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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sun Tzu who wrote (119940)	11/18/2003 10:08:19 PM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Well forgive me if I misinterpreted your definition, but it seemed you consider a government legitimate if it had the support of the majority of the people. Nowhere did you say the majority of the people who bothered to vote. No democracy obtains 100% voter participation. And were that a prerequisite for governmental legitimacy, no democratic nation on earth would qualify. Democracy means opportunity to participate, not a requirement to do so. But that said, if people don't take the time to vote against a President, it can be effectively said that they tacitly support him. Obviously they weren't so concerned that they actively sought to block his assuming office. The fact is that people can come to believe their votes do not matter because the system is rigged in such a way that it doesn't matter who they vote for. Sure.. it's happened in this country as well (Daley's democratic "machine" in Chicago during the 60's) There will always be some element of corruption in the election process because people are people and you'll never completely take that element out of the equation. But we can always hope to make it even tougher for fraud to occur as technology gets better. Why would anyone vote for a person who barely represents them? And if there are enough people unrepresented, then does that government still have legitimacy? If you can't find a candidate who doesn't represent a few of the things you feel strongly about, then I would have to ask what color the sky is in your world? Or is it that you are so arrogant that you refuse to concede the views and perspectives of other people? Hawk