by Ryan McMaken
Mises.org
It’s becoming increasingly clear that “democracy” exists only when the voters choose the option preferred by certain pundits and politicians. When the voters go the other way, well, then there’s just entirely too much of that democracy stuff going on.
In the wake of the Brexit vote, the Trump phenomenon, and the Hungarian vote to restrict immigration, the global left has realized that something must be done to begin undermining the idea of the unrestricted democracy — an idea they have been promoting for over a century. Realizing that popular referenda and initiatives provide a way for voters to go around the will of the elites, politicians and journalists have joined forces to begin denouncing the very idea of direct democracy.