This coming week is election day in the United States. There have already been far right groups in the United States threatening violence if their candidate doesn’t win. Some suggest if that comes to pass, it shows that democracy has failed in the U.S. It was a nice experiment and all, but, as always, we’re the reason we can’t have nice things.
The point of democracy, after all, is so that large groups of people can pick the types of policies everybody lives under without having to kill each other to do it. So when people die trying to change the course of an election by the people, it seems to fly directly into the face of the idea of democracy. And one could argue that this happened back on that January 6th in the U.S. when the deaths were caused of seven people, some from either side, in an effort to overturn an election by force. But their democracy still seems to be trying to limp along, with another election moving ahead. Even though there’s violence threatened against this one as well.
So perhaps, like any political system, it’s more complex than that. If the ideal of democracy is held by enough people, even if there’s a significant minority who’ve decided they don’t want it because it means they can’t always get their way (and how petty is that), then maybe it doesn’t really matter if there’s some violence, not in the grand scheme of successful political theories, anyway. After all, there’s always someone willing to break the law. That’s why we have the laws in the first place. We don’t tend to pass laws against something nobody is doing. And we don’t claim a law has failed just because somebody broke it.
Of course, if Mr. Trump succeeds, then, given his previous statements, all bets are off as to whether the U.S. will remain a democracy in anything but name. The last two times Mr. Trump was on the ballot, people threatened to leave the US if he was elected. Very few followed through on those threats. This time, I’m not so sure. He, and the MAGA/Republican party, have already shown, through things like gaslighting lawsuits only brought forward to put into the record and the media that there are bad ballots and electoral counts, that they’re not terribly concerned about the law, nor about the people who support them—seeming to think of them as useful fodder of outrage.
The question remains of what can be done about this, because what happens in the US eventually filters over to us. Fortunately, our parties seem to have a little more care about the rule of law and the role of democracy. Peace, Order, and Good Governance, after all, are Canada’s watchwords. While in the U.S. we have the classic Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. There’s no limits put on that pursuit. Lie, cheat, and steal so you can have your way and you’re just living up to the American motto. Not so, here.
But when the elephant sneezes, everybody catches a cold, as they say. And I don’t think there’s any vaccination on offer.
At any rate, it’s a small but fun issue this week. We have a report from the last Council meeting, a look at the crossover of identity and Halloween, and a new installment of My Crazy Life, a story of a life that sounds like a tall tale, but that I’m assured is 100% true. Also events, scholarships (which I still need writers for) and more! Enjoy the read!
