democracy vs. dictatorship

[tielan]

"When you consent to have a democratic process, you understand that the vote will not always go your way. Sometimes you will lose, and then you will do it the other person's way. But if it is intolerable and unthinkable to ever do it their way, you don't want a democratic process. You want a dictatorship."

So true.

And I really have to stop reading the comments on the opinion articles of the online papers...

Comments

[alexseanchai]

I think a democracy cannot function without the Loyal Opposition. But the Loyal Opposition, by definition, wants to achieve what's best for the country and its residents, they're simply obligated to disagree with whoever's in charge about the best way to go about that.

The US does not currently have a Loyal Opposition. The US instead has a bunch of people who will do anything and everything to funnel money and power into the hands of a select few who already have more money and power than they need, supported by a bunch of people who, being white, male, straight, cisgender, Christian, et cetera, want to strengthen the social and legal structures that keep power away from women, people of color, gender and sexual minorities, non-Christians, et cetera.

I'm perfectly happy to sometimes be on the side of the leaders and sometimes be part of the Loyal Opposition. But in November I've got a choice between Obama, who thinks I'm no less of a person for being female and bisexual and genderqueer and atheist and poor, and Romney, who thinks all of the above makes me subhuman but at least I'm not as subhuman as someone who's all of the above and also not white.

(Or I could vote for Jill Stein. I like Stein. I live in a sufficiently Democratic state that my vote for Stein probably isn't going to help throw the state to Romney. But Stein has not got a chance. I'm not even sure she's going to be on the ballot here, because the governor doubled the size a third party has to be in order to make the ballot, and us Greens are the biggest third party in the state and I don't know if we made the cut.)

Thinking Romney's an intolerable prospect != wanting a dictatorship.

[beatrice_otter]

That is an awesome quote. Who said it?

[tielan]

One of the people on my f-list. It's a locked post, so I can't refer to you to it, although I think you'd probably like her thoughts in it.