June 22, 2005
Mr. Accountability
Why is it so hard to make Republican office holders accountable to the citizens they claim to serve? Perhaps it's because they don't see themselves as public servants. Perhaps its because they see the democratic process is merely an alternate procedure for selecting "rulers." Perhaps its because they consider votes by the electorate to be the sum total of citizen involvement and the ballot merely a variant on what is elsewhere accomplished by heredity succession, military conquest or designation by a secular or religious council of elders.
Of course, if that's the case--if popular elections are merely another way of putting in place a tyrant--then that would explain why democracy strikes some people as more trouble than it's worth.
Indeed, if a majority vote by the citizens merely serves to rubber stamp their own subjugation and enslavement, then the democratic process is worse than nothing. Which is pretty much where we are at the moment.
No wonder there's little enthusiasm for our version of democracy in other nations.
Posted by Hannah at June 22, 2005 05:10 PM