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Ep. 165 Dan McCarthy Trusts the People More Than the Elites

Dan McCarthy, Editor at Large of The American Conservative, joins Bob to discuss his view that conservatives and libertarians should stop heaping contempt on democracy. McCarthy argues that the elites are the real threat to liberty, not the masses.

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The audio production for this episode was provided by Podsworth Media.

About the author, Robert

Christian and economist, Chief Economist at infineo, and Senior Fellow with the Mises Institute.

2 Comments

  1. Caleb S on 11/24/2020 at 10:14 PM

    I think he underplays the populist element in the French Revolution. It doesn’t necessarily change his argument but it is important context and material for a potential counter-argument: See: The womens’ march on Versailles, the sanscullotes, the enrages, the cordelier district, the September massacres, etc.

  2. Not bob on 11/27/2020 at 12:29 AM

    Not convinced. The whole argument is based off the dichotomy between democracy and elite-run oligarchy. I’d think that these are just about equally bad. I certainly don’t see the moderating influence of democracy. People elected Hitler and Chavez. Pushing this off to “not real populism” is a weak argument.

    All democracies elect leaders to stand in for “the people,” so of course all of them will be run by elites. Unless you somehow manage a direct democracy with no representatives at all, which seems technically difficult.

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