What Democracy Does NOT Look Like

Excellent blog post.  Curtsy "From Where I Sit" - (Posted in its entirety)
"The students and public union members who have taken over Wisconsin’s state capital in an attempt to intimidate the duly elected majority have been chanting, “This is what democracy looks like.”

This is not what democracy looks like. This is what mob rule looks like. It’s what self-interest looks like. It’s what a minority trying to thwart the will of the majority looks like. It is the exact opposite of democracy.

The reason America’s democracy has worked so long when so many other attempts at democracy have quickly failed is that Americans understand that the winners of elections get to govern.

I could not disagree more strenuously with President Obama’s agenda, but as he famously said, “elections have consequences.” For the time being, he gets to implement his policies. In 2012, I will do my best to see that he is defeated and that many of his policies are reversed. That’s how we do it in America.

If you don’t like the results of an election, you work harder to win next time, you don’t attempt to overturn the results through work stoppages or by shutting down the government and refusing to return until the majority bows to your will.

I’m not saying the people don’t have the right to protest or advocate for their position, of course they do. But what’s going on in Madison is way beyond writing your representative, it is an organized attempt to subvert the results of a democratic election. That’s certainly not what “democracy looks like.”

This week we will probably find out who really runs Wisconsin, the voters or the unions.

And, quite honestly, I doubt it will end up being the voters."