WHAT DO WE DO NOW?

[Byron]

We in the UK live in a democracy with a monarch as titular head.
We have elections.

The one essential part of our democracy is that we have what is called, 'Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition.'

It is the 'Duty' of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition to tackle the Government whenever and wherever possible.

The Opposition is made up of elected members of Parliament, who are every bit as intelligent as the members who make up the Government.

Whatever political parties lose the election, use their elected membership to act on behalf of the Monarch to challenge and interrogate the Government's policies and actions.

This gives the Opposition as much Respect as the Government.

What seems to be happening with GWB is that if people do not agree with him and his Administration, they are deemed to be less than worthy of Respect and consideration. That road is the first step towards Anarchy. It is certainly a display of arrogance and disdain for people who hold different views from others.

There is the old adage, 'I don't agree with what you say, but I'll fight to the death for your right to say it.'

My personal view on the current 'discussions' is that we are being told, 'you don't agree with what we say, so we'll fight with you for failing to agree with us.'

Surely, the mention in the forum of Hitler, South Africa, and Totalitarian dictatorships, is becoming indicative of the 'unease' that people are feeling in the present political climate.

In the past, totalitarian leaders have thrived on the fear they have instilled in their citizens. It takes enormous effort to look beyond that fear and see the bigger picture.

I know of a lady in my country, England, who is not a friend or aquaintance. She is known of, by me, through other friends. She has been active on another Website forum and political discussions take place there as well as here. She has expressed her 'unease' about the current situations and GWB and his Administration. She had been planning to visit her sister in America after Christmas, but has been very worried, that because of the views she has expressed on a public forum, she will be on some sort of 'list' of 'undesirables' and will be refused entry when she arrives.

This seems on first glance to be an over-reaction on her part. But she is genuinely frightened of what might happen to her. It is her fear and as a 'perceived' fear, is as genuine as the real thing.

So we now have a situation where someone is frightened to say what they think in public, for fear of what a 'democracy' might do to them. She doesn't agree with GWB, therefore GWB thinks she must be against him. ( "If you're not with us, you're against us" )

That, is how worrying the situation is becoming.

[lizzytysh]

Actually, Tom, a very thin majority of the Americans, who voted, elected Bush. Given our freedom to do so, we have an abysmally-low turnout on election day. This year, comparatively high, i.e. "record numbers," but still not the numbers who are able and should have. I won't address, but will only mention the concerns that some still have regarding the accuracy of the votes in the swing states, due to the electronic-voting process. None of these issues affect the reality that Bush is where he will be for the next four years , unless John Etherington's comments come to bear.

[tom.d.stiller]

I agree, Elizabeth. Without going into details I'll mention my additional concerns about registered voters who didn't vote because they couldn't afford to wait in their queue for several hours. We can only speculate about how they might've voted...
We may like it or not, and definitely we may state our views about it: GWB will be president for another four years
The state of the Union won't improve before 2008, that's my opinion.

[lechehombre]

We can still participate in legitimate democratic dissension. I believe that it is more important than ever that we write letters to our Senators and congressmen asking that they do not support Mr. Bush's policies with regard to foreign affairs. Mr Bush is not a man I want for my president. Apparently we must be vigilant in reminding him that there are literally millions of us who believe that he is doing great harm to the world. Real peace can only happen in an atmosphere where real justice abounds.

[lizzytysh]

You're absolutely right, lechehombre, and we should ~ even if some members of Congress blatantly ignore the will of their constituencies.

[Rob]

I am an old veteran of demonstrations, the first Iraq "Stop the war" demo in London was different from anything I had experienced. It was not our usual "rent a crowd of lefties", it was not ageing peace-niks, it was a million (or two million, dependinding on your newspaper) people who, by and large, had never been on a demonstration before, and on average, young people. The difference between the young and I is that they actually thought they were going to change things. I merely think it important to let our rulers know that they do not rule with universal consent.
Rob.

[lizzytysh]

Yes, Rob, I remember photographs from all over the world where the groups in NO way homogenous. You're right that the older amongst the crowds came with a different perspective as to the outcome. I also feel it was still important that the rulers, as well as the rest of the world, knew that the actions were not by our countries' mandates.