PROGRESSIVES LOSING INTEREST IN DEMOCRACY:

“The political Right,” maintains the progressive economist and columnist Paul Krugman, “has always been uncomfortable with democracy.”

But today it’s progressives themselves who, increasingly, are losing faith in democracy. Indeed, as the Obama era rushes to a less-than-glorious end, important left-of-center voices, like Matt Yglesias, now suggest that “democracy is doomed.”

Yglesias correctly blames “the breakdown of American constitutional democracy” on both Republicans and Democrats; George W. Bush expanded federal power in the field of national defense while Barack Obama has done it mostly on domestic issues. Other prominent progressives such as American Prospect’s Robert Kuttner have made similar points, even quoting Italian wartime fascist leader Benito Mussolini about the inadequacy of democracy.

Huh. Somebody should write a book on this liberal-fascism thing.

But, of course, progressives have always faced the problem that the American electorate — composed, remember, of those awful, hateful flyover people — isn’t progressive enough. That’s why they want to import a bunch of new voters who’ll be reliable constituents for the lefty machine. This is what happened in Britain.