Sublime

democracy cannot survive in stasis. Alexis de Tocqueville’s canonical view of “democratic revolution,” a gradual progression toward ever more deeply democratic institutions, refuses to deify any particular institutional form.

These tactics had, of course, been employed within the confines of campus politics, so small-scale and insignificant compared to the politics of the outside world. Within those confines, nonetheless, had emerged a certain pattern to the tactics—the politicking—of Lyndon Johnson. Perhaps the most significant aspect of the pattern was its lack of any

Both threats strike at the heart of democracy, which, as Alexis de Tocqueville famously highlighted in Democracy in America, depends on deep and diverse, non-market, decentralized social and civil connections to thrive

becomes dangerous in proportion to the impossibility which excludes great parties from acquiring the majority.

C’est précisément cette dimension temporelle de la démocratie que Hofstadter, et avec lui la plupart des antipopulistes passés et présents, rejettent. Pour l’historien américain, l’histoire est pour l’essentiel faite par des forces – économiques, culturelles, sociales – qui dépassent de très loin la capacité des collectivités à influer sur son cour

Look at states. In the 1992 presidential election, there were thirty-two “battleground” or “swing” states, those considered winnable by either party. By 2000, there were twenty-two. By 2004, fourteen. And by 2020, there were only eight.

Tocqueville a pointé la puissance des sentiments identitaires en politique : « Il n’y a au monde que le patriotisme et la religion qui puissent faire marcher pendant longtemps vers un même but l’universalité des citoyens45. » Or le réveil des passions nationalistes et religieuses entraîne le renouveau de la contestation de la liberté politique par

Trump, in Bannon’s view, was a chapter, or even a detour, in the Trump revolution, which had always been about weaknesses in the two major parties. The Trump presidency—however long it lasted—had created the opening that would provide the true outsiders their opportunity. Trump was just the beginning.

of those men who have overturned the liberties of republics, the greatest number have begun their career by paying an obsequious court to the people; commencing demagogues, and ending tyrants.