"As Scorn for Vote Grows, Protests Surge Around Globe"
"'Voting is worthless?' Global protests share contempt
for democracy"
So scream the headlines for this article at the New York Times, which was reprinted by MSNBC today. The article starts:
From India to Israel to Spain, and even on Wall Street, demonstrators appear to have little faith in the ballot box.
The protesters all over the world don't necessarily share a "contempt for democracy".
These are movements FOR democracy.
What these protesters share is a contempt for the corruption and the shortcomings of democracy as it is currently practiced in most so-called "democracies". They scorn a democracy which has been corrupted by the need for billion-dollar campaign chests. They distrust a democracy in which the corporate-owned media are biased and free to publish or broadcast distortions, innuendo, or out-and-out lies.
They have little faith in representatives who need to make nice with lobbyists as soon as they move to the capital or provincial or state houses. They are tired of seeing their democracies being "bought off" by the rich and powerful. They are angry that voting often means holding your nose and voting for the "lesser or two evils" instead of finding candidates that clearly care about the people and the country and will stick to their principles.
Now the following statement from the article is true:
These protesters share something else: wariness, even contempt, toward traditional politicians and the democratic political process they preside over.
But that doesn't mean they share a "contempt for democracy". No, they value democracy; they embrace it; they cherish it. And they know that what passes for democracy, both here and abroad, is a poor shadow of the real thing.
These people, young and old, but mostly young, know things can and should be better.
More power to all of them everywhere.
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Crushing the Human Spirit Indeed!
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