There is a movement afoot, as documented in this New York Times article (click on my title to read it), to ban the Communist party in the Czech Republic. I'm surprised. It seems so undemocratic. And dangerous. Anytime something is banned it creates more curiosity for it.
It seems to me the healthiest thing for Czechs would be to see the people vote out the Communists out on their own merits. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the Czech Republic, the only country where communists were voted 'in' by the people? Wouldn't it be a much more powerful statement for them to be voted out?
Czech people, I would like to suggest you shouldn't be embarrassed that the Commies are still getting votes. We in America have our own embarrassments. For example, former Vice President Dick Cheney during his time in office, literally changed the nature of American democracy to a darker, less admirable, republic.
Today the former Vice President constantly criticizes how Barack Obama is running the country. It's important for Dick Cheney's ideas to be aired and for him and his supporters to see and feel how little they resonate with their fellow citizens. It's healthy for us to listen to him too and see if we agree. I don't agree.
If the Commies are still getting votes, maybe you haven't done a good enough job educating young people to their crimes. Or maybe the people voting for the Commies don't feel any connection with the offerings of everyone else. Or maybe you aren't showing the people who vote for them the opportunities brought about by other systems. Or maybe voting for the Commies isn't socially incorrect (like smoking in America).
I have to admit, if I met someone who voted for the Communists, my first thought would be this is someone who is "unwilling to compete...someone who believes in economic Santa Claus....someone who is willing to be enslaved merely for cheap bread." Wow, I guess i have an opinion on that. But that's what I mean: by voting for Communists, it would be like a mark of static mental poverty. Why not just deem it socially unacceptable?
Banning them seems like a lack of confidence in the ideas of the opposition. It's your challenge, Czech people. What can you offer that competes politically?
Sunday, December 27, 2009
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4 comments:
I agree. Banning is a bad idea.
This is so true! I'm reading a book called The Story of Spain. Right now, we are getting up to the part about Franco and Fascism...a democracy that limits a people's right to free speech is one step closer to becoming a fascist state...Hopefully, cooler heads will prevail...interesting.
Hi Karen,
I wouldn't take the proposal to ban the Communist Party in the Czech Republic too seriously. It is a ploy by certain Senators who are members of a right-wing party, to score a few political points. The spokesman quoted in the last couple of paragraphs of the NY Times article effectively admits as much.
Where the article is completely wrong is the statement that the Communist Party won the first post-war elections in Czechoslovakia in 1946. Likewise in your post where you say that they were 'voted in'. The Communist Party gained the biggest percentage of the vote for any party, (about 30%) & therefore about a third of the parliamentary seats in those elections. But that does not constitute winning the election or forming a government. They came to power in a coup d'etat at the beginning of 1948. The whole business is well explained in the Museum of Communism about which you have previously blogged.
I agree with you. The point is that those who run this campaign now, didnt argue good enough for the advantages of their policies. Its just: What brought capitalism to the people? Not a better life but poverty, unemployment ect. for most of the people. Its the wrong way to follow this ideology. Give a better life to people, give them the liberty that had been promised and you will win elections.
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