ABOUT VIVA DEMOCRACY

It is the purpose of this web site to educate and promote democracy and its principals. Political ideology can be complex, messy, and of course imperfect. But it is the belief of the author that democracy provides a way for society to evolve and the individual to more fully express their potential.

Democracy attempts to balance power such that the individual has a say in the public platform precisely because of freedom of speech and unimpeded access to the ballot box.

The Balance of Power is in Your Hands

IDEALS OF DEMOCRACY

The Balance of Power is in Your Hands

Positive Evolution

Positive evolution of society requires education, and a belief in equality for all humankind. Equality implies acceptance of ethnic diversity. Ethnic and religious diversity have been used politically to repress and even destroy the other. The acceptance of diversity of ethnicities and other classifications for which people may be attributed, implies the acceptance of diversity of ideas. It is the diversity of democracy which makes it messy, and exciting. Those opposed to democracy do so because of 1 or more factors associated with diversity. A rejection of diversity is done typically because of prejudice against minorities, ethnic, religious, or sexual orientation. Some will use religion to justify their prejudice and therefore inequality of a minority. Others, are attracted to hate based ideologies that target ethnicity, religion, or sexual orientation. There are at times of social unrest and economic turmoil where some look for simple answers such as pointing at a minority as the scapegoat for which to blame societal problems. Democratic principles must be taught to each rising generation to ensure the acceptance of diversity and the contributions of all groups. Without this inoculation, even within a democratic country, repression may be practiced against minorities. This was certainly true of the US with the Jim Crow laws of the south which legalized the repression of the minority. This repression lead to 2nd class status and extreme abuse by the majority which has repercussions to this day. Inequality always leads to suffering of minorities, and in fact actually restricts the freedom even of the majority. As an example, a member of the majority will be ostracized or worse if they socialize with a member of the minority. It is in fact wasteful to under utilize the talent and potential of all the citizenry. Positive evolution happens because of freedom of speech and expression in a free democratic society.

The Face of Fascism Today

There is an on-going fight against fascism in democracies around the world today. Many of us have thought of fascism as a vestige of the past. Something that couldn’t happen in our modern U.S.A. Within my lifetime, in the 1960's and even the 1970's there were those who gave their lives working peacefully for equality. Their sacrifice must be honored and never forgotten.

And yet, we have a president in Donald Trump who appears to be a vestige of the past, spouting that he is a Nationalist.

White supremecists organized a rally in Charlottesville Virginia in 2017. Violence with some Counter protesters resulted in the death of a young woman at the hands of a White supremecist(ran his car into a crowd). Trumps initial reaction to the protests was to only highlight how bad was Antifa(an anti Fascist group). There were neo-Nazis at the protest wearing brown shirts, carrying torches and chanting with hate "Blood for soil, Jews will not replace us". There were Ku Klux Klan and other hate based white supremecists groups. But Trump focused his attacks on Antifa and didn’t criticize the fascists at the rally - the White supremecists. Trump has continued to bump head with long time allies such as Merkel of Germany, Trudeau of Canada, and other leaders of democracies. And alternatively, Trump has heaped praise on authoratarian leaders who are indeed fascists: Putin of Russia, Orban of Hungary, and Modi of India. Putin uses Russian nationalism to justify taking territory from Republic of Georgia and Ukraine. Orban made constitutional changes to strengthen the excutive branch and spoke to Trump on protection of Hungarian culture and against the influence of the outsiders from the Middle East and Africa. Calling Hungary a Christian nation whos culture must be protected. Orban subscribes to the Great Replacement theory and praised Brazil's president Jair Bolsonaro for "the most apt definition of modern Christian democracy can be found in Brazil, not in Europe". Modi of India is from a party of Hindu nationalists. Members of his party demonize Muslims and want Muslims removed from India. The Modi government is building complexes to hold "non-citizens" and passed laws to enable removal of Muslims from India. If a Hindu is not seen as a citizen, they will be granted automatic citizenship, however a Muslim would not. Fascism goes hand-in-hand with Authoritarianism and feeds on nativism. Authoritarianism and Fascism are the enemies of democracy. They are insidious since they can grow within a democracy and require an enemy to distract the people while the fascist leadership usurp power away from the people. Democracy is in danger when the populace becomes complicit in support of an Authoritarian leader. As with Hitler, Mussolini and Franco it is protectionist of ethnicity, culture, and sometimes religion. Authoritarians dislike democracy because they need the imbalance of power in order to have control over both the government and populace. This control goes beyond crime prevention and rule of law. Although the Authoritarian regime will claim it as such where there is popular protest against government corruption or abuse of power. Democracy attempts to balance power such that the individual has a say in public via freedom of speech and access to the ballot box.

