Suspend elections?

North Carolina Gov. Beverly Perdue just came out with a startling
thought about how to solve our nation’s economic woes — suspend
democracy.

That’s right, in Gov. Perdue’s world, the blame for our massive debt and almost unprecedented joblessness falls on the voters.

Her theory is that voters who hold their elected officials accountable
for their actions need to be taken out of the governmental system to
allow politicians leeway to take whatever actions they choose, without
fear of the ballot box.

I’m confident that many politicians have wondered to themselves about
what it would be like not to have to worry about those pesky voters.
President Obama himself recently told people that it would be so much
easier to be the president of China.

Of course, both Obama and Perdue are right. It is much easier to lead if you don’t have to worry about the consent of the governed.

This instinct toward daydreaming about how fun it would be to be able to impose whatever laws one wanted without worrying about reelection is not all that surprising from the left, which has held up Mao Zedong as a philosophical wise man.

One might remember that Anita Dunn ended up leaving the Obama White House over remarks she made praising the Chinese leader, who, according to official Chinese estimates, exterminated 30 million of his own people.

If power is not derived from the ballot box, then Mao’s famous assertion that “all power comes from the barrel of a gun” becomes the only recourse of the people.

Our nation faces many problems. It is alarming that the Democratic governor, who will be hosting the 2012 Democratic Party Convention in her state, has lost faith in democracy and would prefer dictatorial rule without electoral recourse.

Perhaps it is time for the governor to remove herself from a system that she no longer supports or has faith in.

Rick Manning is the director of communications for Americans for Limited Government. You can follow him on Twitter @rmanning957.