Authentic democracy

From Al's Big, Left, Outside ongoing reports on Bolivia:

For readers who may be new to blogs, the chronologically backwards order of the news items can get confusing. And I really do want readers to understand how current events in Bolivia reflect a larger sea change throughout Latin America: an Authentic Democracy renaissance, largely formed and led by indigenous movements with five centuries of experience in maintaining at least some self-governance on a local level in the face of brutal impositions by governments and markets.

There's a lot of irrational fear, especially inside the United States, of the movements that, in recent years, have been making progress electorally. I say irrational because from Venezuela to Bolivia to Brazil to Ecuador to Argentina and probably soon to other lands, the popular victories have come "the American way," fair and square, at the ballot box.

The paradigm-shifting contribution of the Venezuelan populace, in April 2002, put to rest, once and for all, the ghosts of Chile 1973 and US-backed military coups d'etat in Latin America.

Fast-forward to the present in Bolivia, a landlocked nation of eight million people, the majority indigenous, who in the June 30, 2002, election emerged as finalists for the presidency and the second biggest bloc in the national Congress. They did this without guns and in the open. And it's time for my paisanos who claim to be pro-democracy to walk their talk and celebrate this development, instead of remaining stuck in a 1970s mindset of "fear of the other," specifically, Latin Americaphobia.

...[W]hether we agree with their positions against drug prohibition and US-imposed market policies, or not, at some point we all have to look in the mirror and ask: "Am I really for Authentic Democracy or not?" The litmus test for a true small-d democrat is whether we can live peacefully with the democratic decisions of others even when we don't agree with them.

That is what is at stake today in Bolivia. That is what is spreading like wildfire throughout Latin America. The old disinformation mechanisms are breaking down, in a large part thanks to bloggers and Internet journos, the same as they have broken down on other fronts.

It would be pure hypocrisy, for example, to cheer the California recall process without likewise applauding the parallel electoral sea-changes South of the Border. People may not like Schwarzenegger but they have to accept the popular will that put him there. The same goes for Evo and Mallku, for Chavez and Lula, and anyone else elected under fair and free conditions who didn't steal an election. They are part and parcel of the same movement. Let's cut the stereotypes and disinformation and get on with the Authentic Democracy renaissance.

The corollary to that is that the people will need to know the truth about what is going on. They'll need to be educated, not propagandized and manipulated. Tall order. But 'authentic democracy' in the form of an implementation of the people's will through honest elections and voter-driven laws will be a great start. We don't even have that here.

Now, about Iraq.....

This is on the bio-science front, but I think it might find application here: New term for noxious species introduction - biological pollution.

Free Iraq. End the occupation.

....but hey, do what you want....you will anyway.