From our reader in the Midlands of England, David, a retired educator and ardent traveler of the world. He is noodling over the recent and now repeated observation by USA presidential candidate Donald Trump that he believes the campaign is rigged and may not respect the forthcoming election results. Such comments have caused an uproar in the body politic.- Glenn N. Holliman
Dear Glenn:
In much of the continent of Africa, there has, for many years, been difficulty with understanding the principle and practice of democracy. The problem, as seen by the rulers, is that they can never be sure how the people will vote.
If they vote the right way, then democracy is good: if they vote the wrong way, it's bad, and the vote is best ignored. The usual excuse for their ignoring the vote is to claim, loudly and often, that the result was 'rigged'. How sad to see the same attitude promoted in the United States of America.
Here, in your mother-country, during the furore over our EU membership, I didn't like the idea of a referendum taking precedence over our more familiar system of representative democracy: I liked the result even less, but, heigh-ho, (just) over half of those who voted, voted for the UK to leave the EU, and so, reluctantly, I must accept the result.
David, left, with two traveling companions in a more whimsical moment, his normal mood when not contemplating how difficult it is for human beings to govern themselves!
Why can't would-be dictators, the world over, accept the results of their people's democratic decisions? Failure to do so, especially before the election has taken place or the result known, undermines the whole system, which, as a means of government, may not be the most efficient, but it's "the least worst system" available.
Despairingly,
David
Comments?
No comments:
Post a Comment