Book Review: Tyranny of the Minority: Why American Democracy Reached the Breaking Point by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt
Deep Diving into the Muck of the NY Times' Bestsellers
The Crown Publishing Group published Tyranny of the Minority by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt on September 12, 2023. Amazon reviews give this book 4.6 stars out of 5 with currently 704 reviews. As a New York Times Bestseller, it is “A call to reform our antiquated political institutions before it’s too late—from the authors of How Democracies Die.”
Hereinafter, the authors will be called “the Professors.”
The premise of this book is that the US Constitution (USC) is antiquated, and the United States should be “democratizing our democracy” like Europe has done. The Professors use the same old tired shame tactics regurgitating America’s history of slavery, Jim Crow, and how voter ID currently “discriminates” against voters. What is completely lost on the Professors is that our Founders wanted to protect us from the dangers of democracy by keeping central powers limited as well as democracy limited.
Although they project themselves as scholars of history, using 20th century examples specifically, what is noticeably absent from their analysis is a discussion of Greek democracies and why Socrates, Plato and Aristotle believed democracies are the lowest form of government that eventually lead to tyranny.
Also, noticeably absent is the input from another professor who taught at the University of Edinburgh in the 18th century, Scottish historian Alexander Tytler.
Tytler’s cycle of democracy states that the last state of any democracy is dependency. Perusing through their previous book, How Democracies Die, Tytler is also absent from any discussion on how democracies die. Since the Professors’ narrative promotes direct democracy and dependency, it should hardly be surprising that this important comparison is omitted, since many of their readers most likely have not studied ancient Greek philosophy or the philosophy of Tytler’s cycle of democracy and why he studied the demise of democracies in the past.
In their argument, it is also clear that the Professors do not understand Federalist #10 and Federalists #68 since their main argument is that America’s “democracy” is in danger from the minority because of the GOP’s “partisan bias.”
Although America’s founding fathers established the Constitutional Republic[1] with a unique form of limited democracy, they clearly understood the dangers of factions and democracy, as James Madison highlighted in Federalist #10: “There are again two methods of removing the causes of faction: The one by destroying the liberty which is essential to its existence; the other, by giving to every citizen the same opinions, the same passions, and the same interests.”
The introduction begins with the usual mainstream media (MSM) narrative: Donald J. Trump (DJT) and the “violent insurrection” on January 6, 2021 and the corrupt GOP’s failure to acknowledge defeat and allow the normal transfer of power to the other side, using John Adams’ Federalists’ defeat to Thomas Jefferson’s Democratic Republicans as an example in 1801.
In typical fashion, there is no mention of the Democrat’s denial that DJT won the 2016 election and the MSM’s long suffering propaganda that became known as “Russiagate.” Debates will be ongoing whether the January 6, 2021 riot was an “inside job” with more accounts like the DC National Guard Whistleblower Alleges Trump’s Commander-in-Chief Powers Were Revoked by Military Brass During January 6 Capitol Riot. [And along with allegations involving the usual suspects funding the mob riots – George Soros and the Communist Chinese Party (CCP), Americans will never know the full story, other than the growing public perception that we are no longer a Constitutional Republic but controlled by an unholy alliance between the “corporatocracy” that includes big corporations and unelected officials, ala the “deep state.”] Whether we witnessed an inside job or not on January 6, 2021, it is exactly one of the reasons we do not want democracy. Just like the George Floyd riots, mob riots never end well, which is precisely why our Founders created an instrument with minority rule, with a limited form of democracy.
[1] Sadly, America is no longer a Constitutional Republic, but a growing tyrannical plutocracy/corporatocracy.
The Professors argue that there are three “fragile” pillars of the USC that encourage minority rule with a small state bias that does not take into account the size of the population and the popular vote:
1) The Electoral College;
2) The Senate; and
3) Supreme Court.
Exactly! The idea was to mix it up so that the dangers of democracy (an incompetent and ignorant electorate voting on issues they know nothing about, thus, creating Plato’s metaphor of an inexperienced and incompetent crew sailing a ship) which our Founding Fathers elaborated in the Federalist Papers and the Anti-Federalist Papers.pdf
The Professors argue that the Electoral College is not democratic (absolutely and on purpose to protect the small rural states from big states and big cities.) Our founders did worry about the idea of big states/big cities dominating and it has come to pass: NY and CA are perfect examples that WTP should not want to follow.
The Professors argue that the Senate became “An American House of Lords” since they were appointed by state legislatures [as a separation between the electorate voting directly for them], and that this is undemocratic. Precisely! It was intended to be a compromise between the House of Representatives who were the People’s voice and the Senate, supposedly made up of smart, experienced and wiser Americans, so that a person with the intellect and morals of a Kamala Harris would never become a senator. But the 17th Amendment ended that, and the Professors unsurprisingly welcome that change to “democratizing democracy.”
