Stumping for Campaigns

Let's be frank: There is no real modern day substitution for a fair election. As for an unfair election...it's still probably better than any other system. Obviously, American elections (with a few hiccups over the years) have gone smoothly, and other developed democracies have generally been fine as well. More to the point, what on earth else would we use to transfer power from party to party or person to person?

One option, I suppose, is to go back to Italy circa Machiavelli's writing and let local leaders have at it. Unfortunately, we would run out of local leaders, because eventually they'd all be dead. What is the problem with elections? That not everybody is completely represented? That sometimes, the firms we invest in turn out to be Lehman Brothers? That is a fact of human fallacy, both of the elected and the electees - not everyone can be happy. Not everyone, moreover, can be represented - many of them will CHOOSE for this to be so.

Without elections, we go back to a colder world. We return to a world where hard force - not hard cash - is the currency of the coup. We will see slings and arrows of fact, not slings and arrows on the FM, determining the life and death of a candidate. A country without elections? We need only to look to Kenya, a horrifying real-life example of the election/anarchy dichotomy. Pre-election breakdown, Kenya was a breath of fresh air, a state for all others in Africa both to aspire to and to proudly point at as a symbol for African Progress. Post-breakdown? Well...anybody who has seen the photos, the sickening montage of men on fire and of women screaming, knows that without valid elections, the state means nothing. There are then only people; and people, naked, run scared.

Of course, elections that fail can result in anarchy. And have no doubt, elections DO fail, especially in developing states with nationalism festering among tribal lines (this is a post for another day). That said, as the otherworldly Michael Jordan noted, "You miss 100 percent of the shots you don't take". You need to put stability out there - in some form - to achieve anything. Now, does that mean democracy for all nations, fledgling and otherwise, right off the bat? I don't know. Again, another day, another post. But I know that anarchy can never be option, because that means giving up on the concept the human beings are able to figure things out. I, for one, will never let go of that thought.