Sunday, November 18, 2007

Some appreciate democracy more than others

This is an article on Ukraine's young democracy and the exciting, offbeat things that happen in it during election time. The article contrasts Ukraine with Russia, where election results are often fixed and demonstrations are quickly dispersed, sometimes violently. But I was also thinking of the differences between Ukraine and us here in the U.S. Ukraine has a vibrant populace who are passionate about politics, and a media that actually asks the tough questions. Contrast that with the almost total apathy here (or in a few cases, blatant hostility) and the corporate media that marches in lockstep with whatever administration is in power and suppresses a lot of controversial stories.

It's granted that our government has been around much longer than Ukraine's has, and as our democracy started out young and wild and grew old and bitter, so too will probably Ukraine's. But after living under tyranny for so long, Ukraine realizes the importance of democracy much more broadly than we do.

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