Much like the insidious foreign plot, the notion that people simply aren’t prepared for democracy is a fundamental rhetorical tool of failing regimes. Whatever this is might feel oppressive, the argument goes, but you have no idea how much worse abandoning this way of doing things will be. It’s an odd thing to watch a variant of this argument take root in the West. There’s immense persuasive power to the notion that the only alternative to mainstream Democratic politics is fascistic Republicanism.
