The Enmity Of The People

is something every demagogue likes to stoke up
whilst standing as a candidate in a free election,
whilst they seek to defeat their opposition,
who they want the public to label the antithesis
of the future of democratic representation.

In autocracies the process is much simpler;
the dictator, who controls the media,
chooses who will oppose him, the air time
they will get, the turn out, and by how much
the opposition will lose, in advance.

In autocracies the people's enmity is engineered
and finely tuned to the point where those
who say 'We are free' and similar
can't tell who is making them say those things.

What those who want to protect democracies fear
is that with every election that is free and fair
that returns a charismatic demagogue
the free and fair spirit of that democracy
will be replaced with a majoritarianism
led by humbug laden contrary dysphemisms
which will turn the electorate against each other
-the old against the young, rich against the poor,
all until the best use for wealth is detachment.