Democrats pose a greater threat to freedom than Trump: tyranny of the majority | Opinion

Those opposed to giving Donald Trump a new term in office never stop warning that the election of Trump will constitute a threat to our democracy, and will make those nightmarish images a reality.

They are wrong. In fact, it is the election of Harris that will result in a real threat to our democratic republic.

To understand why, we have to recover the warning given by Alex de Tocqueville 189 years ago in his critique of the American regime in his classic work; “Democracy in America.”

Surveying the political and social landscape and transformations of America in the late 1830s, Tocqueville observed tendencies that could derail our democracy in spite of protections written into our constitution.

In place of a dictatorship of an authoritarian government and related police state, Tocqueville saw the possibility of the creation of a “tyranny of the majority”.

Tocqueville observed: “I know of no country in which there is so little true independence of mind and freedom of discussion as in America.”

Instead of state authority squashing dissent the American people are in danger of succumbing to a self-imposed social tyranny where social conformity results from the tendency of the American people to prefer equality over liberty, resulting in a stifling social conformity.

How can a descent into the tyranny of the majority be prevented? Tocqueville in his time saw hope for America in its constitutional structures which give strong protection to minority rights. A free press, an independent judiciary, and the right of the people to form independent associations at the local level can protect the people from overwhelming public pressure to conform to majority opinion.

It is precisely these institutions that are under attack, largely by the national Democratic Party and its candidate for president, Kamala Harris.

Perhaps the most recent and controversial measure supported by Harris and the Democrats is their desire to pack the Supreme Court. Some members of Congress support a proposal to limit Supreme Court Justices to 18-year terms rotating out one justice every two years.

Some Democrats have also argued for blunting the filibuster system in the Senate. While the filibuster is not a constitutionally mandated process, it has operated as a strong protection for minority rights against a domineering majority, and promotes a resort to compromise by both political parties.

There is an even larger concern. Tocqueville was particularly worried about the tendency of the American people to succumb to social pressures to conform.

If Harris is elected, she will be the first woman president, even more; the first woman minority president. It is likely the honeymoon period given to any new president will extend without limits for Harris. Who in the mainstream press will call into question her decisions on key policy issues? Who will dare to criticize her?

The pressures to conform will only grow. She will be hailed by all centers of American cultural expression as a Joan of Arc figure who saved our democracy from that evil wannabe dictator, Trump.

If Harris is in the White House and Democrats control both houses of Congress, there is likely to be enormous pressures brought to bear to remake our constitutional republic into a majoritarian democracy to the detriment of the liberties of the American people.

Writing in the first half of the 19th century Tocqueville was hopeful Americans could avoid the pitfalls of democratic governance. Would he be equally as optimistic today?