Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Whose Blood Runneth Orange
So let's see--Ukraine has an election in which exit polls show the opposition candidate winning by a substantial margin, yet the "official" tally shows a 3-point win for the incumbent party's candidate. Reports of widespread fraud come in.
So do the opposition candidate's supporters take the "loss" sitting down? No--200,000 of them stand up and march on the capital. They flood the streets and stay for days on end. They plan nationwide civil disobedience.
(I won't even mention the throat-slitting irony of the Bush administration supporting the opposition candidate in Ukraine and calling for the overturning of the election results.)
Maybe people who have actually lived in undemocratic societies feel more strongly about defending their democracy once they have it.
Americans just take every goddamn thing for granted. Everything. And we're going to lose it all.
Give thanks!
posted by Blicero : 11/23/2004 09:23:00 PM
So do the opposition candidate's supporters take the "loss" sitting down? No--200,000 of them stand up and march on the capital. They flood the streets and stay for days on end. They plan nationwide civil disobedience.
(I won't even mention the throat-slitting irony of the Bush administration supporting the opposition candidate in Ukraine and calling for the overturning of the election results.)
Maybe people who have actually lived in undemocratic societies feel more strongly about defending their democracy once they have it.
Americans just take every goddamn thing for granted. Everything. And we're going to lose it all.
Give thanks!
posted by Blicero : 11/23/2004 09:23:00 PM
