Goo Goo Syndrome

The history of our human race has not been defined by democracy; for the most part our societies, at least the ones in what we call "the" civilized west", have been organized in a hierarchy with wealthy rulers at the top since the agricultural revolution some 10,000 years ago. And some would have us return to those times.

"I don't want everybody to vote [...] Our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down." That's a quote from Paul Weyrich at an address at a seminal Religious Right gathering held in Dallas in the fall of 1980. The entire quote, which you can hear in the below linked video, goes like this:

How many of our Christians have what I call the goo-goo syndrome: good government? They want everybody to vote. I don't want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people. They never have been from the beginning of our country, and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.
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Human society has been defined, since we settled down after the agricultural revolution, by strict hierarchies. Whether they're called kings, queens, emperors, popes, lords, pharaohs, it doesn't matter; in most of our history the people had nothing or very little to say, and the absolute rulers were mostly men, surrounded by a small clique of advisors, strategists and heralds who have shared interests. They also had an organization of armed men whose task was to maintain the hierarchy and protect the property of the ruling class, the police in our times. The police and the heralds are the tools of control, in order to maintain the strict hierarchies.

This strictly hierarchical organization of society peaked during "the Dark Ages", which lasted almost 1,000 years in the civilized west, from the 5th century to the 14th century a.d. That period, followed by a couple of centuries of expansion through imperialism, represented a time of great stability when it comes to the organization of society. Michael Parenti once said: "Stability" is a code word for a society in which privileged social relations are securely entrenched. And that's exactly right. Social change comes about only by upsetting the status quo. The French Revolution, the advent of the Civil Rights Act, women's right to vote and all other progressive changes in society come about in periods of much civil unrest. And those periods of instability are scary for those in power.

In 2021 we've seen an outburst of anti-democratic legislation in America's Red states, prompted for the most part by the Big Lie that the 2020 elections were rigged, plagued by fraud, stolen. This short post is just a reminder that it's not only the 2020 elections that ignited the flame of anti-democratic fervor among the political right and the insanely rich. In fact, it's been a mainstay in Republican politics since the 1950s, when the struggle for black, women's and workers' rights caused many protests, riots and strikes. This period of much civil unrest persisted throughout the 1950s and 1960s, with the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and the anti-war protests being of notable interest. Also, if you look at the elections, and this is a widely accepted fact, Republicans have a better chance of winning them when less people vote. They've also had the most wins without winning the popular vote. So Weyrich was right in that aspect.

Conservatives and the wealthy strive for "stability" in the way Michael Parenti explained; stability in their eyes if the preservation of the current status quo, the current plutocracy, using the police as a tool for stamping down on the lower- and middle class. They hate democracy because in a functional democracy there's too much of a chance that the people will demand change, progressive change with more rights and easier access to the vote. For a better and more detailed explanation of this history, and the reason why the wealthy hate democracy, please watch the below linked video. It goes into this January 17, 2023 article as well: Rightwing Group Pours Millions in ‘Dark Money’ Into US Voter Suppression Bid. I recommend you read that as well, as it dives into the anti-democratic legislation efforts of the Heritage Foundation, the powerful conservative think tank based in Washington.

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