Government Of, By, and For the (Five) People
The United States seems to spend an awful lot of its time worrying about the state of democracy in other countries. It certainly does seem justified lately. For our loyal cave-dwelling or moon-inhabiting readers:
In Iran, a man, who calls himself the “Supreme Leader” but calls his government a democracy, validated a clearly bogus election, sparking massive amounts of civil unrest. Pictures are emerging of recounts in which many piles of ballots seem to be written in the exact same handwriting (little known fact about Iranians – they all have identical handwriting and choice of pen color).
In Iraq, in what seems to amount to an enormous self-fulfilling prophecy by our ex-President, American troops drove through the streets of Baghdad past cheering crowds. Yes, we have been greeted as liberators…from ourselves. Regardless, the government stands on shaky ground, as the new regime must address major security concerns as well as ethnic and regional tensions.
In Honduras (for those of us of the Western Hemisphere persuasion), President Zelaya attempted an illegal power grab in an attempt to run for a third term, fired the head of the military, was overruled by the Supreme Court, and then was deposed in a sudden military coup which exiled him from the country, the first such military overthrow in the region since the Cold War. No, we weren’t behind this one, and the international community has all but unanimously condemned the revolt, demanding that the President be restored and kicked out of office the old fashioned way – submitting a resignation to avoid public prosecution and disgrace, then boarding a helicopter and smiling triumphantly for the cameras.
Yes, truly democracy is on the march. But perhaps America should take a long look at its own government, and really consider if we embody the values we promote abroad.
Sled dogs, surviving only on the defenseless mailmen found along their journey, arrive from the frozen north with an urgent news bulletin, dated NOVEMBER 4, 2008, after the jump:
Breaking news from the 2008 2009 perpetual Senate race in Minnesota. After almost EIGHT MONTHS of counting, recounting, explaining via word problem, and waiting, the election that wouldn’t end HAS ENDED. Al Franken, professional comedian and patience champion of the world is officially the Senator-elect from Minnesota, defeating former-Senator and poster-child-for-what-Al-Gore-could-have-been Norm Coleman. This comes after the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled 5-0 to uphold a three-judge panel’s decision in April that Franken had won the election by 312 votes. In other words, it took months, millions of campaign dollars and legal fees, and eight state judges to determine, in the words of the court, “that Al Franken received the highest number of votes.”
Firstly, I am so glad that we have this terrific legal system, filled with experts who can fully and thoroughly do the work of subtracting Coleman’s total from Franken’s total that a calculator can do in 8 seconds. It must have taken countless volumes of legal precedent to determine that “>” means “greater than.”
Secondly, I am thankful for Norm Coleman’s gracious decision to concede. He definitely respects our system of government, as he chose to step aside to abide by the decision of the Supreme Court. It does raise a question, though:
Why is it that the court gets to decide this? Why wouldn’t Coleman just abide by the decision of some other group, say, THE PEOPLE OF MINNESOTA. when they gave Al Franken 312 more votes than him? I thought that the basis of democracy was that the PEOPLE get to decide on who represents them in government, not a group of five guys in black robes.
This is one of the most basic ideals of our government. People vote, and that’s the decision. We have never EVER left the outcome of an election in the hands of five political appointees instead of the democratically-empowered citizens. To disregard the will of the people, that would truly be a violation of our truest values and… oh.
Wait.
Maybe there’s a lesson in all of this for aspiring tyrannical despots everywhere. It’s so obvious now why Khamenei and Ahmadinejad failed to successfully steal their presidential election a few weeks ago.
Silly Supreme Leader, it takes 5 SUPREMES to decide an election as they see fit.
At least you had the black robes, but that isn’t enough. Maybe if you had four friends, you could have gotten away with it. Now you might actually be stuck with real democracy, not just what to look like democracy at first glance.
Ben Theodor tried to tame the blogging beast within by murdering his former blog, Change We Voted For, in cold blood (his first attempt, Election Day Countdown, expired due to natural causes). However, like so many cheap horror movie villains, Ben's sarcasm simply couldn't be kept down, and has found a permanent home here at BOTO. Read more.
