Democracy and Its Discontents

Whether intentionally or not, this observation touches on something deep in the current GOP psyche. In so many ways, the current political right does see civil spaces as war zones. This is apparent in the way they talk about cities famous for their pedestrian culture -- like NYC and San Francisco -- but also in the way they treat the virtual spaces of political interaction. Their imaginary is deeply embedded in some romanticized version of small town middle America - an imaginary in which cities, with their diverse concentrations of population are disaster scenes. Somewhat more metaphorically, because they have strategically rejected established practices and institutions for adjudicating disagreements. Without recourse to standards of reasonable argument and evidence, civil space does, indeed, become a war zone. Moreover, this new right has a distinct aversion to public schools precisely because they are both civil and civic spaces. The notion that a society would need to instil in its members the civic values that allows for the meaningful exercise of democracy is treated by the right as a form of illegitimate indoctrination. The very notion of civic life is viewed as an imposition upon individual autonomy.