A man’s admiration of absolute government is proportionate to the contempt he feels for those around him
–Alexis de Tocqueville, from the preface to his The Old Regime and the (French) Revolution.
Translations of this passage differ: the one quoted above is from this version. A different translation renders the phrase as “contempt for one’s country.” The actual French phrase used in the original is son pays. Either way, the point is pretty similar.
Previous Worth Pondering post.
One of the popular misconceptions of “tyranny” is that it involves a Hitler-like ruler, brutal and cruel, when in fact in the American concept dating back to the pre-Revolutionary troubles it involves the abrogation of natural rights and self-rule.
Progressives offer a supposedly beneficial rule of “experts” wielding scientifically-derived expertise for the benefit of all. Outside of any issue of personal corruption and grifting, this supposed service to humanity is by definition tyranny because it treads on the citizen’s natural rights whether it materially benefits the citizen or not
That’s why the COVID lockdown epitomized tyranny. I know more than you do and what is better for you therefore for your own good I will rule over you
Not a direct connection but here’s what I’ve told my UK friends about the 2024 election, which they viewed with horror: “It’s a contest of whether the electorate has a greater disgust for one man or disdain for the entire political establishment”. I think that’s a closer call than the Electoral College result!
I think the quote is accurate. At this point, I’m fine with President Trump using every bit of the power granted him under Article 2. And, like Greg Maddux in the latter part of his career, with the six inches on the outside of the plate the umps always gave him.
And like Tacitus, it stems from my contempt of the political establishment, daily being shown to be craven and greedy at the expense of citizens, but it also stems from my contempt for the “blue no matter who” Democrats who turn their brains off at the sight of what the establishment has been doing to them and instantly turn to their talking points “unelected DOGE teenagers with access to our ‘private’ information.”
It’s time to actually drain the swamp, and Trump Unbound intends to do it. It’s led to a sort of contradictory term that characterizes the administration so far: it’s big government libertarianism. The only way the government is going to shrink is through the efforts of a President bound and determined to use every legal tool to shrink it. Once (if) the President’s goal is achieved, hopefully American politics will not tolerate an attempt to re-grow the administrative state. But to prune it, we need a leader strong enough to get out the big shears.
And so I relish every cry of the deep state. They’ve had this coming for decades.