In the headline, I'm really not exaggerating about what National Review's Ian Tuttle writes here:
If Bernie Sanders has his way, "Democracy Day" will be the crowning holiday of America’s dystopian future. Imagine: Everyone in slab-gray uni-gender tunics and biodegradable Crocs, all lined up in perfect uniformity to cast a legally mandated vote for the single party that remains. Democracy! Pharrell's "Happy" will play over loudspeakers in the background. On loop.
To the country's credit, a future in which Americans submit en masse to the shame of Crocs is unlikely. But Vermont senator Bernie Sanders is proposing, in the wake of November’s midterm-election turnout numbers, a new federal holiday: Election Day, or, as he would have it, "Democracy Day."
Yes, that's right: according to Tuttle, the Sanders proposal to give people a day off would inevitably lead to this (without the hammer-tosser):
A day off for voting isn't just the first step on a slippery slope to mandated conformity. It will lead, inevitably, to a prison-state:
But of all the reasons not to support "Democracy Day," perhaps the most obvious is that ... it's creepy. Not a few observers over the years have noted that "democracy" is a word that tends to be used in celebratory ways primarily in places that do not practice it: for instance, North Korea, a.k.a. the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Governments take to lauding democracy as a way of concealing the fact that it no longer exists.
Hmmm....
And if you're still not persuaded, here's Tuttle with some mind-reading:
What Sanders et al. want in "Democracy Day" is, indeed, a holiday -- but in its original meaning: a "holy day." They worship "democracy." The very word is an enchantment against all forms of political evil. On "Democracy Day," we would all do obeisance.
KNEEL BFORE THE ELDERLY LADY WORKING THE POLLS! KNEEL, I SAY!
So since it's apparently bad to be given time to do something worthwhile (although Tuttle questions whether voting is worthwhile, at least for someone who might have "checked Obama's name because it was, like, way more fun to say," as opposed to "the guy who tattooed Mitt Romney's logo to the side of his head," who obviously deserves to vote), and since Tuttle writes for a magazine founded by a proud Catholic named William F. Buckley (Tuttle himself is a William F. Buckley Jr. Fellow at the National Review Institute), I think maybe we should apply the logic in this piece to something Buckleyan conservatives think is worthwhile actual religious worship.
Why should we have these so-called "weekends," these obligatory "days of rest" timed to the sabbaths of the Christian and Jewish faiths? Isn't this just a totalitarian imposition practically forcing us to worship the Judeo-Christian God? Wouldn't worship actually mean more if we had to risk our jobs in order to attend weekly services? Society should erect impediments to religious worship! Right, Ian?
Crossposted at No More Mr. Nice Blog
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