Underwhelming slate, but at least voters in the US have a choice
Notwithstanding a clear majority of Americans not wanting a repeat election between Biden and Trump, that is exactly what appears to be happening. In addition, with so many countries around the world being ruled by despots against the will of their people, again one wonders what gives? Are we all so gullible or timid that we way-too-often choose the worst in leadership?
I believe that the clear answer is yes, both we Americans and our foreign neighbors are more often than not far from being brave in our politics. In our case, we don’t pay enough attention until way too late in the process, after the decisions have essentially already been made for us.
Today I focus on two examples: our presidential election and the Russian presidential election in the aftermath of Alexei Navalny’s death.
I suspect I am not alone in trying to recruit qualified people to run for political office. In perhaps the most poignant example of my attempt, I tried to get a rear admiral about to retire to consider a political career.
Since I had known him and his family for years, I met him and his wife for dinner at his last duty station and urged him to consider furthering his government service by throwing his hat into the ring for another form of public service.
His reply was a classic. Essentially, he told me it would be his last choice; he didn’t want to lie, or likely cheat and steal. One of my other attempts was also with a rear admiral, this time a woman. She gave me virtually the same answer.
Up until last Tuesday’s Super Tuesday’s primary elections, as I wrote in my last column, we had a long shot chance to inject a very good alternative, Nikki Haley, and perhaps even two alternatives, Nikki and one Democrat, Dean Phillips. But we have passed up that opportunity.
Yet as I move my household’s Nikki Haley sign to a place of honor in our back yard, I want to add my congratulations to her. She campaigned and exited with grace.
As collectively foolish as we are, we are clearly more fortunate than the choice in the Russian Presidential election, to be held March 15-17, realistically between Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Putin.
The murder of Navalny drove home to those in the world who might be listening that one cannot leave it to others to defend freedom.
Obviously, Russia doesn’t have a significant democratic tradition, replacing one strongman with another with only a provisional government interlude in 1917 and again briefly in recent years before Putin assumed what are essentially dictatorial powers. Now is another opportunity, but one very unlikely to be successful.
I have been watching the aftermath of Navalny’s death. His widow’s speech to the European Parliament was inspiring but likely not forceful enough to lay the groundwork for a regime change.
Whoever does assume the mantle of key opposition leader will have to do so outside of Russia and avoid being too close to windows in high rise buildings.
However, more optimistically, there is some Russian precedent for someone in exile to return to seize power.
Lenin did so in the famous sealed train trip from Finland to what is now St. Petersburg in 1917 to oust the Russian provisional government.
The thousands who braved arrest to attend the Navalny funeral offered some stirring words in addition to their bravery in attending. According to the BBC ,“Thousands chanted out ‘no to war’, ‘Russia without Putin’ and ‘Russia will be free’… ‘We won’t forget you’... Several people approached Lyudmila (Navalny’s mother) after the service ended and hugged her, saying: ‘Thank you for your son’ and ‘forgive us’.”
I smiled at what the BBC noted in that same article about Navalny’s Western perspective:
“Navalny’s coffin was lowered into the ground to the sound of Frank Sinatra’s ‘My Way’ and to an orchestral rendition of the ‘Terminator 2’ theme song. Navalny thought that ‘Terminator 2’ was the best film in the whole world… As dusk fell, people carried on queuing outside the cemetery, where a sign was hung, reading: ‘Putin killed him but didn’t break him.’”
That sign’s words should be taken to heart. They picture Narges Mohammadi, the Iranian woman who won the Nobel Peace Prize and who languishes in prison for speaking out against the Iranian regime. They picture the millions of North Koreans who suffer every day under the yoke of dictatorship. They picture those oppressed elsewhere, whether innocents in Gaza struggling for food or imprisoned underground as hostages.
Yet, we cannot escape our failure to rise up and challenge the absurd choice that our upcoming Presidential election seems to offer us. There might even be wisdom in replicating President Teddy Roosevelt’s 1912 vengeful venture into a third party — Bull Moose and all!