Fascist Sloganism

It was Mussolini back in 1919 who introduced the term fascism derived from the ancient Roman symbol. Mussolini’s Nationalist message was to return the Italian people to glory as they were in the Roman and other earlier times. Looking backward to a “glorious age”. Does this feel familiar when you see Trumps slogan “Make America Great Again”? Duterte of Philippines does something similar with his wish to rename Philippines to Maharlika as a representation of former glorious age of the Philippines. This is much different than slogans from former U.S. presidents such as Reagan, who used positive forward looking symbolism such as the “shining city on the hill”. Trump once re-tweeted a message from the handle #ilduce without seeming to know it is the nickname of the former dictator of Italy, Mussolini. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright wrote that the term “drain the swamp” was used by Mussolini. It may be more likely that he used the term "bonifica umana" which means purify or reclamation of humanity. It seems likely to me that fascist terminology may have been channelled to Trump via the Nationalist proponent Steve Bannon(former White House Chief Strategist for Trump) - who spent time in Italy to meet and learn about the Nationalist movements there.

The Abraham Lincoln Brigade were American volunteers who joined the Partisans or Republicans in Spain to fight against the Fascists in 1937. The fascists lead by Generalisimo Francisco Franco overthrew the democratic government of Spain in 1936.

Quotes by Mussolini:

Fascism is a religion. The twentieth century will be known in history as the century of Fascism.

Democracy is beautiful in theory; in practice it is a fallacy. You in America will see that some day.

The case against Trump as a racist

Mussolini invaded Ethiopia to expand an Italian colonialist vision and justified it by “civilizing the savages of Africa”. Of course an obvious elitist attitude not questioned in the least by those with hierarchical and elitist views of ethnicities and gender. Trump of course is well known for his elitist attitude, calling Africa “shithole countries”. As if he personally is better than any person from any “shithole country”. He stated that he wants more people from places like Norway. A country he has mentioned several times as a place where the U.S. should give priority for immigration. He could have mentioned other 1st world countries, such as Japan, but never has.

A famous case took place in NYC in 1989 where 4 black teenagers and 1 hispanic teenager were accused of raping a white woman in Central Park. Trump weighed in by taking out full page ads in 4 NY newspapers with the headline “Bring Back The Death Penalty". He spent good money to spread that message. Pat Buchanan, White House aide to Nixon, who once ran for president himself, called for the oldest of the boys to be “tried, convicted and hanged in Central Park by June 1”. This is nothing but old fashioned rabble rousing used to stir up the lynch mob. This is not a pursuit of justice. The Central Park 5 were exonerated due to DNA evidence performed by the FBI. Did Trump ever apologize to those fellow citizens for calling for their death? In fact he was angry when they won a wrongful conviction suit against NYC and the State of NY. Trump stated it was the “heist of the century”. When asked about it in 2019 he doubled down and said they are guilty...at least of something. A lack of belief in justice for those others indicates a belief in a caste system.

A U.S. Navy Seal was arrested and put on trial in military court for purposefully killing civilians among other charges. Trump tweeted his support for this soldier. Why? This soldier was reported by his fellow soldiers of randomly shooting Iraqi civilians. The soldier was found guilty of lesser chargers and was demoted from Chief Petty Officer to Petty Officer First Class and four months in prison. Trump tweeted congratulations to him for beating the major charges. Trump later gave a pardon and reinstated his rank against the recommendation of the U.S. Military. On the other hand, Trumps political appointee Esper fires the Secretary of Navy, Richard V. Spencer, former Captin in the Marines, who had also served as Deputy Secretary of Defense. Why? Because he was against Trumps interference in the court martial ruling. Where is the morality with Trump? Who does he give priority to and why? Iraqi civilians who were murdered did not receive justice.

Trump finds it easy to demonize Muslims and Central Americans, unlike previous presidents of both parties who understood the dangers. Trumps rhetoric is shared with mass killers who have targeted Jews(Pittsburg), Blacks(Louisville), and Hispanics(el Paso) during his term. This is why previous presidents did’nt talk in this way. They did’nt want to encourage hate based lost souls who want to destroy society, not build society. There are those who like Trumps unfiltered rhetoric. This is because they have the same prejudices and want to hear it from a president. They are not the targets of the demonization, they don’t feel the effects of the demonization. They are the recruits of fascism and most of them don’t even know it. The example of the eloquence of the Muslim Pakistani American Gold Star father, parent of United States Army Captain Humayun Khan, who was killed in 2004 during the Iraq War fighting on behalf of the U.S., should point out clearly the fallacy of prejudice. The story of an illegal Hispanic immigrant, who saved people in Houston during the Hurricane Harvey floods of 2017, should point out the fallacy of demonization - apparently Latinos are not all drug dealers and rapists despite Trumps public accusations of such.

The Politics of Scapegoating

Historically, demonization has always cost the lives of a minority. Jews and many others at the hands of Nazis in WWII. Armenians at the hands of Nationalist Turkey during dissolution of the Ottoman Empire after WWI.

