About Voices
A reflection on the complicities of the Democratic Party
Popular movements succeed or fail to the degree that they are coherent and meaningful. The movement’s coherence, however, needs only be internal, and meaning only provisional. Having rejected some reality as absurd and unconscionable, the popular movement creates a new logic. In its most triumphant form, it creates a moment in which all dreams seem possible. If it fails to be the harbinger of a radiant ever-after, the movement becomes little more than a self-absorbed social club consumed by mediocrity.
No greater proof of this axiom exists than the anemic liberalism of the American Democrat. How can we not despair when we witness again and again his preference for the shameless status quo? Are we to accept his vapid paternalism and so set aside our dignity? It is easy to see that the Democrat is bereft of conscience; he cannot defend the integrity of the body politic. He claims to speak for us, while he mutes our voice and courts tyrants. It is no surprise that he does not inspire faith or tenacity. After all, how can he advance that which he does not possess himself? The fatal paradox of the Democrat lies in his instinct to claim our truths while rejecting the need for resolution. He operates on axioms that contradict his own inclinations; he proclaims that “all men are created equal,” yet barters away our rights and health in the name of pragmatism. It seems clear: the paternalism of the Democrat is as much a blight on our body politic as the delirious ramblings of his Republican compatriot.
By what authority does the Democrat claim the right to our voice? Simply put, he sees himself as the guardian of good order. He imagines himself to possess uniquely good judgement. And for him this is a solemn burden. Change, he insists, will happen in its own time and in the proper increments. But he goes further, for in his mind any change that cannot be deferred cannot be justified. From his high seat, he cannot understand urgency, for he himself has never felt it. He fears vitality because it lays bare his banal complicities. See how he debases himself and seeks friendship with the tyrant! How he plays apologist for the same barbaric agenda! The terror of this world is the product of this unholy collaboration.
Is it any surprise, then, that his laws and processes are chiefly designed to protect thieves and petty tyrants; that he is hostile to the protestor and the activist? The Democrat’s sickness is not simply rank hubris, for he has misused his platform—our voices—with knowing malice. He cheers himself for victories in which he played no part. He claims to be obliged to us but lays us low with his derision, for he believes only in his good judgement. It is not enough for him to demur; he must undermine and throw derision upon any who would contradict his wisdom. The progressive, the socialist, and even the other liberals know his righteous indignation. It could not be clearer that his cause is not our cause. The Democrat, through word and deed, insists that we will be deserving of his limited beneficence only when we accede to his erudite judgements. We must accept his wisdom of stasis.
Even with the best intentions, his limited language cannot speak to the pain and passion of a lived experience. His voice is dried up; his actions are the blind groping of a fool seeking power. His philosophy cannot manifest compassion because, beneath his saccharine smile, is an insidious ideology. In the end the best the Democrat can muster is limited and contingent beneficence. What has come of it? Our families have been inspired into the arms of tyrants and turned against us; our mothers, daughters, and sisters stripped of essential rights. Our friends, who the Democrat claims to protect, are having their very identities abolished. These and other tragedies are the Democrat’s legacy. He would have us believe that these are our failures, and so he steals our voice to advocate for his own petty self-interest.
We must now deny the Democrat the use of our voice. We can no longer afford his self-aggrandizement. It is not in our nature to allow cowards and misanthropes to barter away our dignity, health, and identities so that another might feel more secure in righteousness. We owe the Democrat nothing. After all, our voices were never his to take in the first place. We must no longer ask for change. The time has come to shout down this rotted system. The Democrat is a tool of tyrants. He has not only betrayed our trust, but he has denied our right to dignity. It falls to us to fill the streets and send a single message to the cowards who permit tyrants in the name of good order:
It is enough.