Inciting a mob is not democracy

posted by Jeff | Thursday, June 30, 2016, 7:30 PM | comments: 0

I had an interesting exchange today on Facebook about the state of politics. It started from a link I posted to a status update from Bernie Sanders, who in very short terms, pointed out that the 62 most wealthy people in the world had more money than the entire bottom half. Now, keep in mind, you can make just a grand a year and still be in the top half. Sanders says this is immoral.

Here's the thing, I respect Sanders in that he actually has well thought out policy decisions and plans. I don't agree with him on a ton of stuff, but it's not just talk. That said, one of the unfortunate things, as his campaign went on, was that his acquisition of supporters came by way of statements like the one he made today. It isn't intended to argue policy, it's intended to spark outrage. It panders to fear and anger. It's intended to incite a mob. In fact, it's the mob that insists he was cheated out of the nomination.

If this sounds familiar, it's because Donald Trump has done the same thing from the beginning. While Sanders has enraged the everyman who feels they've been disadvantaged by "the system," Trump has enraged the racists, xenophobes, misogynists and homophobes. What's worse is that Trump doesn't really have concrete positions or plans for anything he can't fit into a tweet.

Still, both have resorted to inciting mobs reacting to fear. Whether it's based on hating brown people or rich people, both cases suck. Certainly I can criticize them for a lack of leadership (again, super disappointed in Sanders for this), but the broader pool of voters are to blame. They want to elect people who will dumb it down, and they apparently believe that people who will do that can fix everything (whatever "everything" is). It's a sad state.

Democracy should, in theory, prevent mob rule, but I suppose it depends on the size of the mob. I don't know what it takes to convince people to expect and engage more.


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