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But nations, like individuals, become wise only through experience, and only through experience of their own. Now, to be sure, it is easy to see that the German people would be in a quite different position today if they had shaken off the yoke of princely rule in that fateful year 1848, if Weimar had triumphed over Potsdam and not Potsdam over Weimar. But every person must take his life and every nation must take its history as it comes; nothing is more useless than complaining over errors that can no longer be rectified, nothing more vain than regret. (Ludwig von Mises, Nation, State & Economy (1919; 1983), p 27).
Many years from now it may be possible that school children in the United States will be taught a history of the Republic quite different than that taught before the middle of the 21st century. That history is now based on a specific narrative premise: a history of the United States as an unbroken progressive striving to realize the conceptual framework of the Republic ("the light of the world") through successive generations, and the inexorable march toward its realization in a long and seamless process (Matthew 5:14 (KJV) "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid"). Future generations may be taught that the nation has passed through several eras. The First (generative) Republic was crafted as a polyglot amalgam of colonial aspirations and practuces, one the genesis of which produced the revolutionary moment that established American post colonial republicanism ignited by the transformation of the colonial metropolis. The 2nd Republic (the 1st post colonial one) existed from the founding of the American Confederacy in 1783 until the nation split in 1860. The 3rd Republic was built on the foundation of the reconquest of seceding territories now unified by national economies and existed in it this form roughly between 1865 and the 1920s. The 4th, social justice, Republic started with the Great Depression and sought to augment economic unity with societal solidarity grounded in principles of equality, non-discrimination, and social justice.
Many years from now scholars and others will also argue passionately about the end of that 4th American Republic. While many continue to believe that it has not fallen, it is not clear that the 4th Republic survived that great tumultuous period starting with the symbolic attack on the heart of the Republic by foreigners on 11 September 2001, the economic collapse that further weakened national and global coherence in 2007, and the effective rejection of globalization by the American left (as the corrupted product of godless capitalism that must be overturned) and the American right (as the corrupted product a misplaced sacrifice of American interests). But the old Republic has nonetheless now fallen sometime between the election of Mr. Obama, and the electoral and legal rejectionism that was the mark of the instability that marked American life from the start of the Trump Administration.
What comes after?
Certainly the old forms will be scrupulously respected. That marks the continuity from the 1st through the 5th Republic. And the discursive forms of imagining the Republic will remain undisturbed (despite the best efforts of the current crop of public intellectuals otherwise). But the words of that discourse will again change. That has been the singular mark of continuity amidst revolution in the United States. The continuity is represented by the unchanging power of text (the the constitution, of judicial interpretation, or core principles and the like) even as its meaning is flushed and the language infused with new meaning that marks the movement from one Republican age to another. Words, in this sense become both detached from fixed meaning, and derive their power from the ability to fill and drain them with meaning power to reflect transformative movements. So now the idea of democracy is undergoing a similar change. That change is both reactionary and transformative. Each of these Republics, then, is marked by its reconstitution as semiotic objects--as vessels, the content of which can be filled and refilled to embrace the sacrifices of those who successfully contest its past and forge its future.
One thing is certain--while its origins may be difficult to pinpoint--the articulation of that rupture was made crystal clear around the mid term elections of 2022. Two speeches--separated by weeks, nicely capture that rupture, and those who stand and shout at each other from the edges of the widening gap between them. They capture the reactionary and transformative trajectories of the discourse of democracy, and with it, the institution of a new Republic in the United States. In both, the discourse is wrapped around two primary tropes.
The first is democracy--now weaponized as a catechism, a vessel, and a sorting device that separates (in the language of Chinese Marxist-Leninism) patriots from reactionaries. That is the essence of Mr. Biden's speech--exquisitely Leninist in its sensibilities and discursive tropes. In some ways it is like reading an emerging liberal-democratic version of Mao Zedong's On People's Democratic Dictatorship (1949)--but without an overtly institutionalized vanguard. That this is wholly unconscious makes it all the more potent. And the danger of "left error" becomes much more real (see here). Here the manifestation of the democratic impulse is exogenous--triggered by voting but exercised through the state, and guided by its regulatory apparatus. Mr. DeSantis veers democracy to the right. That right turning is not toward fascism--as the leftists would have one believe, trapped as they are in their own iron binary of vanguard authoritarianism versus elite totalitarianism. Rather, it is a turning back to markets driven democracy--where people vote with their feet and where resistance is not necessarily futile. The consequence is a reading of democracy as a collection of passive virtues, one that is expressed by the collective consequences of the individual choices decisions of the masses. People vote with their feet, the way that consumers engage with their pocketbooks in markets. In sime ways it is like reading a condensed version of the trending theorization of market democracy around the traditionally categorized as right wing writings of Ludwig von Mises. And it is the role of the state to safeguard and respect those choices. In a sense, then, the speeches reflect new forms of old arguments, refashioned in the United States in the context of inherent contradictions of the 4th Republic's directed justice justice foundation. Here the manifestation of the democratic impulse is endogenous, through the aggregated choices of individuals, which the state must nurture and protect, where-ever this might take them both.
