The Patriot Post® · Voters Are Ignorant About 'Democracy'

The Washington Post just published a poll that asked swing state voters about the state of our democracy, the legitimacy of the 2020 election, their level of trust in the elections, and which 2024 candidate would do a better job supporting our democracy.

Before we go any further, it needs to be pointed out that the language of the poll’s questions is incorrect. Our government isn’t a democracy. It’s a republic, one in which we elect people to represent us in the governing body. As our Nate Jackson recently and so ably pointed out, democracy was a form of government that the Founders utterly rejected.

The findings were intriguing. According to the Post, “Polling conducted in six swing states (Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin) shows that confidence in democracy and American elections is lower among supporters of Donald Trump — but that voters in those states are more likely to say that Trump would do a better job addressing those concerns. Those most sympathetic to an authoritarian form of government, meanwhile, include demographic groups that have traditionally voted heavily Democratic.”

Joe Biden has been trotting out the “Trump is a danger to our democracy” line for several years, but conservative voters see this as a falsehood. Who has acted more like an authoritarian president? Trump as president didn’t ignore the Supreme Court after it knocked down a unilaterally enacted and unconstitutional student loan bailout — that was Biden. Trump as commander-in-chief didn’t open the borders, making a mockery of our nation’s sovereignty and threatening our national security — that was Biden. The list goes on.

As Mark Alexander has noted, “To be clear, when Biden frequently asks, ‘Is democracy still America’s sacred cause,’ by ‘sacred cause’ he is referencing the state as the Demos’ deity. When he autocratically demands that you ‘support democracy,’ he means the ‘democratic socialism’ advocated by his leftist cadres – statist authoritarian rule. Biden’s 'democracy’ is the antithesis of American Liberty.”

So it’s not really surprising that Democrat voters would be okay with authoritarianism.

The very tenor of the Washington Post article is that of dismay for the lack of knowledge regarding the sanctity of democracy in favor of authoritarianism, particularly from the youngest demographic of voters. But why is WaPo surprised? Leftists created this monster via the school system, and leftists control most of our nation’s mainstream media, including the Post. By taking over the institutions and helming the press, they have had all the power to indoctrinate our youth in their nihilistic values.

Children are no longer truly taught civics. Most have no idea how our government works. As a former teacher who had the pleasure of instructing a high school government class, I was shocked to find that even at their ages, they didn’t know about the three branches of government or about checks and balances. This was quickly remedied, of course, but they were just a small sample of a much larger problem in education.

Children, unless they are in a conservative private school, homeschooled, or have intentional parents, typically have very little knowledge of civics. Most are taught to despise America, taught that our government doesn’t work, and taught that resistance and destroying the institutions are the only way forward. Why wouldn’t they favor a more authoritarian form of government? It’s the ultimate expression of power, and power is what brings about change — or so they’ve been told.

Democrats being surprised by the crop of ignorant voters they’ve “educated” is a bitter irony.