'The 2012 Election is a Test of the People'

As H.L. Mencken famously said, “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”

On September 10th at the Corner, Jay Nordlinger put that nearly-100-year old sentiment into modern terms:

This year, the electorate has a very clear choice, not least when it comes to economics. We are headed toward disaster. One side, the side heard in Charlotte, won’t even acknowledge the problem. It’s not merely that they don’t propose a solution; they won’t even acknowledge a problem. It’s just ever more free stuff, courtesy of “the rich.” Business, or non-business, as usual.

You can’t force people to save themselves, or their country. If they don’t want to — they don’t want to. In a democracy, people get what they deserve (or at least a majority does).

Republicans often say, “The Left controls education from kindergarten to grad school. They dominate the movie industry. The news media. Entertainment television. Popular music. Everything except talk radio!” Okay — and if you think that, do you have any right to be surprised when the people vote Democrat?

The 2012 election, I think, is not so much a test of Obama or Romney as a test of the people. There is a clear choice, with two very different candidates, each an excellent exponent of his view. Whatever the outcome of the election, the people will be responsible for that outcome.

Or at least the 53 percent left who are free to choose.