The ostrich and the vote

I’d like to be an ostrich.

All around the world, people are casting their vote for political leaders promising easy answers to complex problems. Democracies everywhere are at risk from populist politicians and far-right-wing ideologues. What a troubling thought for those of us who want to believe in the goodness of our neighbours and the wisdom of our political leaders. However, with each autocrat or hard-right-wing leader elected, I lose another glimmer of hope.

I am not an ostrich.

I cannot bury my head in the sand. I must pay attention to the world around me. Turning inward and ignoring what is happening out there does not make it go away or diminish the harm being done to our democracies. At the very least, I tell myself, I must know the days' headlines, which, last week, included news of right-wing conservative Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu being returned to power in Israel and Jordan Bardella being elected as new leader of France’s far-right Rassemblement National (RN). He has pledged to protect French civilization from perceived threats posed by immigration and to defend a party member who made a racist remark in parliament (ABC News).

Bardella, who won the top job with more than 80% of the party’s vote, is only 27 years old.

Good grief. I hardly knew who I was at that age, never mind thought I could lead a political party. But I sure gave good soundbites to reporters on abortion rights: I was emphatic in my views and unyielding in my position on the issue. Many decades later, my position remains firmly pro choice, but my soundbites — were any reporter to put a microphone in my face — would be less strident, more reflective of the complexity of what I now understand as reproductive justice. (This evolution of ‘choice’ encompasses not merely the right to have or to not have a child, but also the right to parent one’s child in a safe and healthy environment. Imagine the complexity of governmental and societal policies and programs to enable that, in a world where women continue to earn less money and do more of the domestic and emotional labour than men.)

During the Israeli election, the BBC reported that a 14-year-old boy was seen campaigning for far-right leader Itamar Ben-Gvir. Am I being ageist when I wonder if such a young pre-voter can do anything other than parrot what the adults around him are saying? Am I being idealist when I say that political office is for public service not personal agenda or private enrichment? 

Politics in a democracy: These days, it’s not always easy to watch them and, yet, we also cannot live freely without participating in them — and that means more than carrying a placard, parroting a slogan, or marking a ballot. It means paying attention, asking questions, and holding candidates and elected officials to account. It means being in it for the long game, not the quick win or convenient alliance. As Winston Churchill said, “democracy is the worst form of government — except for all the others that have been tried.” 

Today, as our neighbours to the south go to the polls in the US mid-terms, let us hope they cast their vote less for restrictive ideology and more for open-hearted, generous-spirited leadership — less for themselves as individuals and more as members of a large multi-faceted collective, willing and able to support each other in this troubled heating world of ours. I, for one, will be watching with bated breath.

To receive my weekly blogpost in your inbox, email fiveyearsawriter at gmail dot com. Simply put SUBSCRIBE in the subject line. 

-------
Land acknowledgement: I respectfully recognize that I live on the original lands of Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene peoples, and on the homeland of the Métis Nation.

Ostrich head up photo by Ricardo IV Tamayo on Unsplash 

Ostrich head in sand photo by Wolfgang Hasselmann on Unsplash  

Parrots photo by Nikola Johnny Mirkovic on Unsplash