tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post5114362445646800499..comments2023-10-16T07:13:12.123-05:00Comments on A plain blog about politics: Read Stuff, You ShouldJonathan Bernsteinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15931039630306253241noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-7906056789679439472013-12-10T00:09:16.840-06:002013-12-10T00:09:16.840-06:00Yes. If you click through the links within the Mar...Yes. If you click through the links within the Marquez post, you'll see that he's quite aware of these issues, although for whatever reason he stuck to a coding scheme that included only democracy, not republic. Jonathan Bernsteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15931039630306253241noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-43427016246226679202013-12-09T23:19:14.105-06:002013-12-09T23:19:14.105-06:00Pessimists, including me,were wrong about South Af...Pessimists, including me,were wrong about South Africa.<br /><br />I don't think I've ever heard anyone admit to being too optimistic about 'majority rule' in Zimbabwe, formerly Rhodesia.David Tomlinnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6926413038778731189.post-76857458934498606902013-12-09T16:23:51.544-06:002013-12-09T16:23:51.544-06:00Until the 20th century, in the United States the w...Until the 20th century, in the United States the word "democracy" was closely associated with the Democratic Party. In fact, the party was often called "the Democracy." For more on this, see the history of the word by linguist <a href="http://people.ischool.berkeley.edu/~nunberg/democrats.html" rel="nofollow">Geoff Nunberg</a>, who brings an interesting quote from William Jennings Bryan:<br /><br />"I recognize... how much fidelity it requires to plead for Democracy in New England. Here in New England a man may be a Democrat with much credit. I am glad your committee called from the South a representative of Southern Democracy."<br /><br />To modern ears, remarks like this almost sound like the Democrats were puffing themselves up and implicitly attacking their opponents--sort of like the term "pro-life" today. ("<i>We</i> support democracy, the Republicans dictatorship....") But back then, the word "democracy" didn't suggest something universally accepted in the political mainstream, the way it does now. It was more akin to how we use words like <i>conservative</i> or <i>progressive</i>. In fact, as Nunberg notes, it had strong connotations of egalitarianism.Kylopodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06932528611103718373noreply@blogger.com