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Stand Back and Stand By: Revolution for Sale Cheap
Has it come to this, with the role of the Sturmabteilung played by the Proud Boys?
Are we watching the implosion of the last great post-Westphalian revolution? Mr. Madison’s attempt to guarantee democracy was brilliant. From the get-go, there was debate whether the bargain with the Devil called chattel slavery was worth the prize. The bargain may have been morally corrupt, but it did put off the Civil War.
Was democracy protected by a bulwark of ideas or merely by the Atlantic Ocean? I counted myself among those who thought our Constitution was proof against the errors that had undone all the other populist uprisings.
When the Peace of Westphalia redrew the maps, it also, viewed in the great sweep of history, ended the Divine Right of Kings. Ideas of that size, of course, do not just lie down and die. Let it be — please let it be — the same with democracy.
The revolutions that did not match our longevity stayed with government by strongmen, but they were strongmen no longer backed by religion and the rules of succession were up for debate when governmental authority could no longer be passed to heirs like any other piece of property.
