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Mike Lee rationalizes Trump's authoritarianism but where's the super-spreader victims like Jared

Posted by annieli on

Even at 36 people stricken with COVID so far from contact at the White House, all kinds of people are missing, perhaps quarantined, with a few hospitalized. Perhaps there will be improved contact tracing, despite the attempts to conceal their base incompetence and slavish loyalty to Trump. 

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Is the White House Covering Up the Fact that Donald Trump Is Patient Zero of the COVID-19 Outbreak?

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 9, 2020

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Does make one wonder about the drugs used to treat COVID and their personality changes.

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— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) October 8, 2020

Senator Mike Lee (R-UT), who was democratically elected into office in 2011, tweeted Thursday that “democracy isn’t the objective” of the United States. In a flailing attempt to debate the finer points of difference between a constitutional republic and a direct democracy, Lee wrote, “Democracy isn’t the objective; liberty, peace, and prospefity [sic] are. We want the human condition to flourish. Rank democracy can thwart that.”

In an earlier tweet, he wrote, “The word ‘democracy’ appears nowhere in the Constitution, perhaps because our form of government is not a democracy. It’s a constitutional republic. To me it matters.” A spokeswoman for his office pointed The Salt Lake Tribune to one of the Federalist Papers as backup for Lee’s thinking.

One tweet that especially created a firestorm on social media was: “Democracy isn’t the objective; liberty, peace, and prosperity are. We want the human condition to flourish. Rank democracy can thwart that.”

So, “rank democracy” can thwart liberty, peace and prosperity?

When Lee’s spokesperson, Conn Carroll, was asked if Lee could explain his thinking, Carroll simply pointed to a quote from James Madison in Federalist Papers No. 10, one in a collection of essays written to promote ratification of the U.S. Constitution.

“Democracies,” it says, “have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.”

During the debate Wednesday, Lee tweeted often about comments he didn’t like. But several focused on democracy.

“We’re not a democracy,” he tweeted in one.

In another, he said, “The word ‘democracy’ appears nowhere in the Constitution, perhaps because our form of government is not a democracy. It’s a constitutional republic. To me it matters. It should matter to anyone who worries about the excessive accumulation of power in the hands of the few.”

Lee — who is in self-quarantine after testing positive for COVID-19 — also tweeted, “Government is the official use of coercive force — nothing more and nothing less. The Constitution protects us by limiting the use of government force.”
People on social media quickly took aim at Lee’s comments, especially the tweet saying that “rank democracy” threatens liberty, peace and prosperity. They turned #rankdemocracy into a popular hashtag.

Among them was Steve Schmidt, a Republican political strategist public who worked with President George W. Bush and Arizona Sen. John McCain.

He tweeted, “The attainment of liberty, peace and prosperity can only be achieved through democracy. This isn’t an abstract, academic argument that @SenMikeLee is making. It is the authoritarian argument in a nutshell. Astonishing statement from a United States Senator. It would be fun to run against this guy. Someone should think about it.”

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— Trinity (@TrinityResists) October 8, 2020

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— (((DeanObeidallah))) (@DeanObeidallah) October 8, 2020

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— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) September 19, 2020

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— Duty To Warn 🔉 (@duty2warn) October 9, 2020

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— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) October 8, 2020

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— Democratic Coalition (@TheDemCoalition) October 9, 2020

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