Those speeches: (1) President Biden's Remarks ("Standing Up for Democracy); and (2) Ron DeSantis's Victory Speech, follow below without additional comment.
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Remarks by President Biden on Standing up for Democracy
Columbus Club, Union Station
Washington, D.C.
(November 2, 2022)
7:01 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Good evening, everyone. Just a
few days ago, a little before 2:30 a.m. in the morning, a man smashed
the back windows and broke into the home of the Speaker of the House of
Representatives, the third-highest ranking official in America.
He
carried in his backpack zip ties, duct tape, rope, and a hammer. As he
told the police, he had come looking for Nancy Pelosi to take her
hostage, to interrogate her, to threaten to break her kneecaps. But she
wasn’t there.
Her husband, my friend Paul Pelosi, was home alone.
The
assailant tried to take Paul hostage. He woke him up, and he wanted to
tie him up. The assailant ended up using a hammer to smash Paul’s
skull.
Thankfully, by the grace of God, Paul survived.
All
of this happened after the assault, and it just — it’s hard to even
say; it’s hard to even say — after the assailant entered the home
asking, “Where’s Nancy? Where’s Nancy?”
Those were the very
same words used by the mob when they stormed the United States Capitol
on January the 6th when they broke windows, kicked in the doors,
brutally attacked law enforcement, roamed the corridors hunting for
officials, and erected gallows to hang the former Vice President, Mike
Pence.
It was an enraged mob that had been whipped up into a
frenzy by a President repeating over and over again the Big Lie that the
election of 2020 had been stolen.
It’s a lie that fueled the dangerous rise in political violence and voter intimidation over the past two years.
Even
before January the 6th, we saw election officials and election workers
in a number of states subject to menacing calls, physical threats, even
threats to their very lives.
In Georgia, for example, the
Republican secretary of state and his family were subjected to death
threats because he refused to break the law and give in to the defeated
President’s demand: just find him 11,780 votes. “Just find me 11,780
votes.”
Election workers, like Shaye Moss and her mother Ruby
Freeman, were harassed and threatened just because they had the courage
to do their job and stand up for truth, to stand up for our democracy.
This
institution — this intimidation and this violence against Democrats and
Republicans and nonpartisan officials just doing their jobs are the
consequence of lies told for power and profit, lies of conspiracy and
malice, lies repeated over and over that generate a cycle of anger,
hate, vitriol, and even violence.
In this moment, we have to confront those lies with the truth. The very future of our nation depends on it.
My
fellow Americans, we’re facing a defining moment, an inflection point.
And we must — with one overwhelming, unified voice — speak as a country
and say there is no place — no place — for voter intimidation or
political violence in America, whether it’s directed at Democrats or
Republicans. No place, period. No place ever.
I speak today near Capitol Hill, near the U.S. Capitol — the citadel of our democracy.
I
know there is a lot at stake in these midterm elections, from our
economy, to the safety of our streets, to our personal freedoms, to the
future of healthcare and Social Security and Medicare. It’s all
important.
But we’ll have our differences. We’ll have our
difference of opinion. And that’s how it’s supposed to be. But there
is something else at stake: democracy itself.
I’m not the only
one who sees it. Recent polls have shown that an overwhelming majority
of Americans believe our democracy at — is at risk, that our democracy
is under threat. They too see that democracy is on the ballot this
year, and they’re deeply concerned about it.
So, today, I appeal to all Americans, regardless of party, to meet this moment of national and generational importance.
We
must vote, knowing what’s at stake is not just the policy of the
moment, but institutions that have held us together as we have sought a
more perfect union are also at stake. We must vote knowing who we have
been, what we’re at risk of becoming.
