When democracy gets in the way

“Liberty and democracy are incompatible”. It was Peter Thiel, the superhero of Pay Pal and Palantir Technologies, who thus gave meaning to the offensive against democracy that has been circulating in the United States for some time and that Donald Trump is putting into practice with systematic abuse of power, permanently disregarding the legislative and judicial branches. The ball has been inflating. The ideologues of the government, with Vice President J.D. Vance in the front line, have joined in. And the anti-democratic flood has continued to prosper, in the USA, but also in Europe.

In the new financial and digital capitalism, democracy is a nuisance. Why? Simply because it sets limits and guarantees people rights that are often seen as obstacles by those who believe that anything is permitted to them, for who they are, for the power they hold. And this insolence makes inroads and fuels the reactionary mobilization against democracy that we are now seeing everywhere and that in Europe is about to bring the extreme right to power, which in the heyday of liberal democracy was marginal and which now has the liberal and conservative parties cornered.

We have it next door: in France, where Marine Le Pen could be president of the Republic next year (and, if justice does not prevent it, because Jordan Bardella, her second, is awaiting judicial proceedings); in Spain, where Vox has already risen on the back of the PP and the right has surrendered to pacts with Abascal and company, everything points in a similar direction; and even in Catalonia, where Sílvia Orriols is cornering Junts, which, dependent on the amortized figure of Puigdemont, is running out of projects and giving space to Aliança Catalana.

All this so that it is clear that this offensive against democracy by certain global powers of influence challenges us all and we cannot afford to be complacent if we do not want to find ourselves under the dominion of post-democratic authoritarianism, in a phase of systematic expansion. And in this sense, the upcoming American elections acquire a determining importance: either the Democratic Party saves the furniture or the authoritarian path, installed in the hegemonic economic powers, will continue unstoppable. Because ultimately, the fundamental question is this: are we living through a change of economic system and what is at stake is whether the new financial and digital capitalism is compatible with democracy or not. In the background of all this, there is a struggle of power relations between the great powers of the United States, and increasingly it feels like the more progressive sectors are in retreat, which is not irrelevant at a time when democracy is in decline all over the world.

What is the contribution of democracy? A system that grants fundamental rights to everyone, sets limits on abuses of power, and makes possible the recognition of the dignity of citizens. It is evident that the levels of inequality are abysmal, but its logic is that everything functions within a framework of respect for basic principles of recognition. And it seems, for some time now, that some are not satisfied with this. They want their own space without limits. In other words: they want to rule, above everyone else. And with Trump they have found the ideal jester at a time when the digital communication model – largely at the service of certain technological powers – favors their work.

Democracy grew accustomed to the communication model shaped by the written press, radio, and then television, and is now overwhelmed. In any case, what is alarming about this situation is what it represents in terms of a loss of the notion of limits, of powerful people who believe that anything is permitted to them. And they even display it physically: in how they move and how they speak to us. Thiel is the blatant form, Trump the crude version. And anything that is not in their interest bothers them. Today democracies are in decline, there are fewer of them and authoritarian parties are growing everywhere. If we find it dead, we cannot say we don't know how it happened. He who warns is no traitor.

In other words, let's not fool ourselves: outside of democracy there is only authoritarianism. Curtis Yarvin, ideologue of the dark Enlightenment, has defined the ideal of Peter Thiel and company: “A United States governed by a company with a lifetime CEO”. With this sentence, everything is said. Money in power. And the rest, at home. We cannot afford to be careless, we must defend democracy. Truly, not with the ridiculous spectacles of Emmanuel Macron, who was supposed to liberalize France and whose legacy may be the far-right in power.