Nov13
African Democracy
on November 13, 2012 at 8:38 amPosted In: Political Commentary, Social Commentary
…is a sham. Ya think?
Absent a culture of liberal and particularly anglospheric values, democracy can be catastrophic. It’s why the Founders established a republic. Not to claim that Africa was well off under colonialism, but much of it was certainly better off. Just ask the residents of what used to be Rhodesia.
Democracy works great, as long as the electorate is posessed by sound ethics and a measure of foresight. Absent these virtues, it can lead to as great suffering and tyrany as the worst governments.
But it doesn’t matter what the ‘electorate’ wants or wanted. This result was dialed in , and planned by the Muslim Brotherhood and we ALL knew it.
Did you see that one of the old hard line Muslim leaders in Egypt wants to destroy the Pyramids AND the Sphinx? We’re talking about some of the oldest, most iconic artifacts of the ancient world, and the forward thinking, Muslim leaders for the 21st Century want to blow them up. And these are the people OUR supposed leader wants in power.
The World is spiraling in friends, clockwise water headin’ for the drain!
Which is why I think it is better to stomach a secular military dictatorship than the muslim religious lunatic fringe. When Israeli leaders rejoiced after the ousting of Mubarak I grew concerned instead. Israel is quickly going to find itself surrounded by enemies: Egypt in the South, Syria and Lebanon in the North after the Assad dynasty gets ousted, Saudi Arabia and Turkey if the situation proceeds along this path. I doubt Jordan will be able to stand alone as the only country in the region neutral towards Israel for long considering they are a landlocked country.
Arguably the only democratic regimes in Africa are South Africa and Kenya. There are single party republics under the disguise of democracies in other places in the continent but quite often elections don’t happen like you would expect. Whole tribes are bought with favors at election time and votes are bought with sacks of rice. Until transportation infrastructure is improved and elementary education is universal there are few chances of the situation improving in any significant fashion.
“Arguably the only democratic regimes in Africa are South Africa and Kenya.”
Add Liberia under Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to that short list, time will tell.
Do you have a problem with Ghana?
http://www.freedomhouse.org/country/ghana
It is also worth reading Freedomhouse’s report on Senegal.
And Sao Tome is lookin’ good!
Democracy requires that there be swing voters holding the balance of power, and that the politicians and majority of voters accept the democratic principle (if you lose, there’s always next time).