Election Reset
9th October 2020
ZMan does his weekly podcast.
We are a little over three weeks from the most consequential election in the history of the republic, according to the media. In reality, this election will probably not be all that interesting or consequential. Few elections make much of a difference, when viewed in the grand scheme of things. The great fear of democracy was that it would lead to wild swings in public policy. In reality, democracy results in a shadow elite maintaining their preferred course, regardless of the election results.
There are some exceptions. In 1960, the Illinois Democrat Party rigged their election in favor of Kennedy. If Nixon had won, there is a good chance Vietnam would not have happened as it did, which would have changed the arc of the 60’s. The anti-war movement was the energy of the cultural revolution. It also means Johnson’s Great Society would not have happened. Probably something else would have been passed, but it would not have been that program.