Without free and open elections a government leader is not legitimate.

[Uponthegears]

28. "Elections"

Last edited Sat Nov 26, 2016, 03:44 PM - Edit history (1)

I suspect the word was chosen carefully.

Our Founding Fathers most definitely did not place their faith in the word which could have been used, but was not . . . "democracy." The only governing body directly elected under the Constitution as originally drafted was the House of Representatives (a body which, not accidentally, has little power to independently check the power of the executive or the judiciary). The remaining bodies were all selected by the elites.

I mention this for a number of reasons. First, it shows that the Founding Fathers had a great deal of skepticism toward the notion that the people have the capacity to govern themselves. Second, it raises the question of whether a government chosen by one class of elites as was envisioned by our founders is intrinsically superior to an openly non-democratic one?

If the answer to that question is "no" or even "it's close," then the legitimacy of governments should be judged by how they exercise power, not by how they come to power.

Whether Castro should be remembered as a great leader or a poor one turns on what he did and what he failed to do, nothing else.