The New Yorker called an American presidential candidate "...first overtly anti-democratic leader of a large party in its modern history" - have their been leaders in US history who could be called "overtly anti-democratic?"

by wintertash

I'm sorry if this trends too close to politics or current events, but I found this assertion really interesting without knowing how to go about looking into the history of "anti-democratic" leadership in America.

Irishfafnir

Yes, most founding fathers were against the idea of democracy or as they saw it mob rule. Moving into the 1790's you had social revolutions of a sort throughout the North that Federalists often opposed as they wanted a stratified society. You had ongoing state battles over white male suffrage until the Civil War era, battles over who selected electors until the civil war era, battles over the direct election of senators, battles over if freed men could vote prior to the civil war, battles over the right for women to have a vote, you also had battles over secret ballot voting (which was opposed for instance by wealthy New York landowners who wanted to control their tenants). Anti-democratic leaders are pretty common in American history