Anti-democracy, part 4

This BS is not going to go away though, impeachment or not. Clinton has Saudis and emails; for Trump it’s Russians and memos. One problem with politics is that it attracts people who seek power and status, so they will do anything to attain and keep it, because power and status in democracies is fleeting. So much effort is wasted trying to maintain power and status, instead of doing actual policy. An absolute monarchy does not have this problems, because power is permanent. Also, because monarchies are hereditary, one can not ‘aspire’ to it the same way people aspire to become politicians. In democracies, it’s possible to have a really competent politician; but mostly likely, it attracts the overly ambitious. Some liken elections to ‘popularity contests,’ and there is truth to that observation, but then why are so many candidates just so awful? Wouldn’t a popularity content mean that the winning candidates have to at least be likable? Another problem is the probing, if not outright treasonous, media such as the New York Times, which impedes the ability of Trump to do his job, whereas absolute monarchies obviously don’t have that problem. The first year of Trump’s administration will probably be wasted fending off allegations of colluding with the Russians, and then the third year will be wasted trying to get reelected. See how inefficient this is. You cannot have both ‘freedom of the press’ and effective government.

Part of what makes America so resilient despite democratic dysfunction is the overwhelming strength of the private sector, especially the high-IQ sectors such as technology, which unlike the government, rewards competence. But for countries such as Spain and Brazil, that have neither a competent government nor a strong private sector, the combination is especially inauspicious.