Look, my fellow Americans, the old expression, “Freedom is not free; it requires constant vigilance.”
From
the very beginning, nothing has been guaranteed about democracy in
America. Every generation has had to defend it, protect it, preserve
it, choose it, for that’s what democracy is: It’s a choice — a decision
of the people, by the people, and for the people.
The issue
couldn’t be clearer, in my view. We, the people, must decide whether we
will have fair and free elections and every vote counts.
We,
the people, must decide whether we’re going to sustain a republic where
reality is accepted, the law is obeyed, and your vote is truly sacred.
We,
the people, must decide whether the rule of law will prevail or whether
we’ll allow the dark forces to thirst — that thirst for power put ahead
of the principles that we — have long guided us.
You know,
American democracy is under attack because the defeated former President
of the United States refuses to accept the results of the 2020
election. He refuses to accept the will of the people. He refuses to
accept the fact that he lost.
He has abused his power and put
the loyalty to himself before loyalty to the Constitution. And he’s
made a Big Lie an article of faith in the MAGA Republican Party — the
minority of that party.
The great irony about the 2020 election
is it’s the most attacked election in our history. And yet — and yet,
there is no election in our history that we can be more certain of its
results.
Every legal challenge that could have been brought was
brought. Every recount that could have been undertaken was undertaken.
Every recount confirmed the results.
Wherever fact or evidence have been demanded, the Big Lie has been proven to be just that, a big lie, every single time.
Yet,
now, extreme MAGA Republicans aim to question not only the legitimacy
of past elections but elections being held now and into the future.
The
extreme MAGA element of the Republican Party — which is a minority of
that party, as I said earlier, but is its driving force — is trying to
succeed where they failed in 2020 to suppress the rights of voters and
subvert the electoral system itself.
That means denying your
right to vote and deciding whether your vote even counts. Instead of
waiting until an election is over, they’re starting well before it.
They are starting now.
They’ve emboldened violence and intimidation of voters and election officials.
It’s estimated that there are more than 300 election deniers on the ballot all across America this year.
We can’t ignore the impact this is having on our country. It’s damaging, it’s corrosive, and it’s destructive.
And
I want to be very clear: This is not about me. It’s about all of us.
It’s about what makes America “America.” It’s about the durability of
our democracy.
For democracies are more than a form of
government. They’re a way of being, a way of seeing the world — a way
that defines who we are, what we believe, why we do what we do.
Democracy is simply that fundamental.
We must, in this moment, dig deep within ourselves and recognize that we can’t take democracy for granted any longer.
With
democracy on the ballot, we have to remember these first principles.
Democracy means the rule of the people — not the rule of monarchs or the
monied, but the rule of the people.
Autocracy is the opposite of democracy. It means the rule of one: one person, one interest, one ideology, one party.
To
state the obvious, the lives of billions of people, from antiquity
until now, have been shaped by the battle between these competing
forces: between the aspirations of the many and the greed and power of
the few, between the people’s right for self-determination and the
self-seeking autocrat, between the dreams of a democracy and the
appetites of an autocracy.
What we’re doing now is going to
determine whether democracy will long endure. It, in my view, is the
biggest of questions: whether the American system that prizes the
individual, bends toward justice, and depends — depends on the rule of
law — whether that system will prevail.
This is the struggle
we’re now in: a struggle for democracy, a struggle for decency and
dignity, a struggle for prosperity and progress, a struggle for the very
soul of America itself.
Make no mistake — democracy is on the ballot for us all.
We
must remember that democracy is a covenant. We need to start looking
out for each other again, seeing ourselves as “We the People,” not as
entrenched enemies.
This is a choice we can make. Disunion and chaos are not inevitable.
There’s
been anger before in America. There’s been division before in
America. But we have never given up on the American experiment, and we
can’t do that now.
The remarkable thing about American democracy
is this: Just enough of us, on just enough occasions, have chosen not
to dismantle democracy but to preserve democracy. We must choose that
path again.
Because democracy is on the ballot, we have to
remember that even in our darkest moments there are fundamental values
and beliefs that unite us as Americans, and they must unite us now.
What are they?
Well,
I think, first, we believe the vote in America is sacred — to be
honored, not denied; respected, not dismissed; counted, not ignored. A
vote is not a partisan tool to be counted when it helps your candidates
and tossed aside when it doesn’t.
