Contributors
Bruce S. Thornton - ContributorBruce Thornton is a professor of Classics at Cal State Fresno and co-author of Bonfire of the Humanities: Rescuing the Classics in an Impoverished Age and author of Greek Ways: How the Greeks Created Western Civilization (Encounter Books). His most recent book is Searching for Joaquin: Myth, Murieta, and History in California (Encounter Books). [go to Thornton index]

Revolt in the Nanny State
The elites get roughed up..
[Bruce S. Thornton] 10/10/03

As the electoral smokes clears, it's become clear that the voters of California have dumped Gray Davis and elected Arnold Schwarzenegger. Forgive me if I take a moment to revel in the discomfort of the political establishment, now that its dire predictions and dirty tactics have been rejected by the citizens.

Remember all those ominous threats? Voting day will be a disaster, they told us. The ballot will be too long and complicated, we were warned. Minority voters will have to use punch-card voting machines, some fretted. So three Democratic stooges on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals tried to block the election because the justices thought that some voters were incapable of figuring out how to punch a stylus through a cardboard ballot.

On election night, Jesse Jackson materialized on TV, chanting "disenfranchised" because there were fewer polling places than last year. Worst of all, we were repeatedly warned that democracy itself was threatened by a right-wing conspiracy using its wealth to undo the election and the people's will, in a reprise of Florida in 2000.

As the election neared, the Democrats took a look at the poll numbers and their last best hope-- a race-hack politico owned by the Indian casinos-- and in desperation turned to the below-the-belt tactics that had helped Davis squeak out a victory last year over a well-meaning political bungler he should've beaten by thirty points.

The heavy thumb of the Los Angeles Times was laid on the scales to try and tip the balance. A few days before the election, suddenly over a dozen women were moved by the feminist spirit to testify against Schwarzenegger and his caddish crimes on movie sets, which we all know are as sedate and decorous as a church choir practice. Just reporting the news! The Times huffed, but stories are circulating about platoons of reporters sent out by an editor to find something on Arnold, and about advanced notice of the story being sent to Davis' campaign.

It didn't work. As usual, the liberal political establishment missed completely the dynamics of democratic politics. The depths of their ignorance is evident in the way they tried to counter the recall and short-circuit Schwarzenegger's campaign. What lies behind those threats and tactics is the profound distrust and even contempt that professional liberal politicians have for the people they're supposed to represent.

The fretting over polling places and voting machines is a perfect example. Now, voting on a punch-card ballot is not rocket science. You take the stylus and punch it through the cardboard ballot. You don't have to have Arnold's biceps to do so, either. Nor is it an insurmountable obstacle to find a polling place. Or to secure an absentee ballot and avoid the whole hassle. Or to figure out the ballot, which was not complicated at all, not compared to a usual election in California, when we have to decide not just on a slew of candidates for various offices but on a whole host of state and local initiatives and bonds. In fact, the election went very smoothly, even given the fact that it was the largest turnout in a state election since 1982.

So why did we hear all those horror stories? Scare tactics, of course, but there's another, deeper reason. The liberal establishment simply doesn't trust the competence or intelligence of the people it supposedly cares about. Liberals look on the mass of people as children who need to be managed, guided, and cosseted into understanding their own best interests. Victims of oppression, racism, disinformation, and manipulation, the wards of the liberals can't figure out where to vote, or how to punch a ballot or secure an absentee ballot. That's why they need the liberal nannies to protect their interests and defend them from the wicked right wing.

What else but a deep contempt for the people's intelligence explains the LA Times' transparent attempt to smear Schwarzenegger? Did the Times really think that the average person isn't savvy enough to dismiss unsubstantiated anonymous charges, or to see through the timing of the stories, or to know that the Times has been shilling for Davis all along? The answer is yes, that's exactly what the Times thought.

Many in the media are deeply contemptuous of the people and their intelligence. Like many academics, they see the people as sheep befuddled by television and advertising, since they lack the raised consciousness and superior insight that allows professors and pundits to see through the illusions and lies spun by nefarious conservatives.

Like most political hacks, in other words, the liberal media are rank elitists. They don't really trust democracy, for all their claims to care about the "people" and the "powerless." Consider the talk before the election of how the recall "threatened democracy" and was an attempt to undo a legitimate election. The recall was in fact a pure expression of direct democracy. It only accomplished what the people wanted it to. If the people of California wanted to confirm the election of Davis, they would've voted down the recall. Cut it anyway you want, and the fact remains that the people spoke, and the political establishment doesn't like what it hears.

In truth, the Democratic Party and the liberal media, like all elitists since Plato, don't like democracy. They don't think the people can know their own or the state's best interest. They think that experts of various stripes--professional politicians, social workers, shrinks, state bureaucrats, think-tank slackers-are better qualified to make the decisions that affect our lives, and especially know better how to spend our money. That's why before the election we heard all that huffing and puffing about how "unqualified" Schwarzenegger is to run the world's sixth largest economy. Well, given how poorly the so-called "experts" have done, most people understandably are willing let a guy try who's made it in the real world, where it's your own money, not the taxpayers', that will be lost if you blow it.

Since liberals are supposed to be the champions of the people, when the people vote their own minds rather than the elite's, the elite has to come up with all sorts of rationalizations to explain why the people don't behave the way the caretakers think they should. Hence the silly conspiracy theories we were subjected to, the Hillarysteria about "vast right-wing conspiracies," all of which bespeak a deep disdain for the people, who are so easily fooled by slick commercials and emotional appeals. The fact is, the voters turned against Davis precisely because he is one of those arrogant professional politicians more interested in power and privilege than in doing the will of the people. So the people threw him out.

In doing so, they sent a message every politician ignores at his peril: you are not our nannies, you are our servants. You spend our money and affect our lives, so you'd better pay attention to us, or we'll find someone who will. It is that display of democratic independence that has upset the liberal establishment so much. And I'm loving every minute of it.

copyright 2003 Bruce S. Thornton

Searching for Joaquin by Bruce S. Thornton

Greek Ways by Bruce S. Thornton

Bonfire of the Humanities by Victor Davis Hanson, John Heath, Bruce S. Thornton

Plagues of the Mind by Bruce S. Thornton

Eros: The Myth of Ancient Greek Sexuality by Bruce S. Thornton

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