People pushed back against my list with complaints that the consequences were not harsh enough and what about all the other horrible people? "Huh, Teri? What about them? Well?"

For about 2 years, I updated my list of consequences, and when the usual chorus of "there are never any consequences" would show my list.

I stopped when I realized it didn't matter how long the list was, the chorus of "there are never any consequences" would continue.

2/

Another tactic I tried was explaining that the criminal justice system cannot solve a political problem. I did things like cite the evidence about deterrence.

When people insisted that putting them all in jail would solve the problem, I explined that (1) not everything bad is a crime (2) bad things also happen in prison (3) prison sentences have limits and people often come out more hardened.

This only frustrated people more.

3/

An irony was that people were adopting the conservative "tough on crime" rhetoric that led to a corporate prison system.

I showed this chart:

The chorus continued.

Now I get it. (Me = 💡 ) At least I think I do.

People look around and see bad guys who keep being bad.

They see people who are anti-democratic.

One person told me that people who are anti-democratic shouldn't be allowed to run for office.

The opposition, the GOP, is anti-democratic.

4/

Peter Thiel even said he no longer believes that "freedom and democracy are compatible.”

(The Learned Hand quotation in my weekend blog post explains what he means.)

https://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/04/13/peter-thiel/education-libertarian/

I now understand that people either don't understand democracy or simply don't have a stomach for it.

They want the opposition to disappear.

There is no opposition in a totalitarian government because the government doesn't allow it . . .

5/

A democratic society, by its very nature and under its terms, will contain people who are hostile to democracy.

A democratic society cannot get rid of all opposition.

There will always be anti-democratic elements.

Here is the twist: When a democratic society attempts to rid itself of all opposition, it becomes totalitarian.

Because to get rid of ALL opposition, you will have to catch a lot of people in the net.

6/

The only way to have a democracy is to allow people to have anti-democratic views and opinions.

That's the catch.

People with anti-democratic views and opinions will try to win office and force their government on everyone else.

That is what they will try to do.

When I post my "to do" list and explain that democracy is slow grinding work and requires lots of civil engagement, people say snide things. (One person yesterday referred to it as my "cut and paste" list.)

7/

I started to tell him about my hundreds of volunteer hours over the years, but some of my volunteer work is somewhere on my website.

Instead I deleted his comment from my blog and marked him as a spammer 🤷‍♀️

(I have a totalitarian blog 😂 )

Even a totalitarian regime can't get rid of all the opposition.

Stalin tried valiantly.

But you can't get everyone who opposes you and the ones left fight harder.

I keep asking the same question:

Do enough people have the stomach for democracy?

8/

Adding: I'm so sorry if it seemed like I was complaining about negative responses.

I do that sometimes, I guess.

This was more like a revelation: they keep thinking the opposition will disappear.

It's either ignorance of how democracy works or authoritarian tendencies.

I generally only block people who are aggressive when negative (probably because they're more likely to be coming from an authoritarian personality rather than ignorance of how rule of law works.)

9/