Democracy’s Damndest Defamation

Cops at a Capitol HIll protest in September 2021. Photo: James Bovard.

In a democracy, people automatically become liable for whatever the government inflicts upon them. Many of the most deadly errors of contemporary political thinking stem from the notion that in a democracy the government is the people and vice versa, so there is scant reason to distinguish between the two—or to worry about protecting citizens from the government.

In 1798, President John Adams pushed through Congress the Alien and Sedition Acts...