No doubt there are people kept awake at night worrying about Mitt Romney winning the U.S. presidential election this fall, but I hear mainly from those who worry that Barack Obama may win it. I won’t dispute that they have more to worry about, but they sound as if they would worry, whether I disputed it or not.
A reader, concerned that Obama may be re-elected in a few weeks with dire consequences to America, its allies and their economy, wants to know whether I still feel that democracy is “worth it.” After all, I write from time to time that democracy isn’t what it’s cracked up to be.
“You wrote (in February, 2006) that democracy doesn’t mean what we take it to mean,” the reader tells me. “You wrote that: ‘Contrary to how most Western political leaders, academics or editorialists use it, “democracy” doesn’t mean peace, freedom, equality, prosperity, secularism, security or justice. The D-word simply means a method of governmental succession.”
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