‘Democracy’ by and for the Elites

 President Biden's Sept. 1 speech in Philadelphia on "unity" is a poignant example of the confusion surrounding the concept of democracy

• Biden declared that MAGA Republicans threaten "the very foundations of our republic."
• The phrase a "threat to American democracy" is so commonplace these days that it hardly carries any meaning-except that it encapsulates the reigning ideology of our time, an ideology so pervasive that it almost goes unnoticed.
• I call it democratism. It is an imaginative and idealistic understanding of popular rule that disdains ordinary people and looks to a cadre of so-called experts to operate the levers of power. Under this ideology, "democracy" and "the people" are rhetorical cover for the will of the elites.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/democracy-by-and-for-the-elites-biden-wilson-jefferson-democratist-popular-rule-threat-america-tocqueville-11664114737