3/30/2023

My dear Friend & POTUS, JRB,

            Thanks for joining the UK, Japan & Australia in condemning the junta for banning 40 political parties. I appreciated Vedant Patel’s statement, “Any election without the participation of all stakeholders in Burma would not be and cannot be considered free or fair.”

            The Democracy Summit, Burma’s scam election & WI’s upcoming supreme court election have me thinking about democracy. As V-Dem points out democracy is a complex system which comes in a variety of flavors & can be measured with 450+ indicators.

The Burma situation highlights V-Dem’s assertion that democracy entails more than elections, specifically civil liberties, judicial independence, executive constraints, gender equality, & media freedom.

In a nutshell, democracy includes sharing power. The new format of the Democracy Summit, which several countries are hosting rather than just the US, exemplifies this. As the CSM points out, “sharing the hosting spotlight is sending the strong message that this is not just about the US, but that strengthening democracy is a team sport & requires participation around the globe.”

The WI supreme court election brings up the challenge of balancing majority rule with protecting the rights of the minority. The NYT calls it, “by far the most important political contest of the year” It is “overwhelmingly about abortion and redistricting” & whether a faction of folks united around religious commitments & fear can take control of the state. As you’ll recall, the danger of strong factions was one of the issues that Madison discussed in the Federal Papers when advocating for a large republic.

I hope you had a good conversation with President Alberto Fernández of Argentina yesterday. I hope you didn’t sell him any weapons. Perhaps he can’t afford any given his big debt to the World Bank. WINTA!

            BYBS,