Democracy Looks Like Trump’s Baseless Certainty He Will Win the 2020 Election

In the vernacular, democracy conjures up vision of government that rules in accordance with the will of the people. Morality in the democratic lexicon is a matter of numbers: belong to the majority and the right to rule is yours. Belong to the minority? Well, not only are your opinions disregarded by those in authority, but your rights might be in jeopardy, too.

In its purest form, democracy is mob rule. Its morality is numerical: the majority rules and controls not only the direction of public policy but the definition of what kind of government action is appropriate. Documents like constitutions create hard-and-fast rule about what government can rightfully do and what it can’t do. When it violates these, it also creates a system to ensure grievances are redressed.

That’s not true in a society where “right” is an ever-fluctuating definition, dependent on whatever the whims of those in power happen to be on a given day and their tolerance towards those who don’t happen to share their worldview.

In their continued insistence, despite evidence, that Trump won the election, the president, his surrogates in government, and his supporters in the media have taken up this most concerning of democratic mantras.