The Drift Toward ‘Democratic Despotism’

 The Biden administration's excessive use of executive orders, regulatory rulemaking power, and lawfare against state governments and other "intermediary institutions; its attempts to delegitimize the Republican Party as an organization of dangerous neo-fascists, lawless election deniers, and insurrectionists are all manifestations of this country's continuing drift toward "democratic despotism," which didn't start with President Joe Biden and will not end with him.

1952

• Burnham delivered a lecture on democracy as a myth
• All governments are oligarchies where a small governing or ruling class holds political power
• In the United States, the prevailing "myth" has been that "rule by the people" and the "popular will" are manifestations of "democracy"
• This is a practical impossibility because the Founding Fathers understood this and constructed a constitutional framework - separation of powers and federalism - that operated to resist political centralization and fostered the development and strengthening of intermediary institutions
• Since the New Deal, democratic leaders have increasingly invoked the popular will to acquire more unconstrained political power over individuals, thereby lessening individual liberty and eroding the rule of law

1952:

• Burnham looked to Congress as a bulwark against Caesarism, but in today's polarized political environment it can only be controlled by political and institutional opposition.
• Even a Congress nominally controlled by the GOP will not be able to stop the drift toward democratic despotism unless its leaders and members are willing and able to resist the enormous powers of the permanent executive bureaucracy, or managers.

https://spectator.org/the-drift-toward-democratic-despotism/