Second, we must, with an
overwhelming voice, stand against political violence and voter
intimidation. Period. Stand up and speak against it.
We don’t
settle our differences in America with a riot, a mob, or a bullet, or a
hammer. We settle them peacefully at the battol [sic] — at the battol
boc- — the ballot box.
We have to be honest with ourselves
though. We have to face this problem. We cannot turn away from it. We
can’t pretend it’s just going to solve itself.
There is an
alarming rise in the number of our people in this country condoning
political violence or simply remaining silent because silence is
complicity. The disturbing rise in voter intimidation. The pernicious
tendency to excuse political violence or at least — at least trying to
explain it away.
We can’t allow this sentiment to grow. We must confront it head on now. It has to stop now.
I
believe the voices excusing or calling for violence and intimidation
are a distinct minority in America, but they’re loud and they are
determined.
We have to be more determined. All of us who reject
political violence and voter intimidation — and I believe that’s the
overwhelming majority of the American people — all of us must unite to
make it absolutely clear that violence and intimidation have no place in
America.
And third, we believe in democracy. That’s who we are
as Americans. I know it isn’t easy. Democracy is imperfect. It
always has been. But we are all called to defend it now. Now.
History and common sense tell us that liberty, opportunity, and justice thrive in a democracy, not in an autocracy.
At
our best, America is not a zero-sum society where for you to succeed,
someone else has to fail. The promise of America is big enough — it’s
big enough for everyone to succeed. Every generation opening the door
of opportunity just a little wider. Every generation, including those
who had been excluded before.
We believe we should leave no one
behind, because each one of us is a child of God, and every person —
every person is sacred. If that’s true, then every person’s rights must
be sacred as well.
Individual dignity, individual worth,
individual determination — that’s America. That’s democracy. And
that’s what we have to defend.
Look, even as I speak here
tonight, 27 million people have already cast their ballot in the midterm
elections. Millions more will cast their ballots in the final days
leading up to November the 9th — 8th, excuse me. And for the first
time — this is the first time since the national election of 2020, once
again we’re seeing record turnout all over the country.
And that’s good. We want Americans to vote. We want every American’s voice to be heard.
Now
we have to move the process forward. We know that more and more
ballots are cast in early voting or by mail in America. And we know
that many states don’t start counting those ballots until after the
polls close on November 8th.
That means, in some cases, we
won’t know the winner of the election for a few days — until after a few
days after the election. It takes time to count all legitimate ballots
in a legal and orderly manner.
It’s always been important for
citizens in a democracy to be informed and engaged. Now it’s important
for citizens to be patient as well. That’s how this is supposed to
work.
This is also the first national election since the
events of January 6th, when the armed, angry mob stormed the U.S.
Capitol. I wish — I wish I could say the assault on our democracy had
ended that day, but I cannot.
As I stand here today, there are
candidates running for every level of office in America — for governor,
Congress, attorney general, secretary of state — who won’t commit — they
will not commit to accepting the results of elections that they’re
running in.
That is a path to chaos in America. It’s
unprecedented, it’s unlawful, and it’s un-American. As I’ve said
before, you can’t love your country only when you win.
This is
no ordinary year. So I ask you to think long and hard about the moment
we’re in. In a typical year, we’re often not faced with questions of
whether the vote we cast will preserve democracy or put us at risk. But
this year, we are.
This year, I hope you will make the future of our democracy an important part of your decision to vote and how you vote.
I
hope you’ll ask a simple question of each candidate you might vote for:
Will that person accept the legitimate will of the American people and
the people voting in his district or her district? Will that person
accept the outcome of the election, win or lose?
The answer to
that question is vital. And in my opinion, it should be decisive. On
the answer to that question hangs the future of the country we love so
much and the fate of the democracy that has made so much possible for
us.
Too many people have sacrificed too much for too many years
for us to walk away from the American project and democracy. Because
we’ve enjoyed our freedoms for so long, it’s easy to think they’ll
always be with us no matter what.
But that isn’t true today.
In our bones, we know democracy at risk — is at risk. But we also know
this: It’s within our power, each and every one of us, to preserve our
democracy.
And I believe we will. I think I know this country. I know we will.
