Jon Reisman

President Biden’s selfless and noble passing of the torch to Kamala (or Obama/Pelosi orchestrated coup, depending on which tribe you belong to) left me marveling at our polarized and post-modern understanding of “Democracy.” “Democracy” is a system of government where the people rule, either directly (like Town Meeting) or through elected representatives (a Republic). Democracy is rule of the many, as opposed to rule of the few (oligarchy) or the one (tyranny). 

According to Joe, Kamala, and the left, Donald Trump is an existential threat to “Democracy.” The Washington Post put “Democracy Dies in Darkness” on its masthead one month after Trump assumed office in 2017 and has been bleating about it ever since; although, they rarely, if ever, actually define what they mean by “Democracy” or the specific source of the darkness “threat.” I tend to think about civil war and end days for the Republic, freedom, and prosperity. The left apparently defines the threat a bit differently: they believe Democrats losing power is the actual threat to Democracy.

Ironically, the legacy media either tacitly or explicitly kept Americans in the dark about Joe’s decline until the debate exposed his condition and their conspiracy of silence. Cognitive decline may or may not be like bankruptcy happening slowly and then suddenly. Biden’s decline was not a secret to anyone who did not rely exclusively on MSNBC, the New York Times, and/or the Washington Post. However, the extent of Trump Derangement Syndrome and American disunity and polarization is not readily apparent if your media diet is insufficiently diverse in the other direction either. Democracy will die in darkness if a hypocritical media selectively controls the lighting and a siloed passive electorate happily allows it to happen. 

The selective lighting control was a little too evident when the Kamala campaign and the legacy media began a coordinated campaign to rewrite history. Kamala, we are now told, was never appointed the border czar by Joe, and she was never responsible for fixing the problem (which was Trump’s fault anyway); although, she did in fact apply her great problem-solving and political skills and succeeded in reducing illegal immigrant encounters from the spike that occurred between her election in November 2020 and assuming office in January 2021. So let us talk about abortion instead.

The apparently seamless switch from Joe to Kamala on the Democratic ticket laid bare the hypocrisy of bleating about Democracy. It brought to mind two cultural markers, Bewitched and The Princess Bride.

Bewitched ran from 1964 to 1972 and featured the marriage of witch Samantha (Elizabeth Montgomery) to mortal advertising exec Darrin. Darrin was played by Dick York for the first 5 seasons and then replaced with Dick Sargent for the final 3 seasons. The switch was never explained, and the show’s ratings never quite recovered. I am not suggesting that Kamala is a witch because a cackle is not a nose twitch.

In 1987, The Princess Bride brought us Grandfather (Peter Falk) reading an adventure/fantasy to his grandson (Fred Savage). In it, the Sicilian assassin Vizzini (Wallace Shawn, Dr. John Sturgis in Young Sheldon) repeatedly characterizes events as “inconceivable,” to which swordsman Inigo Montoya (Mandy Patinkin) says, “You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means.” That would be my take on “Democracy.”

Inconceivable clip: https://youtu.be/D9MS2y2YU_o

Jon Reisman is an economist and policy analyst who retired from the University of Maine at Machias after 38 years. He resides on Cathance Lake in Cooper, where he is a Selectman and a Statler and Waldorf intern. Mr. Reisman’s views are his own, and he welcomes comments as letters to the editor here or to him directly via email at [email protected].