Clueless BBC Strikes Again

In a story on the American electorate, BBC's editorial ignorance allows an urban legend on its website yet again:

George Bush's father lost the 1992 election because he went to a supermarket and plainly had not the slightest idea of what people did in supermarkets.

If that were true it would be a bizarre stretch over something so trivial. But it is not true.

Wait, there's more:

But there is another lesson that might be added to the list: democracy is one heck of a mess.

Which is why Americans need to stop thinking of the United States as a democracy. Cox & Forkum recently blasted Bush (and most of the American population, I daresay) on the issue, quite rightly pointing to this explanation by Leonard Peikoff...

The American system is not a democracy. It is a constitutional republic. A democracy, if you attach meaning to terms, is a system of unlimited majority rule; the classic example is ancient Athens. And the symbol of it is the fate of Socrates, who was put to death legally, because the majority didn't like what he was saying, although he had initiated no force and had violated no one's rights.

Democracy, in short, is a form of collectivism, which denies the individual rights: the majority can do whatever it wants with no restrictions. In principle, the democratic government is all-powerful. Democracy is a totalitarian manifestation; it is not a form of freedom...

The American system is a constitutionally limited republic, restricted to the protection of individual rights. In such a system, majority rule is applicable only to lesser details, such as the selection of certain personnel. But the majority has no say over the basic principles governing the government. It has no power to ask for or gain the infringement of individual rights.

Please remember that.

Update: Instapundit links to two cases of further BBC-induced lunacy.