Is democracy on life support in Russia?
No, it is not on life support. It is dead.
It vanished in 2011, when Putin & Co. stole the parliamentary election and thousands of people, including me, rushed to the streets to protest in Moscow. We, the people, who stood for their stolen voices, didn’t make it then. We went home, instead of staying on the streets. We didn’t know that it was a must to stay, not to go to bars, celebrating our courage and our feeling of being on the right side of history.
I know that the Russian elites were not unified then and some of them made a stake on the street to overthrow Putin-The-Election-Thief.
Since then, it was useless to discuss democracy in Russian. We had Putin ‘re-elected’ in 2012.
We had Crimea in 2014.
We, eventually, came to a catastrophic outcome, invading Ukraine in 2022.
Then, they killed Alexey Navalny in prison. Putin-The-Intoxicator was behind it.
I didn’t mention plenty of intermediate things, just laid out the biggest milestones.
Democracy is dead in Russia though we desperately need it as it saves a country from letting their leaders make awful decisions.
When Putin is finally dead, democracy in Russia will make a comeback as people are fed up but are afraid to protest as it is an easy way to get behind bars.
Is democracy in the U.S. on life support?
I don’t think there is any doubt that in a number of “western” nations the answer is yes. In the US, if the liberal party, the Democrats, don’t have an absolute blow-out victory in next year’s elections, democracy will not be on life support, it will be gone.
The irony of that is that the Republicans wave the flag, talk about freedom and put stars and stripes all over everything they own. And do all in their power to destroy the republic for which it stands. I’m wrong, it’s not ironic, it’s bizarre behavior.
Let me give you an example. By now you have heard about a fellow named Charlie Kirk. Basically, he went around and gave speeches railing against liberals. Then he was murdered. Now, the folks at the White House are asking you to watch the speech of your fellow Americans. If anyone says anything anti-Kirk, especially online, report him to his employer. My assumption being that this person should then be fired.
Consider that for a moment; in what other countries are your neighbors supposed to spy on you for thought that is against the government line? In an effort to make this seem like it’s not exactly what it is, saying something negative about Mr. Kirk is called hate speech, not free speech, so it’s exempt from free speech protections. Example: two nights ago, a late-night TV host said something negative about Charlie Kirk during a comedy monologue, and the next day he was fired from his TV show. The President of the U.S.A. celebrated and named the next two television personalities he considers disloyal.
Stephen Miller has Donald Trump’s ear. He’s a high-ranking White House official and senior advisor. Last week he said that he wants to see the Democratic Party declared a “Domestic Extremist Organization.” Which is a fancy way to say terrorists. By declaring the opposition political party terrorists, it would become illegal to in any way support that group. No money and no voting for them. A one-party state where a minority (about ⅓) controls the government while the economy burns.
Is democracy on life support in the United States? Absolutely, and it appears there are very few chances left to stop Mr. Trump and his core supporters.
Is democracy in Britain on life support?
Us Brits have been great at telling the rest of the world that we are the “mother of parliaments” and the “birthplace of modern democracy.” Actually, I truly believe that we were.
But look where we are now. Our governments all wallow on wafer-thin mandates, and our ludicrously outdated “first-past-the-post” system ensures that parties with barely a third of the vote get handed “majorities”. Millions of voices are effectively silenced. Call that democratic?
It has all got so much worse in recent times. Trust in politicians is at an all time low, following scandals, cronyism and outright lies that has turned Westminster into a circus of self-interest. During Covid, us voters saw our leaders partying in Downing Street while the whole fucking country was burning.
Don’t forget our pathetic House of Lords – a piss-pot of unelected cretins we politely call aristocrats who still wield real power over our laws. We lecture the world on democracy while clinging to a medieval absurdity.
Our utterly pathetic government has recently passed laws that give police unlimited powers to limit public protest. Eighty-year-olds are being treated as terrorists for opposing the attempted genocide by Israel in Gaza.
Power in my country is treated like a kid’s plaything, with democracy eaten away, not just by , rigged rules, but also, I have to say, rank apathy from us, the people. We are letting it happen. Democracy is eroding inch by inch. The life support machine in on full power, and it’s only a matter of time before we switch it off altogether.