You
have the power. It’s your choice. It’s your decision. The fate of
the nation, the fate of the soul of America lies where it always does:
with the people — in your hands, in your heart, and your ballot.
My
fellow Americans, we’ll meet this moment. We just need to remember who
we are. We are the United States of America. There’s nothing —
nothing beyond our capacity if we do it together.
May God bless you all. May God protect our troops. May God bless those standing guard over our democracy.
Thank you, and Godspeed. (Applause.)
7:22 P.M. EDT
Ron DeSantis gives victory speech after re-election as Florida Governor Transcript
Ron DeSantis gives victory speech after re-election as Florida Governor. Read the transcript here.
Thank you. Thank you very much. Well, thank you so much. Over these past four years, we’ve seen major challenges for the people of our state, for the citizens of the United States, and above all, for the cause of freedom. We saw freedom in our very way of life and so many other jurisdictions in this country wither on the vine. Florida held the line. We chose facts over fear. We chose education over indoctrination. We chose law and order over rioting and disorder. Florida was a refuge of sanity when the world went mad. We stood as a citadel of freedom for people across this country and indeed across the world. We faced attacks, we took the hits, we weathered the storms, but we stood our ground. We did not back down. We had the conviction to guide us and we had the courage to lead. We made promises. We made promises to the people of Florida, and we have delivered on those promises.
(01:47)
And so today, after four years, the people have delivered their verdict.
Freedom is here to stay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Now, thanks to
the overwhelming support of the people of Florida, we not only won an
election, we have rewritten the political map. Thank you for honoring us
with a win for the ages. I want to thank all of our campaign staff,
from campaign manager [inaudible 00:02:45]. This was the best-run
campaign in the history of Florida politics. I want to thank all of our
wonderful volunteers who worked so hard to get out the vote. Your
support means the world to Casey and I. God bless you and thank you.
(03:10)
Now, it’s a lot easier to run a good campaign when you got a great
record to run on, and I would not have been able to see the level of
accomplishments that we saw unless I had outstanding personnel working
in the executive office of the governor, as well as heading state
agencies. These folks worked hard to implement our agenda. They believed
in our agenda and the results have been historic. Thank you for your
support and work. Thank you to Miami-Dade County. Thank you to Palm
Beach County. Now, we’re still tallying the votes, but it’s clearly
apparent that this election we will have garnered a significant number
of votes from people who may not have voted for me four years ago. And I
just want to let you know, I am honored to have earned your trust and
your support over these four years.
(04:23)
And most important of all, thank you to the greatest First Lady in all
50 states for being a great wife, giving unwavering support, being a
tremendous mother to our three young children, and serving as an example
for women throughout this state, especially going through the battle of
cancer. She is remarkable. Now, today is the culmination of the 2022
fall elections. But in reality, Americans have been voting for many
years now. They’ve been voting with their feet, and the results of that
behavior has been just as stark as our landslide victory today. States
and cities governed by leftist politicians have seen crime skyrocket.
They’ve seen their taxpayers abused, they’ve seen medical
authoritarianism imposed, and they’ve seen American principles
discarded. The woke agenda has caused millions of Americans to leave
these jurisdictions for greener pastures.
(06:04)
Now, this great exodus of Americans, for those folks, Florida, for so
many of them, has served as the promise land. We have embraced freedom.
We have maintained law and order. We have protected the rights of
parents. We have respected our taxpayers, and we reject woke ideology.
We fight the woke in the legislature. We fight the woke in the schools.
We fight the woke in the corporations. We will never, ever surrender to
the woke mob. Florida is where woke goes to die. People have come here
because our policies work. Leadership matters. We refuse to use polls
and put our finger in the wind. Leaders don’t follow. They lead. We set
out a vision, we executed on that vision and we produced historic
results. And the people of this state have responded in record fashion.
Now, while our country flounders due to failed leadership in Washington,
Florida is on the right track. I believe the survival of the American
experiment requires a revival of true American principles. Florida has
proved that it can be done. We offer a ray of hope that better days
still lie ahead.
(07:56)
I am proud of our achievements in this state. I am honored by your
support and I look forward to the road ahead. I have fought the good
fight. I have finished the race in this first term, and I have kept the
faith. We’ve accomplished more than anybody thought possible four years
ago. But we’ve got so much more to do and I have only begun to fight.
God bless you all. Thank you very much. Thank you for a historic
landslide victory.
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