I don’t know if you are familiar with Michael Smith’s Substack but it’s always a thoughtful, worthwhile read. One of his recent articles, The Soft Despotism of Comfortable People explores how Western nations are surrendering their freedoms and why.
"Soft despotism" is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville in Democracy in America to describe how a democratic nation can lose its freedom not through violent revolution, but by quietly trading liberty for comfort, safety, and a paternalistic state.
Like many of us he is surprised by how readily so many people have complacently surrendered their liberty.
What puzzles me is the apparent willingness of free people to surrender freedoms that previous generations fought, bled, and died to secure.
Why are the people not fighting back?
Perhaps prosperity has made people complacent. Perhaps several generations removed from genuine tyranny have left many unable to recognize it in its early forms. Perhaps modern citizens have become accustomed to viewing government as a provider rather than a servant. If government is responsible for your healthcare, education, retirement, housing, and security, eventually it becomes difficult to tell where citizenship ends and dependency begins.
He maintains a somewhat optimistic stance for the U.S. as it still has the remnants of our federalist system, a Supreme Court that still contains some originalist instincts, and the existence of the Second Amendment to prevent us from racing down the same path Europe has taken. Unfortunately the DSA platform wants to do away with all that along with a lot more. They campaign for government takeover of industry, abolishing the Senate and the Electoral College and packing or eliminating the Supreme Court. They’ve also thrown in a few flourishes such as letting noncitizens vote, granting amnesty to the undocumenteds, the elimination of ICE and Medicare for all. Honestly, the scope of their ignorance and stupidity is breathtaking.
At least we know what the billions and billions of dollars dumped into public education was used for. Unfortunately indoctrination doesn’t have a very good return on investment.
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