Sunday, March 20, 2022

QUESTIONS: DEMOCRACY VS AUTOCRACY

(My life has been busier than usual the past week or so and will continue to be for at least another week or more.   I've been visiting other blogs  less frequently but will resume again soon.) 

                             *                                               *                                              *

                     Tears For Fears -- "Everybody Wants To Rule The World"

Performed on a recent Late Show With Stephen Colbert celebrating the release of their latest album "The Tipping Point".


DW a respected German news source, one of several media in other countries I follow, recently reported "Democracy in decline worldwide" in Peter Hille's article you may read by clicking on that title with these excerpts:  

"For the first time since 2004, the Bertelsmann Transformation Index (BTI) has recorded more autocratic states than democracies around the world.  Civil society activists often represent the last bastion of resistance."  [Emphasis is mine.]

Hille's report continues:

"Of the 137 developing and transition countries examined, only 67 are still considered democracies.  The number of autocracies has increased to 70."

Additionally, Hille notes:

"This is the worst political transformation result we have ever measured in the 15 years of our work," says Hauke Hartmann, BTI project manager at the Bertelsmann Foundation.  This is due to the fact around the world there are fewer free and fair elections, less freedom of opinion and assembly, as well as increasing erosion of the separation of powers." [Emphasis is mine.]

Many tactics were employed for four years during our previous president's administration to weaken our democracy including spreading falsehoods about our election's fairness, attempts were made to stifle contradictory opinion, and limiting efforts were directed toward our free press.

Most egregious was the exploitation of the legal system to undermine our U.S. Constitution including efforts to erode the separation of powers in our nation's three branches.  The executive branch increasingly dictated to the other branches, legislative and judicial, often attempting to ignore or circumvent the rule of law which was espoused to being believed but  actions demonstrated otherwise.

You are probably aware of many examples of efforts within our country that continue to be made to weaken our democracy as practiced by that former president and enablers.  Consider voter suppression laws in some states.  Efforts to manipulate election officials.

Those who falsely lament most about our 2020 election being stolen appear to currently be engaged in using nefarious means to be able to attempt to steal future elections should they not like the results of fair and legal voting.  They do so under the false flag our election process cannot be trusted  Even members of their own political party have stated unequivocally there is no evidence our election results were false and cannot be trusted in the future with existing officials.

Unfortunately, one political party appears to currently be dominated by that ex-president with those who are appeasing autocracy supporters, to describe at best what they are about.  This would seem to give voters who want to preserve our democratic republic pause to seriously think about not only their national but local and state candidate selections, including judiciary, plus voting choices in the future.

Voters no longer will be deciding between two political parties with differing issue views but united in their dedication to democracy and how best to govern our democratic republic.

Voters may well be choosing between a party dedicated  to retaining our freedoms within a democratic republic or a party that is masquerading an intent to convert our government to an autocracy with a dictator calling himself a duly elected president.  

Hopefully, more and more people will consider these issues preparatory for congressional elections as well as presidential election primaries, national conventions, and general elections   What are your thoughts?

9 comments:

  1. I think that until Fox "News" is sanctioned and forced to take its disinformation off the air, we're going to continue to fight against this segment of deluded voters. The poorly informed will simply listen to lies and vote against their best interests.

    Stupid people make autocracy possible.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Trump scares the **** out of me. All those people who believed in him scare me just as much.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The continuing popularity of Donald Trump and his attempts to undermine free and fair elections is deeply worrying. Boris Johnson does his best to discredit the media and the law but at least he doesn't claim that elections are rigged (well, after all, he won the last one!).

    ReplyDelete
  4. It's like the pro-life vs pro-choice debate. Who will win? Hope there is no riot over this.

    ReplyDelete
  5. We people in democratic countries look askance and shake our heads about what is happening in your country.
    I suppose it could happen here, but our institutions make it harder to manipulate elections – for example an independent election commission to oversee elections that’s not run by political parties.
    Also, preferential voting (what I believe you call instant runoff) so smaller parties can have a decent say in things (sometimes not a good thing, but mostly a positive).

    ReplyDelete
  6. The Russians hacked the Democratic emails, and our former President didn't mention anything about that. But he does trust and respect the current leader of Russia who is bombing babies, so what can I say.

    ReplyDelete
  7. This was horrifying enough when you posted it less than a week ago, but the recent revelation that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' wife was pressuring the then-President's chief of staff to overturn the legitimate election in 2020 has left me dumbfounded.
    Nina

    ReplyDelete
  8. For many people, it's all about Trump but this is about countries around the world. Why not look at the reasons this has appeal? Like many, it worries me when autocracy seems to be the answer and I don't care if it looks like right or left. I grew up believing in voting and still do. Each side should convince the other they have better answers than a dictatorship. When the vote is lost, seems too easy to turn to autocracy.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I actually have a couple of friends who seem quite normal and yet voted for Trump. One person even told me that she didn't want to vote for Biden because he was OK with 9 month abortions. I tried to convince her that it was ridiculous, but she wouldn't believe me. She's also not vaccinated and bought Ivermectin from Canada. Sigh...

    ReplyDelete