Democracy

 

Democracy

I'm sentimental, if you know what I mean
I love the country but I can't stand the scene
And I'm neither left or right
I'm just staying home tonight
Getting lost in that hopeless little screen
But I'm stubborn as those garbage bags
That time cannot decay
I'm junk but I'm still holding up this little wild bouquet
Democracy is coming to the USA
To the USA

Elections are not the only indication of a democracy.

The late Leonard Cohen, a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, not only wrote such classics as Hallelujah and Suzanne. He also wrote the song. above. To those of us who think that the USA IS already a democracy, it might seem strange to hear that “Democracy is coming to the USA.”  But democracy is NOT just about elections. It is about free and fair elections that mean something.

The Holy Roman Empire, long before the Hapsburgs, was a monarchy that used elections to select its Emperors, so clearly elections alone do not mean a democracy. The recent “elections” at gunpoint by Russian soldiers approving the annexation of Ukraine provinces into the Russian Federation were hardly fair and free. Votes in the Senate to end debate and move votes to the floor, popularly known as the “filibuster”, which are not secret, and where the losing Party may punish that vote, are not free. If the loser of an election refuses to leave office, then the election, was to that loser just another contest of domination and the election itself meant nothing.

Democracy assumes that the will of the people will be expressed and accepted. Let us hope that on October 30^th democracy comes to Brazil. And that on November 8^th democracy will come to the USA.