I am going to say something quite harsh here, and some of you won’t like it. There are plenty of philosophers, posh James Orr types, who pontificate endlessly about democracy and why it is so brilliant and “sacred”. But in the real world, a world of injustice and competing human interests, democracy’s basic function is to mitigate violence and military-style takeovers. Democracy exists, in large part, to dampen our violent instincts by creating a political process that is competitive, peaceful and broadly fair. You give people a mechanism for changing their government without having to overthrow it. But there is a quid pro quo. When democratic parties win power, they have to deliver on the promises they made to the electorate, particularly on something as existential as immigration. Otherwise, the entire point of the democratic process starts to unravel. So ask yourself: what happens when parties repeatedly break their promises, ignore the electorate, gaslight people about what is happening around them, and even start imprisoning people for expressing political views? Well, I’ll tell you. The democratic contract is broken. What happens then? Well…