Newpaper photo of Babe Ruth donating his 50th home run bat to benefit the Armenian orphans who had survived the Armenian Genocide of 1915.

In the 1990's the Hutu controlled government and allied militias committed genocide against the minority Tutsis in Rwanda. The Ethnic Chinese minority in Indonesia have historically suffered violence by both the populace and the government of Indonesia. Jews of the Czarist Russian empire suffered pogroms stirred up by government officials to give the discontented populace someone to blame for the bad economy. And in our U.S. of the past, we saw lynch mobs against black and Hispanic folk who didn’t get a fair trial. They were guilty by race or ethnicity according to the lynch mob. Scapegoating has historically been used to find blame for societal problems. A strong democracy must protect all its citizenry and maintain systems to provide justice - and never allow nor encourage mob rule. We the People must not allow political leaders to allow or use injustice.

HISTORICAL EVENTS

This list of events is not comprehensive but will be updated periodically.

民主

Viva Democracy and hail the aspirations of the Chinese people desire for freedom of speech and self determination!

2019 Hong Kong protests are a pro-democracy movement against the Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill where citizens of Hong Kong could be sent to a mainland Chinese jurisdiction. There are no civil liberties for the citizenry in mainland China which is run as a one party Authoritarian form of government. This protest follows the Umbrella Revolution of 2014 where the Hong Kong populace protested the mainland Chinese government choosing or pre-screening of candidates for the Chief Executive of Hong Kong. Unfortunately the people of Hong Kong lost that battle. And prior to these Hong Kong protests were the nascent democratic desires of the Chinese people in the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. Thousands were killed and wounded in that protest. Thousands were jailed or sent to labor camps.

Jasmine Revolution was a demonstration that lasted 28 days and lead to the end of the 23 year reign of president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in January 2011. The demonstrations resulted in the death of numerous people by the police. The demonstrations started after a street vendor in the name of Mohamed Bouazizi immolated himself as reaction to harrassment and humiliation by municipal authorities. Bouazizi and the Tunisian revolution inspired the Arab Spring. A democratic government with free elections was eventually formed in Tunisia. Viva Democracy with the victory of the Tunisian people!

Velvet Revolution overthrew 41 years of one-party Communist rule in Czechoslovakia. On November 17, 1989, students in Prague held a demonstration. This day was the 50th anniversary of the Nazi storming of Prague University in 1939 where they put down a student demonstration inwhich 1200 were arrested and 9 killed. But starting on that day in 1989 hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated for 11 days. The Communist government gave up power non-violently and the people updated the constitution to remove the Communist party from having a monopoly on power. Viva Democracy with the victory of the Czech and Slovak people!

Peaceful Revolution and Fall of the Berlin Wall resulted in the reunification of East Germany(controlled by a one party socialist system) and West Germany(Federal Republic of Germany). A series of demonstrations in 1989 called the Monday demonstrations and eventually the tear down of the Berlin Wall in November of 1989 by the populace lead to the dismantling of the Socialist Unity Party and allowed reunification into the West German democracy.

People Power Revolution of Philippines in 1986 lead to the successful end of the Authoritarian 21-year presidential rule of Ferdinand Marcos. Also known as the EDSA Revolution after the name of the street where most of the demonstrations took place. This restored democracy to the Philippines. A true victory of the People over the Authoritatian. Yellow ribbons were worn as a symbol by the protesters in honor of the assassinated Filipino senator Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino, Jr. Viva Democracy with the victory of the Filipino people!

American Revolution of the U.S. was a rebellion and war of independence won against the Kingdom of Great Britain. The American colonies declared "no taxation without representation". The new country developed a democracy defined by a constitution agreed to in 1788. Viva Democracy with the victory of the American people!

SLOGANS and QUOTES

Liberté, Equalité, Fraternité - liberty, equality and brotherhood - the French Republic

No taxation without representation - United States fight for independence

Equal rights - Wyoming state motto based on womens suffrage support in 1893

We believe in equal suffrage because we believe in democracy - suffrage banner used by the Minnesota St. Paul Political Equity Club in 1910-1919

Death to fascism, freedom to the people – anti-Nazi slogan used by the Yugoslav resistance movement during World War II

"It is a paradox that every dictator has climbed to power on the ladder of free speech. Immediately on attaining power each dictator has suppressed all free speech except his own." - Herbert Hoover, 31st President of the United States

"Whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government." - Thomas Jefferson, primary writer of Declaration of Independence, 3rd President of the United States

"Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice are prepared to choose wisely. The real safeguard of democracy, therefore, is education." - Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States

"I speak not for myself but for those without voice... those who have fought for their rights... their right to live in peace, their right to be treated with dignity, their right to equality of opportunity, their right to be educated." - Malala Yousafzai, shot by the Taliban in 2012 because her father ran a girls school in Pakistan, and she was(and is) a vocal proponent of girls right to an education.