.
Voting in any type of democracy is like buying a mislabeled grab bag full of false promises under a false pretense, and paying with everything you own. The belief that it’s an effective feedback mechanism to control the most cunning and successful social manipulators after they are granted a monopoly on the use of force to accomplish
their ends is completely irrational and faith based, hence STATISM IS A CULT.
Yes, it’s dying and not fast enough to please me. Here’s a hopeful sign:
I was waiting for the part about Democrats and their quest to limit our freedoms and rights and eliminate our Republic.
Pat should know we aren’t a democracy, or we weren’t till recently. Democracy is rule by the mob which is about where we are now. Hong Kong is a color revolution, not a democratic uprising.
As soon as our government is paralyzed and the riots start here it means the Bolsheviks are making their move.
along with those protest in Lebanon, you can now see the CIA play book at work, in the post “Arab Spring” world. There is no such thing as organic uprisings, its all done via social media using bots to spread messages, just like our very own “it’s the russians” campaign.
First they create the tools, then they hand them out like candy (obama phones) then they start blasting messages catered to individuals using data mined profiles. This is the primary reason why they need to “monitor all coms”. They are building huge DBs of individual profiles, that can then be used to automatically spread their own version of the gospel.
Anymouse.
Yup.
Anymouse! I like it.
Still pumping the “fuel tax” caused the protests in France lie, huh Pat?
Are you proposing it didn’t have much to do with Macron being a bigger Israel-ass licker than Trump?
Piece of shit softball columnist!
I like questions and question marks, but Pat is making me start to tire of them.
22
Pat thinks republicans are honest.
For the people to rule (democracy) effectively, they must be alert & deadly to usurpers.
The Old Price Riots of 1809 (also sometimes referred to as the O.P. or OP riots) were caused by rising prices at the new Theatre at Covent Garden, London, after the previous one had been destroyed by fire. Covent Garden was one of two “patent” theatres in London in the nineteenth century, along with Drury Lane. When Drury Lane was burned down, Covent Garden became the premiere theatre in that time. The riots lasted three months, and ended with John Philip Kemble, the manager of the theatre, being forced to make a public apology. It was said that as many as 20 people died and many more wounded during this event. – wikipedia
The Haymarket Affair (also known as the Haymarket Massacre, Haymarket Riot, or Haymarket Square Riot) was the aftermath of a bombing that took place at a labor demonstration on May 4, 1886, at Haymarket Square in Chicago.[2] It began as a peaceful rally in support of workers striking for an eight-hour work day, the day after police killed one and injured several workers.[3] An unknown person threw a dynamite bomb at the police as they acted to disperse the meeting, and the bomb blast and ensuing gunfire resulted in the deaths of seven police officers and at least four civilians; dozens of others were wounded. – wikipedia
Buchanan Bullshit typical of a dying generation
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_riots
You want to know when a protest movement is likely to be successful? When it starts targeting the actual people against whom it is protesting- street demonstrations smashing shop windows and destroying random buildings isn’t that.
So, what is an example of a movement that might be successful? One that starts targeting for assassination the political and business elite. In general, such a protest movement is heavily armed, and not necessarily all that great in numbers.
Where is this “democracy” you speak of?
At some point living paycheck to paycheck , the realization of No Future sets in.
I have to think society has been spending way too much on Cars , taxes and rent.
We are headed for a massive readjustment of consumption.
Yet, one wonders: If the “end of history” and worldwide triumph of democratic capitalism thesis has, as most agree, been disproven, is it possible that the Age of Democracy is itself a passing phase in the history of the West and the world?
Yes. Its current stage of decay is no longer worth the trouble or cost of upkeep. I’ll take my chances with Charlemagne. At least he knew how to garden.