…in US?
“How sweet it is!!” some of the old activists from the Cold War 60’s still surviving must be chortling, as they note the ascent and coronation of Donald Trump as President of the US of A – and the consternation of the old elites who were their nemesis back then. The USSR was the enemy, of course, and anyone who could even remotely be a ‘fellow traveller’ was fair game for the CIA. Today, the “Agency” has come in for stinging rebuffs from their new Commander in Chief.
To be fair, the FBI had done the same persecution within the US following the witch hunt of Senator McCarty in the 50’s. But while the lives of hundreds of Americans – including several in Hollywood – it could not match the thousands who were actually killed in the Third World, to “roll back the Red menace”. Today, the new President has made the normalisation of relations with Russia his number one priority… and thereby making at least half of the 17 “Intelligence” agencies redundant! Oi vey!!
But there is one anomaly which is the archetypical elephant in the room that is being ignored – the foundation of the democratic order that’s the basis of America’s exceptionalism – each man counts equally with every other man. Especially when it comes to the ballot. How can government by the people stand when the votes of the people don’t have the same weight?
Back in the beginning of the 60‘s, we had a constituent system for electing governments. This resulted in the popular vote not exactly matching the votes the individual parties collected. Because the supporters of the PPP were more widely dispersed in the constituents, that Party’s seats garnered were far greater than the PNC’s, who were concentrated in urban areas. So the Americans and the British changed the system to the PR we still have so that the PNC could get into office. The CIA funded some riots that persuaded the PPP to go along.
But now in the US we have an analogous result – Hillary Clinton received three million more votes than Donald Trump – but yet she lost the elections! Why? Because the “Electoral College” device rewards dispersion of votes – much as our old constituency system did!! So your Eyewitness has a question: if the Establishment’s teed-off with Trump and they have the CIA on their side… Are they going to insist that America gets one-man-one vote all the way to deciding who’s President?
Power to the people!!! No Dictator!!
…in Guyana
Reading some of the responses to Justice Chang’s ruling on who can make foundational changes to the Constitution, it’s either some lawyers don’t keep up with developments in their field or they just want to protect the status quo.
As your Eyewitness has pointed out, Justice Chang must be complimented for moving away from the old, liberal, procedurally driven perspective on interpreting constitutions – especially in Britain. There, we know, even though democracy was supposed to place sovereignty in the hands of the people, the designed procedure only places a pencil in the hands of the people to select their REPRESENTATIVES to Parliament every five years!
And then makes PARLIAMENT sovereign – not the people! Well, even though Brexit has started the process of re-examining that situation in Britain, our Constitution has always insisted that substantively, we the people are sovereign. And there are certain things, only we the people can decide – not our representatives – who we know to our cost – are invariably self-serving. Remember the 50 per cent raise?
But those in power will always resist this assertion of power by the people. They’d rather be our sovereign rulers!
…in Georgetown
Your Eyewitness is still amazed at how these parking meters have been imposed on the people of, and visitors to, Georgetown – even though no one, excepting the Gang of Four, agrees to them.
We know where sovereignty resides in Georgetown!
