>>169608, >>169609, >>169610, >>169611, >>169612, >>169613, >>169614, >>169615
DataRepublican (small r) @DataRepublican - Hello Alex,
You say your work is dedicated to strengthening democracy. I have one simple question for you.
In your 30th anniversary publication, you had an article from your longtime head of Open Society Fund-Serbia, Sonja Licht. She also happens to be one of the most decorated civilians in Europe and widely considered an expert in democracy:
- Pro Merit Medal of the Council of Europe
- Star of Italian Solidarity
- French Legion of Honour
She has written and advised many democracy circles, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace among others.
In the article for Open Society, Licht openly discusses the problem of whether democracy can survive without trust in their leaders.
Her solution: "I believe the time has come for a responsible, courageous elite, those who care far more about addressing the genuine social problems than about election results. Only a political elite with vision, prudence and a focus on the general good—to whom the electorate, with their active involvement in public life, can cede part of their sovereignty in the elections... spearhead... our struggle to survive."
Read that again.
The idea of democracy as pushed by the head of one of your foundations is to literally stop "election results" and to have the public cede their trust to a technocratic elite.
End democracy to save democracy itself.
You cannot say that this is just a random musing of one employee. This is a woman who is highly regarded in democracy circles. This is a woman who ran one of your most prominent foundations during the fall of Milosevic. This is an article you platformed in your own thirtieth anniversary.
Now back to my question.
I am not going to ask a lame question like "what do you think democracy is?" - I have spent over a thousand hours researching the topic for my book this year. I know what you think democracy is: it has nothing to do with elections and everything to do with ceding sovereignty to an unaccountable elite so you can implement your own twisted version of "equality" aka what most of us on the right call socialism.
Nor am I going to ask you if you disavow Sonja Licht. I know you won't and you never will. I know you agree with her secretly.