I mentioned before that if democracy means voting, there have never been more truly democratic countries on earth than those ruled by Communist regimes. They held THOUSANDS of regular elections. In every single one of those elections the voter turnout was over 99!
In fact, if voter turnout makes a democracy, North Korea is the most democratic country that ever existed. North Korea is the only country that EVER had a ONE HUNDRED PERCENT turnout in a national election.
Did the Communists hold REAL elections?
Absolutely. An election gives the voter two sides, BOTH sides, to choose from. The voter was given a ballot with a list of candidates put forward by the Communist Party. You could: 1) not mark the ballot and drop it into the ballot box; or 2) mark out any names you didn’t like.
If a candidate didn’t get fifty percent of the vote, the Party had to come up with a new nominee.
That never happened. But you had TWO choices. You could choose between “both sides.”
And, it was a secret ballot. You could take the list behind a curtain and mark off any names you didn’t approve of.
Going behind this curtain presented a minor problem. You were in a room where Communist Party members were sitting. If you wanted to approve the entire Communist Party ticket you simply took the ballot of dropped it into the ballot box. Almost everybody did not go behind the curtain and loyally dropped the list straight into the box.
If you took the ballot behind the curtain to mark some names off, several Party members saw you do it.
Oddly enough, not only did over 99% of voters turn out, but over 99% of them voted a straight Communist ticket.
But “both sides” were represented.
In America we have free speech because “both sides” are represented. Both leftism and respectable conservatism are supposed to be given equal time. But what if you aren’t a leftist, a respectable conservative, or somewhere in between?
If you are not one of the “both” sides, then you go behind that curtain.
And people see you do it.
#1 by Richard L. Hardison on 11/30/2004 - 2:12 am
I can just imagine the Stalin-Trotsky debates.
Moderator: Comrade Iosef Isaronovich, you haff 5 minutes to rezpond to comrade Trotsky.
Stalin: Zank Yoo, comrade mahderaytor. Tovariches, Unlike my opponent if you are zent to ze gulag under my adminztrazhion I vill not allow you to zuffer needlessly by freezing and zttarvazhun, I vill zimply haff you zhot painlessly in ze back of da neck. I zink we must be humane in zese matters. Comrade Trotsky iz zimply a man wizout commpazzion.
Of course, we know what really happened. Trotsky had to the hell out of Dodge and he managed to live until 1940 in Mexico City where a Soviet agent finally dispatched him with an ice ax where he parts his hair. Stalin never did like leaving loose ends loose.
#2 by Don on 12/05/2004 - 2:09 am
They could make a movie entitled “Mr Bronstein goes to Mexico City.”