To be fair, governments do frequently limit civil liberties in times of crisis. Our own Patriot Act probably went too far in that direction. President Abraham Lincoln suspended habeas corpus for Southern sympathizers during the American Civil War, but he never canceled elections. Neither did Winston Churchill, to whom Zelensky is sometimes compared. Churchill actually lost the 1945 British election and had to watch Clement Attlee take the final victory lap for World War II.
I do love the “Lincoln suspended habeas corpus” line as a kind-of end run around “violating civil liberties is always bad” arguments. I occasionally see folks go the extra mile and point to the Sand Creek massacre as necessary and good. But the take away from this shit never seems to be “There is something wholly anti-democratic and nefarious about Western politics.”
Ukraine is an aberration. Just like Ethiopia and India and Italy and El Salvador and the Philippines and Israel are aberrations. There’s nothing wrong with the system, these foreigners (and occasionally those damned MAGA Americans) are just doing democracy wrong. The wittling away of political parties, the canceling of elections, and the reversion to military rule isn’t a feature, we assure you. It is always a bug that we just need to work out. Or not, because this is an op-ed in an online tabloid rather than any kind of public policy.
If they banned rightist parties, it could still ultimately be part of a larger project of rightist consolidation. Ultimately the issue is not a deontological one with banning parties or just banning leftwards, but with who is left to wield power.
I do love the “Lincoln suspended habeas corpus” line as a kind-of end run around “violating civil liberties is always bad” arguments. I occasionally see folks go the extra mile and point to the Sand Creek massacre as necessary and good. But the take away from this shit never seems to be “There is something wholly anti-democratic and nefarious about Western politics.”
Ukraine is an aberration. Just like Ethiopia and India and Italy and El Salvador and the Philippines and Israel are aberrations. There’s nothing wrong with the system, these foreigners (and occasionally those damned MAGA Americans) are just doing democracy wrong. The wittling away of political parties, the canceling of elections, and the reversion to military rule isn’t a feature, we assure you. It is always a bug that we just need to work out. Or not, because this is an op-ed in an online tabloid rather than any kind of public policy.
TBH, my main gripe with banning parties is that only parties to the left from government were banned.
If they banned rightist parties, it could still ultimately be part of a larger project of rightist consolidation. Ultimately the issue is not a deontological one with banning parties or just banning leftwards, but with who is left to wield power.
So I wasn’t the only one calling Zelensky a racist incompetent. Neat.