The Many Faces of Democracy

Nothing annoys me more about politics than politicians' casual, imprecise, or intentionally misleading use of words that is intended for nothing but to stir knee-jerk emotions on the other end of the communication pipeline.

Clearest cases:
Democracy -- Good
Dictatorship -- Bad

Slightly less clear cut (although probably agreed among a majority of Americans):
Welfare-state / Socialist -- Bad (brews lazy-no-good leechers!)
Laissez-faire / Generally non-interventionist (unless really necessary) Gov't -- Good

It is despicable how President Bush uses "democracy" according to definitions that he fancies for that particular day, or for that particular occasion.

VENEZUELA IS A DEMOCRACY (and as DMA points out, the recent developments clearly demonstrate it isn't a dictatorship). Their democratically aggregated preferences just so happen to result in a leader (and policies) that the US doesn't like, and is friends with leaders and countries that the US is at odds with.

More importantly, contrary to what the president says, people don't like the US not because "they just loathe the idea of a free, democratic society", but exactly because how "undemocratic" (if viewed from a world sphere) the US is in the way it interacts with its less powerful counterparts. [Shut up you realists, I know what you're going to say.]

At the same time though, Carl Rove and co. and their dirty tricks are just as much a legitimate part of the democratic process. OK, granted many of the things they did are indeed illegal, but they also did loads of things that are borderline-just-kinda-legal but utterly low and unethical.

I fault the shortcomings of a democracy not on democracy itself; it's just a mechanical construct, not a magical potion to all the world's problem. I fault them on the blueprint on which democracy operates -- the constitution & laws, aka the rules of the game. The challenge lies in what rules we should write down to give democracy the best shot it has, and even more critically, how we can get there and stay there given the current rules.

Just another one of my usual nerdy rants...