democracy exists in a tension between
demophobia and demophilia--between fears of democratic volatility and hopes that democratic deliberation can transform that volatility into consensus--then the way that the U.S.
Ivie and Oscar Giner (2007) describe how America's inward "
demophobia" was projected outward and conjured as the devil during the buildup to the war.
I suspect that those who are opposed to such a vote have a severe case of
demophobia: the fear of letting voters decide what they themselves believe is in their own best interests.
This deep distrust of the people, or "
demophobia," confounds the identity and bewilders the political will of a self-proclaimed exceptional nation (Ivie 2005a, 14, 34, 43-44, 90-91).