Democracy and the Wizard of Oz

RAISE YOUR VOICE

By PETER MOLENAAR

A few blocks east of Cedar on Riverside Avenue is the People’s Center where, at age 70, I received the Moderna Vaccine. Given that my father died of COVID-19 at age 99, I look forward to voting in seven more presidential elections. Right?

Looking back, at age 20, I was actually fit enough to assist in voter registration in Carthage, Mississippi. Mrs. Hudson was our guardian while the three of us faced down a comparable gathering of hostile young men. Subsequently, for fear of a lynch mob, we wisely deflected a deployment of flirtatious southern belles.

Then, at age 32, I would tour the Soviet Union in the midst of electoral activity. To facilitate the voting process, everyone there had the day off with pay! Fast forward to this country… major sections of the working class remain captivated by Trumpism, and are imprisoned by racist thinking.

Do you remember the Wizard of Oz and the associated cast of characters?

From behind a curtain, strings were (and are) pulled on behalf of big business. To cast divisions among the masses, the Wizard busied himself with sound effects and flashing lights. Observant intellectuals like Marx and Lenin pondered the inner workings of this ”˜bourgeois-democracy”™.… Read the rest “Democracy and the Wizard of Oz”