What is the Fundamental Basis of Democracy?

Vietnam war - we all know exactly what this is

This was part of the evil too

The fundamental basis of democracy is facts, true truths and sound reasoning; 

Lying to and manipulating the public usurps democracy and advances tyranny

In her 1999 book, Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life, moral philosopher, Sisella Bok wrote this in chapter 12, Lies for the Public Good, about the presidential election before America launched into America’s tragically unjustified, disastrous and profoundly immoral, actually evil, Vietnam War:

“[Johnson repeatedly told the American people] ‘the first responsibility, the only real issue in this campaign, the only thing you ought to be concerned about at all, is: Who can best keep the peace?’ The stratagem succeeded; the election was won; the war escalated. .... President Johnson thus denied the electorate of any chance to give or refuse consent to the escalation of the war in Vietnam. Believing they had voted for the candidate of peace, American citizens were, within months, deeply embroiled in one of the cruelest wars in their history. Deception of this kind strikes at the very essence of democratic government.” 

Note the argument that deception strikes at the very essence of democratic government. That is the main point.

As Bok pointed out, Johnson fully intended to escalate the war while at the same time lying to the American people in his campaign for president. He lied to Americans by telling them that he would de-escalate the war. In essence, Bok argued that when people in a democracy form beliefs and make decisions on the basis of lies and deceit, that deprives citizens of their right to make a choice on the basis of truth. The source of the lies and deceit do not matter.[1]

The moral reasoning is straightforward: Citizens who base their decisions on political, special interest or ideologue dark free speech** deprive those citizens of their right to make a choice to consent or dissent on the basis of truth. It really is that simple.

** Dark free speech: lies, deceit, unjustifiable, irrational emotional manipulation, unjustifiable, irrational motivated reasoning, unwarranted character assassination, race baiting, irrational homophobia, irrational xenophobia, etc.

Moral courage requires an ability to face and accept inconvenient facts, truths and reasoning. Moral cowardice lies in ignoring, denying or distorting such inconvenience. Inconvenience is replaced by lies, deceit, manipulation and motivated reasoning. It isn't just politicians and partisan ideologues who are bereft of moral courage. Much of the private sector relies on moral cowardice to make money, just like political moral cowards use it to gain power or influence. The coward oil and plastic industry intentionally deceived and still deceives the American people into a false belief that plastics are mostly recyclable. The coward oil industry tries hard, often quietly with lobbyists and money, to deny anthropogenic climate change.

What shields moral cowards is a combination of ignorance and dark free speech among the public. Significant ignorance is understandable because moral cowards are lying, deceiving and hiding truths as hard as they can.

As I define the concept, all dark free speech is legal. The courts protect dark free speech every bit as much as they protect honest speech. There is no legal difference. 

It isn't dark free speech, it is epistemic terrorism

One of my common interlocutors here has repeatedly criticized my use of "dark free speech" as too wuss. His argument is basically that the label dark free speech is unacceptable because the concept is much more toxic than merely dark. He calls it epistemic terrorism. The google definition of epistemic is "relating to knowledge or to the degree of its validation." Is that label too vague for most people to understand? 

Regardless, maybe deceiving and irrationally manipulating people to win hearts and minds is a form of terrorism. 

Is it? Or, is this too wonky to pay much attention to, e.g., splitting hairs and whatnot?

Footnote: 

1. In a real tyranny, the people have no meaningful voice. It does not matter much if their decisions are based on truth or lies. The tyrant decides, not the people. 

Vietnam

We were deceived

They were innocent