# the political orientation of those who favor government by the people or by their elected representatives.
# a political system in which the supreme power lies in a body of citizens who can elect people to represent them.
# majority rule: the doctrine that the numerical majority of an organized group can make decisions binding on the whole group.
I've been following political events in the States and I know how it has been but reading the New York Times tonight, I felt sickened by the campaign of dirty tricks, lies and manipulation that lie in wait when the parties begin their run for the presidential campaign.
Here we are, 21st century and tell me what is evolved, insightful, intelligent or democratic about this ...
So that man or woman with the best spin doctor, most talent for twisting and the most money 'wins'?
Democracy ... clearly I've been reading the wrong dictionary.
6 comments:
That noise you hear is your American friends pounding their heads on the table and weeping.
I don't know if this makes you feel better or worse, but the more you read up on presidential history, the more you see that this type of stuff has been going on since George Washington. That IS democracy at work. Even nastier stuff. The trouble is that today the mass media and the internet deliver these manipulations and half truths to us at a record pace.
Pam, find a cushion. You don't deserve that nor the farce that is 'may the one with the best spin-doctor win'.
I think that's what is so bad about this, Neil ... that it's been going on forever, it's only devolving into something nastier. So someone like Obama comes along, a lot of people like him and soon the Republican dogs will be unleashed upon him ... like always in this 'democratic' style of politics that seems so very heightened in the States.
Maybe I just foolishly associated the word democracy with honourable, trustworthy, the will of the people ... but that's foolish childish nonsense, isn't it.
Everyone out here is holding their breath.
There's a great Leoanrd Cohen song, Di, called Democracy:
It's coming through a hole in the air,
from those nights in Tiananmen Square.
It's coming from the feel
that this ain't exactly real,
or it's real, but it ain't exactly there.
From the wars against disorder,
from the sirens night and day,
from the fires of the homeless,
from the ashes of the gay:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
It's coming through a crack in the wall;
on a visionary flood of alcohol;
from the staggering account
of the Sermon on the Mount
which I don't pretend to understand at all.
It's coming from the silence
on the dock of the bay,
from the brave, the bold, the battered
heart of Chevrolet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
It's coming from the sorrow in the street,
the holy places where the races meet;
from the homicidal bitchin'
that goes down in every kitchen
to determine who will serve and who will eat.
From the wells of disappointment
where the women kneel to pray
for the grace of God in the desert here
and the desert far away:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
Sail on, sail on
O mighty Ship of State!
To the Shores of Need
Past the Reefs of Greed
Through the Squalls of Hate
Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on.
It's coming to America first,
the cradle of the best and of the worst.
It's here they got the range
and the machinery for change
and it's here they got the spiritual thirst.
It's here the family's broken
and it's here the lonely say
that the heart has got to open
in a fundamental way:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A
***
And there's more! I think that democracy's now here yet but it's still important that we want it too arrive someday. Otherwise we lose something important.
Maybe you will understand me even more now, politics ... on a large scale or just in a district ... forget about idealism. Maybe some, but once they smell the power, they change.
See you!
Lut
Thanks for the song, Harvey. I need to go listen.
I agree Lut, it's just so very disappointing sometimes.
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