The Unruly Direction of Democracy
Is the fight for democracy overshadowing an even more cruciual problem?
The political climate is sour, and democracy is under threat. Each election becomes increasingly important and crucial for the sake of its survival — for democracy — for the two sides (left and right) tend to reprsenent the survival of democracy and the death of it, respectively. The left, when in position of power, finds its task to save democracy and thus wants collect votes from the ever distancing right — to reduce the right’s chance of victory. It wants to unite the two rivalling positions, traversing right in their politics to gain votes. Joe Biden acts as a good example. His republican tendencies prior made him an attractive representative for the left, who wanted votes from the right and the undecided. His goal to unite, however, has failed tremendously, for it is an impossible task. The only one looking for unity is the left.
Recently in Brazil, the election against Lula and Bolsonaro came to an end with the former president Lula (2003–2010) winning with 50,9% of the vote. Bolsonaro who sought a victory to ensure a second term, was defeated. Despite this, truck drivers across the nation began a large-scale block on important highways as a way of disagreeing with the election result. They demanded the military to take over — something Bolsonaro, a former military official himself, surely wouldn’t mind.
The right wants not to uphold the liberal-democratic ideals, focusing instead on preserving and recalling traditional values, and focusing on economic growth, in most cases ignoring the ethical and environmental consequences. Most evident, however, is their hostility towards the leftist opinion; something that is growing within the right, and taking effect on the people through acts of terrorism.
What is important to realise, is that this is the end of democracy. The increasing tensions and hostility between the political poles are proven, and without the sight of an end. No election result will see the situation get better, and if the elections have come to this — a choice between either the survival of democracy, or the death of it — then democracy is no longer desirable, and should be declared dead. For democracy was once an option between left and right (and in most countries, all in between) — now the left promise to unite and allow for more right-leaning politics, and the right has become an option outside of democracy, so the only democratic option is one where left and right are encompassed into one. There’s only one democratic option. One alternative.
The Right is not a democratic option in the sense that it cares not how eligible their way to victory, or power, is. Merely looking at the United States and Brazil again, we notice how the right spread suspicions of fraud, denied the electoral outcome, and prevented people from voting, etc. Their methods are numerous and indiscrete. Evident becomes a way of easier obtaining power — not through elections, but through power itself, paving way for a new age of politics.
The coming years democracy will moulder. Climate change will put all political parties to test, seeing chaos prevent sufficient action being made. But even the leftist option cannot accommodate sufficient politics in this regard, for that would gather no votes at all, for gathering votes (and saving democracy) and tackling our most crucial problems such as climate change are two rivalling positions, where the attempt to uphold liberal-democratic/neo-liberal ideals take the lead.
This isn’t to say that we should grow up and settle our disputes, for that would be asking for too much. It is, however, to say that in our continuance of this political quarrel, we are facing an existential problem which no one can solve — at least not when we think of survival as the antithesis of leftist thought, or the survival of democracy.
For if democracy survives, who survives with it?
No one.
Jakob Wilmer — November 2022
