armlessbear.com

The company I currently work for has a significant population of non-US citizens. In fact, one of our main offices is located in South America. Today, my co-worker from Mexico was asking me why I was happy about the elections and someone else was sad. What’s the difference between Democrats and Republicans.
I wanted to say something flip and perhaps a bit mean, but I couldn’t quite do it. So I tried to explain about philosophical differences, and that failed. I tried to explain about the politics of hate, divisiveness and the hijacking of a party by the religious right…. and about a party run by a bunch of pissed-off Nixonians who read George Orwell and learned the wrong lessons… about the party who has spawned followers who send hate-mail and death threats to talk show hosts and politicians…

It’s all very depressing.

I saw a link earlier to a comment about Bush stating that America was a great democracy because we had elections despite being in a war….
Can you even imagine where that line of thinking could go if you put enough pundits and politicians on FoxNews night after night. Fair and free elections embolden the terrorists… we must stay the course…(or some such crap).

Robocalling? Electoral intimidation? Lies? Fear? Smear tactics? Is there anything that won’t be done to surpress democracy in this country? Is there any shame left? Does winning at all costs mean winning at the high cost of the loss of democracy?
Unfortunately, for many out there, I think it does.
How sad for all of us.