Cromwell Loved Christ

Today is a good reminder that "Tory Democracy"--using mass democracy to empower the right rather than fighting for restrictions upon democracy--has been consistently attempted since the late 19th century, and it has been a disaster the entire time Mobs and masses are fickle, and do not vote consistently. Even if they agree with you on a basic level--"no Muslims," "taxes are too high," "we want re-industrialization", etc.--the ability to stick to that over years, generations even, isn't there and will never be there. Randolph Churchill, the buffoonish syphilitic, didn't understand this and foisted the absurd idea of Tory Democracy on the politically involved right, a millstone almost as severe as the one his son soon got passed via the People's Budget This is why the franchise used to be limited, and why it must be limited again. Notably, the only real rightist leader to have any real success in the Anglosphere was Harry Byrd of Virginia, who did wage unrelenting and unapologetic war on the franchise to keep as many people from voting as possible. And not just blacks. Poor whites too. He only wanted the sort of people who had proven themselves to be responsible, hardworking, and successful to vote. That's what the Founders wanted as well. It's the only way a republic can function and not just turn into a Brazil-style mass democracy. Or an American-style mass democracy, I suppose I should say

When George Washington was running in 1758 for the House of Burgesses in Frederick County, there were 391 voters, and he bribed them with about 160 gallons of beer, rum punch, wine, cider, and brandy. He won. The expectation from voters, who were limited to the more successful men in the area, was that they'd get a good time out of showing up to vote Virginia was never organized around equality, but on a complex interplay between aristocracy and democracy. And also punch. Both Sydnor in American Revolutionaries in the Making and Bridenbaugh in The Seat of Empire cover this well