370. The Ghost of Revolutions Past

This man is too much to bear.

"You fight for the rights of the people, you fight and fight, you win, you finally get an election, you think you've given them what they want, and what do the damn people do?  Elect somebody who's against elections.  A Muslim in Algeria (1990, expected) and another one in Egypt (2013, done).

 "Just the way the French people did, twice.  Bloody yourself overthrowing the king, get an election, and the people, the wonderful people, elect a bunch of royalists (1797).  And then, after all your effort on the barricades, they give you a second Napoleon (1848).  In a landslide."

  So what do you do?

"You throw the bastards out.  Can't have a Muslim, now, as president of a democracy.  His religion will keep him from maintaining it.  Are you going to wait until he actually does something undemocratic?  No, a Muslim president is too much for any democratic people to bear.  Throw him out, day one."

And throw your country, your party, your supporting press, your thinkers, into confusion.  Throw out, rather than fail to re-elect or impeach, the most unbearable monster, like Viktor Yanukovich, and you've thrown out democracy.  I know, he was a Russian lickspittle, but he was an elected Russian lickspittle.  You expect that to just settle in the bottom of the tank?

"But Yanukovich was a very bad man.  Right up there with Hafez al Assad, and Saddam Hussein, and Muammar Gaddafi.  You've got to do something about such people.  'All that's needed for the triumph of evil is that the good do nothing.'"

Yes, do something.  Some dumb thing, half the time.  But do it and you'll have plenty of company.  History is full of democracies brought down by good people throwing out bad people.

"But if the one that's elected is not just bad, is an unbearable monster, how can the people live with him?"

By deciding that democracy is worth the price of living with a monster.  And sticking to the decision for the whole term.  Working to stick.  Downplaying his monstrousness.  Crying out only when they're really hurt.

"I know some people right now who are going to need that advice.  But I'll tell you, the monster they're looking at is going to make it terribly hard.  Month after month, week after week, day after day, for four years they're going to have to live with him.  In their faces."

Oh I know the monster and I feel for them.  What a strain, keeping their minds on their tradition through every hour, every news program, every speech, every tweet, through all that time.  Bearing the unbearable.  Never in their history have they faced anything more trying.  And I have never felt more sympathy as they set out.  God bless them, every one.