My father often said persuasion is better than force.  I doubt he knew how universally true that is.

You've probably heard many times someone say there's no difference between Democrats and Republicans.  That is just plain wrong.  The choice of persuasion or force is the central difference between the Republican and Democrat parties.  For the most part, Republicans dislike the use of force, and Democrats dislike the use of persuasion, especially persuasion in the form of free speech.

Why the Democrats' lack of interest in free speech and their reliance on force?  They have no confidence in the strength and soundness of their ideas.  Most of their policies are counterproductive disasters.  They don't know how to be persuasive.  It's too hard for them.  Force is their default.  Their intolerance of free speech has become painfully clear — witness the cancel culture, censorship, and the lifetime lockout of Donald Trump from Twitter.  Censorship prevents and cancels opportunities for persuasion.  Democrat tech oligarchs, in particular, hate persuasion.  They fear it.  How the tech tyrants have chosen to use their power shows a degree of arrogance beyond anything ever seen in America.  Their lust for domination knows no bounds.

Democrats are not satisfied just outcompeting their opponents; they want to crush them.  They aim to humiliate them so thoroughly that they or no one like them ever tries anything like this again.  They seek to destroy not only Donald Trump, but anyone who ever agreed with any position he ever advocated.

The Democrat tech tyrants, specifically, are the biggest private-sector bullies ever.  If there were guillotines available they would use them.  Their Trump Derangement Syndrome only intensified as he was on his way out the door.  They want revenge, and they want blood.  We're witnessing a revival of the French Revolution.

Big Tech has become the greatest concentration of power that's ever existed in the private economy.  It used to be that "conspiracy in restraint of trade" was a violation of our anti-trust laws.  Don't expect Joe Biden's administration to start enforcing those laws.  The tech oligarchs have been far too useful to the Democrat party.

The Big Tech corporations wield their power in the form of censorship and suppression, both being extremely destructive forms of force.  Without free speech, America cannot be America.  If you erase a person's freedom, you erase the person.

Democrats prefer force because they detest a free citizenry. They scorn the First Amendment. During the lockdowns politicians and power-mad Democrat health officials wiped their feet on it, especially on those parts about freedom of speech, assembly, and religion.

The Founding Fathers specified a free press in the Bill of Rights because they knew that a free press is crucial in limiting the power of government. We now have a situation where the press has become so one-sided it is no longer "free." The media conform so thoroughly that their pathetic members have no minds of their own. They use the exact same words and phraseology in their reporting.

Meanwhile, Democrat politicians have gushed over the opportunity to wield force bestowed on them by the virus lockdowns. Sad to say, they have actually fallen in love with the virus itself. It has been a cornucopia for those thirsting for power.

Concentrated power inevitably leads to the use of force because humans do not give up their freedom without a fight.  Our Founding Fathers recognized that threat.  While the primary purpose of the Constitution is to limit the power of government, more generally it restricts the concentration of power.  As Lord Acton said, "power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

Power generates its own gravity that forever pulls more power toward it.  That's what we're seeing now with the Democrat tech giants and the Democrat lockdowns.  Dictators and tyrants always want absolute power.  That's why unchecked power brings on totalitarianism.

To err is human and unavoidable.  Progress can happen only through a process of trial and error.  The smaller the trial, the smaller the error.  The more small trials, the more progress.  But when absolute power errs, the damage is massive.

Ron Ross, Ph.D. is a former economics professor and author of The Unbeatable Market.  He can be reached at rossecon@aol.com.

Image: Pixabay.