If it wasn't so bad, it would be hilarious from the irony. But it is bad, and it is part and parcel with the protests that are going on in New York and across the country and world. And that is the total hypocricy that our "western democracies" demonstrate when push comes to shove.
Although by no means the first, the latest the media has reported is the collective gasp that Germany, France and others gave when Greek president (or whatever he is) Papondreau, or however you spell it, announced, no, not that he was going to spit on German Chancellor Merkel (what the heck is a chancellor?), oh no...something much worse. He was going to put the deal before the people in a democratic vote.
Those with interests try to somehow infer that this isn't really a vote - no, it's a "referendum." That sounds like referee, and we have our opinions of referees. Probably ok, but not the greatest. (It's not the referee's fault, it's just that their mistakes have a large consequence.) So when a person hears the word "referendum" it doesn't seem the same as a vote. But it is. It's exactly what it is - a vote on the proposal by the people. Isn't the people voting the heart of democracy?
Of course, the U.S. only likes votes when they know the outcome. That is the U.S. definition of democracy - a vote where we know who is going to win ahead of time - and that person is a friend of ours. In the U.S. model that is done by an infusion of money. That money has been held, by the
"Supreme court" as of now, absurdly and corruptly in my opinion, to be consistent with the U.S. constitution.
I have written about this before. The idea that "money equals speech" is outrageous. Free speech is much more precious than money. U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell, minority leader from Kentucky, has been one of the main proponents of this, and he got 5 of the justices to go along with it. I haven't heard any opinion from McConnell about the Greek referendum. But he'd only be for it if he knew who was going to win and it was one of our allies.
He has little street cred, though, on open government questions, because he never holds open town hall meetings. I think basically that he is afraid to come out in the public. But he is a very powerful person, and the positions he takes can move the nation. I think the importance of his decisions outweighs whatever personal reasons he has for not ever having any public meetings. He needs to address the issue anyway. Unfortunately, you won't hear the Paducah mainstream media asking McConnell why he never holds open town meetings. They get to go to the Chamber of Commerce meetings or the Rotary meetings that he goes to to meet with the "well-to-do" and "influential." They may not even realize that McConnell never goes public.
This is all very much tied together with the notion that the great "western democracies" are now unhappy with the Greek leader for calling for a public vote on a very controversial national plan, because it might mean that some of the big banks might (one more time) stretch their boundaries and cause problems. (It's all in the short term debt - and by that I mean 1 day or less (we probably can't even imagine), high stakes loans that these mega institutions make among themselves to keep themselves a float on paper.
The message there to me, and can it be denied, is that money is more important than voting. But it's not just money that is more valuable than voting - it's military and political dominance. If we have an interest in a country, and we think that a vote of the people would result in a change of a favorable policy toward us, we will try to discourage the vote. The U.S. has done this repeatedly. It's anti-democracy.
OK, the not-so-funny punchline is that we don't just bring it up, but we rub "democracy" (or what is supposed to pass as our version of it) in the face of a lot of cultures - chastising them for the lack of democracy, violent crackdowns on protesters, and the like.
But when push comes to shove, we aren't a whole lot better are we? Recently the police have removed "Occupy" protests violently in some U.S. cities. We let money and discrimination rule our politics. We support non-democratic governments when it's "in our interest." (whatever that means). And this latest negative reaction to the Greek "referendum" from our closest allies in Europe is just one more example. We should be supporting the Greek public's right to vote on this and congratulate their leadership for doing it. The fact that it wasn't supported shows that we, Germany, France, and probably others, are two-faced. The are living the adage, "do as I say, not as I do."
So it's time for reform. It's coming to the government in so many messages, from so many directions. The question is, can these totally selfish, self absorbed and egotistical elected officials who think they know so much better than anyone else, continue to ignore many people whose lives they affect significantly? No, change is needed. The problem is that those that criticize violent means of social change use violence to maintain the status quo. We need talking and other forms of community to avoid violence. And the government needs to repudiate violence.
It's hard for governments to repudiate violence because they have armies, and those armies live by violence. But the money spent on armies is a lot. If we didn't need to spend on armies, we would, collectively, around the world, have enough money to take care of a lot of social problems. The earth is very fruitful.
My conclusion on all this is that we need votes, we need non-violence, and we need a sense of justice. For a great nation like the U.S. to be perceived at all as inconsistent in their support of democracy is an insult to us - the citizens. But to not support the Greek referendum is not supporting democracy. Obama hasn't made a statement yet about it that I have seen. Let's hope that Merkel and Sarkozy rethink their positions, and that they will support democracy. Or, if they don't trust democracy under the rules which basically they made, then they need to think seriously about a rule change, and they need to be open about it.