And the Professors argue that the Supreme Court needs term limits from twelve to eighteen years or be required to retire at a specific age. Maybe a proposed retirement age is a good idea – say 75 years old, and term limits are certainly understandable in this era of corrupt, career politicians. Life tenure of the Supreme Court justices has been an ongoing debate even though lifetime appointment is not mentioned in Article III, Section 1 which states:
“The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. The Judges, both of the supreme and inferior Courts, shall hold their Offices during good Behaviour, and shall, at stated Times, receive for their Services, a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their Continuance in Office.”
However, with no official retirement age for US Supreme Court Justices, a situation will arise like the case of Ruth Ginsburg, who was sick and ailing at age 87 when she died while still working “on the bench.”
The Professors argue that the counter-majoritarian of the extreme, the corrupt GOP, is the problem, especially since America is evolving into a multiracial society.
As usual, it’s the corrupt GOP only. No mention of Democrat scandals like Hillary’s 33,000 deleted emails. While I’m not expecting the discussion to turn to the corrupt “uniparty,” there is no balance, and no mention that in 2021, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi took directive to begin Newspeak and DIE [sic] in the US Congress when Speaker Pelosi and House Rules Committee Chairman James McGovern announced House Resolution 8. Snopes won't lie?
How much did these new “racist” offices cost the taxpayers? The continuing list of hypocrisy of corruption in both parties is too long to discuss here, but there is nothing in this book about the USC being torn and tattered throughout the 20th and early 21st century. After Americans sort of sewed up the union back together after the Civil War, it did take another century for America to right the systemically racist wrongs, and America was making Huge improvements in civil rights by the 1980s. Of course, the Professors allege that the only the Democrats were the responsible party for those huge improvements.
So, it is not surprising when the Professors praise the years of 1913-1920, an era of “progressiveness” towards more democracy with the 16th Amendment (with more tax dollars to create the bigger federal government), 17th Amendment (direct election of senator by popular vote) and the creation of the Federal Reserve to print unlimited dollars for the benefit of the private banking “cartels” and the 19th Amendment. What the Professors omitted is that the 16th and 17th Amendments and the Federal Reserve created the beginning of WTP’s Dependency on a big federal government.
Perhaps one of the more tragic and biased examples that the Professors propose is in Chapter 4, “Why the GOP Abandoned Democracy? Why has the Republican party gone off the rails,” they ask? “Paradoxically, the roots of the GOP’s transformation lie in its reaction to the very multiracial democracy it helped construct.” Of course, they admit the true history of the Democrats supporting slavery, Jim Crow, but they flip it around that the GOP are the racists in an ever-growing multiracial society. Funny, since a lot of Americans, even traditional “liberals” believe that the Democrats have “gone off the rails” supporting the current “woke” agenda that alienates many Americans and is truly the tyranny of the minority, in the words of Vivek Ramaswamy.
The Professors go on ad nauseum about the racism of the GOP. Thomas Sowell said it best, “Racism is not dead, but it is on life support -- kept alive by politicians, race hustlers and people who get a sense of superiority by denouncing others as racists.”
So, this is where WTP need to define what it means to be an American. It really is not about race; it’s about attitude and actions. Personal Responsibility. Are you dependent on the government or do you produce, obey civil laws, pay your taxes and support yourself and your family? Can’t discuss that or the “racist” idea that legal immigrants wanted to assimilate into American society, work hard, learn English, and try to earn a piece of the American Dream.
Arguably, America devolved further into a degenerate democracy beginning in 1913 resulting in the current tyranny of the industrial complexes (censorship/big pharma/big insurance) eroding the middle class where lawfare has now become the rule.
The Professors argue that Thomas Jefferson (that slave owner) believed the USC should not necessarily hold for future generations when he wrote to James Madison asking if, “one generation of men has a right to bind another?” That’s why our wise founders gave us the ability to Amend the Constitution, but with a ¾ supermajority, it would always be a “tough egg to crack” which the Professors believe must be changed to a simple majority. In the words of Thomas Jefferson, “a democracy is nothing but mob rule, where fifty-one (51) percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine (49).
Thomas Jefferson, along with many other Founders, understood that human nature is self-serving and flawed, thus there is no perfect government and thanks to the “anti-federalists” we do have the 2nd Amendment to help protect us from a future tyrannical government. How can a flawed people create a perfect government? They can’t. Period. But…they tried to reign in corruptness as best as they could in the era of the Enlightenment. As Jefferson knew, later generations will re-evaluate what it means to be a free society as we continued to grow, eventually ending slavery and Jim Crow, but did he anticipate that WTP would Want to be Dependent on the Government?
We the People have a choice to continue to repeat our previous generations’ mistakes by Squandering Our American Inheritance, increasing Big Government or collectively making better choices in who we vote for. Thomas Sowell said it best, “The fact that so many successful politicians are such shameless liars is not only a reflection on them, it is also a reflection on us. When the people want the impossible, only liars can satisfy.”
Then again…
May I suggest hiring or finding a copy editor before you post? Some of this was very unclear and had errors that obscured your meaning.