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Integrity in politics

Editorial  December 29, 2004
 The Barre Montpelier Times Argus  

he Ukrainian election on Sunday serves as a mirror, reflecting back at us our own concerns about the integrity of democracy.

The presidential election in Ukraine was a do-over resulting from fraud in the previous round that was obvious to international observers, the Ukrainian Supreme Court, parliament and most Ukrainians. In the previous round, Viktor Yanukovych, the favorite of Russian President Vladimir Putin and of the Russian-speaking minority of eastern Ukraine, claimed victory. The winner in the rematch on Sunday was Viktor Yushchenko, who had suffered severe facial disfigurement as a result of poisoning this fall. No one knows who poisoned him, but the before-and-after pictures of his face represented a damning indictment of the shadowy forces that would stop at nothing to thwart democracy.

The Orange Revolution would not allow democracy to be thwarted. For weeks following the fraudulent election, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians thronged the streets of the capital, Kiev, demanding a fair election. It was reminiscent of the Velvet Revolution that brought democracy to Czechoslovakia. The popular uprising was so widespread that a government crackdown became impossible.

The Ukrainian experience demonstrated a fundamental truth about democracy: that it depends on the people's faith in the fairness of the system. If that faith remains secure, then people can endure much, including government by an opposition party. Indeed, agreement on the rules of play is the foundation that allows for faith in the outcome.

An understanding of fairness is inherent within the American political culture, but in recent years, faith in the fairness of the system has suffered some blows. One of the most serious blows came in 2000 when the U.S. Supreme Court intervened to halt a recount of the presidential result in Florida. The disputed result in Florida brought to public attention the many irregularities that plague our voting system. Faith in the troubled system is not restored as election officials foist on the public electronic voting machines that lack a paper trail.

The close result in Ohio this year and irregularities there have shown again the importance of maintaining a system that inspires trust. It did not help that the secretary of state in Ohio was a Republican who had already shown his partisan inclinations. Election officials, as we saw in Ukraine, must be above partisanship.

It is not just on Election Day that faith in the system is necessary. Another of the events that have shaken our confidence was the redistricting of Texas House districts, done at the behest of the Texas legislature, to gerrymander Democrats out of their congressional seats. It was an extraordinary manipulation of the system that puts the Democratic Party in a tough position: They can seek to fight fire with fire by means of ruthless, self-interested manipulation of the system, or they can work to set up a system that reduces the partisanship of congressional reapportionment. Politicians concerned about the integrity of the democratic process would pursue the latter course. Politicians interested in survival might pursue the former.

Widespread cynicism about the money that fuels contemporary politics makes it hard to foster belief in the possibility of democracy with integrity. But Ukraine's experience shows us how important it is to make the attempt.



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