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Democracy as Fiction Revealed by Events in Hong Kong and U.S.

by 23 Comments

One of the cardinal rules of democracy is voting, and its corollary, the rule of law. Over history, from Plato, Magna Carta, U.S. Constitution, to today, liberals have the myth that it’s sacrosanct and inviolable. Critics, which I include myself, have always questioned whether voting with insufficient information or education, does really serve society well. It may well be an elitist view, but recent events in U.S. and Hong Kong shows the fallacy of so call democracy.
I will not belabor the problems in U.S. other than the fact voting since its inception was restricted to propertied white male, the genocide of Indians and local tribes, those worthless treaties with them, slavery, and now the basket of deplorable that constitute 40% of U.S. electorate, that essentially believe a flat earth, biblical past utopia. And their leading con-man Trump might well be the next president with the fate of the world held in his nuclear trigger fingers.
Actually I want to talk more about the event in Hong Kong, the local election of 2 Youngspiration legislators, their failed oath taking and insult to China. The legal professionals in Hong Kong, both the insurgents and main business elites, were horrified that Chinese People’s Congress probably will preempt their judicial process by imposing their interpretation of Basic Laws by settling once and all, any wishful thinking of an independent Hong Kong. When Deng allowed the 1 country-2 systems for 50 years, he was postponing and hoping the gradual merge of differences between China and Hong Kong. As the past 20 years showed, the economic disparity is gradually disappearing. Shanghai is gradually overtaking Hong Kong as financial center. Hong Kongers feel their special status is threatened economically and politically. China allowed Hong Kong to be a special status after liberation because of the embargo and need for opening to the world. That raison no longer exist today. China has been mollycoddling Hong Kong when they push back on education reform and election. I think it’s time for Xi to force the issue for Hong Kong to face the reality. If some Hong Kong people think they can carve some special privilege by voting some insurgents to bargain, then they have another thing coming. The judicial system in Hong Kong is leftover from colonial British system, and it’s time for them to change. The 1 country – 2 systems was a transitional process, not set for permanent one. It’s well past time for the fiction of democracy, a fig leaf to be revealed.

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Comments

  1. Yes, democracy has always been just a fig leaf for the elites, as it fool the masses into thinking they have real choices of leaders. They do not realize they are only choosing which representatives of the oppressing class to represent and oppress them.

  2. I don’t know if this has much to do with democracy rather I think the rise Youngspiration legislators in HK and Trump in US has to do with the decline with both places. In the US people used to brag that they are the greatest country in the face of the earth, but blue collar workers in manufacturing cities in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Michigan has been on the decline. Trump’s slogan “Making America Great Again,” gives people false promises about turning America back into its good old days by reversing many of the globalist policies over the past 50 years.

    As for Hong Kong, I thought this was a pretty good opinion piece about the attitude towards mainlanders in Hong Kong.

    http://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1242671/living-hong-kong-mainlander-no-piece-cake

    It used to be that Hong Kong was so doing so much better than the Mainland, but over the years the mainland has been built up and many Mainlanders come to China and competing with the people in Hong Kong. Many people in Hong Kong has built up a certain resentment towards the Mainlanders thus the reason why the Youngspiration legislators to want to turn Hong Kong back the way it used to be. Little did these people in Hong Kong know that many well off Hong Kongers left Hong Kong and were replaced by well off Mainlanders.

    My guess is that while some people in Hong Kong have resigned that Hong Kong is no longer the “pearl of the orient,” other people in Hong Kong believe that they are better than the people in Mainland and will do anything to get rid of the influence of the Mainland away from Hong Kong.

  3. “United Effing States of Fudgemerica” – I wonder if you’ll ever hear any elected official in US say stuff like this.

    Well that’s what Leung and Yao did. It’s not even really about 1C2S, but basic respect for oneself. If you choose to run for public office and work to affect change from within, the at least have some basic respect for the office you sought out. There are plenty of Youtube videos showing them calling China Re%$#*ing of Jina, crossing fingers while swearing in, rushing the podium and assaulting court ushers:

    How should an average American feel if their elected official say stuff like “United Effing States of Fudgemerica”? How about “California/Texas/Hawaii is not part of USA”?

  5. So does Foreign RICO apply in this case? Can a Chinese national sue the United States government for entities it funds that violating China’s equivalent of FARA? How about FCPA, since NED and it’s affiliates self-proclaims as NGOs.

  6. “I don’t know if this has much to do with democracy rather I think the rise Youngspiration legislators in HK and Trump in US has to do with the decline with both places.”

    I don’t think it’s due to a decline of “democracy”. Some in US have attributed the rise of Trump to a “decline of White privilege”.

    Extrapolated slightly, the rise of HK Localists is due to the decline of HK “Native privilege”, or rather a perception of such.

    It is also evident that HK Localists are heavily indoctrinated into the same logic of White “native” privilege type racism, to the point that they don’t even perceive their own racism as racism, or equally try to excuse their brand of racism as mere “insult” born out of righteous “frustration”.

    Even though the main target of their racism is almost entirely on innocent tourists (labeled as locusts) and perceived pro-mainland HK’ers (labeled as ethnic or racial traitors), they seek to justify their racism as against the greater conspiracy that attacks or erodes HK culture. (Forgetting entirely that HK is a cultural melting pot, and its culture continues to change over time).

    Canada, in contrast with US, has had a much less of a problem with White Native Privilege, because Canada underwent an active social political indoctrination on value of multi-culturalism.

    Thus, I believe, what’s happening in HK and US are not inevitable, but rather Democracy and its “leave it alone” mentality (and a false sense of self-importance and exceptionalism) gave room for racism to rise.

    To rid of such racism, China needs vigilance, and needs to combat such ridiculous notions of self-importance and self-entitlement.

    Yes, China should rage against misbehaving tourists, but China should also rage against misbehaving HK racists and their Democratic supporters.

  7. I agree it was due to the erosion of Hong Kong’s position vis mainland economically and politically that drives the dissatisfaction, but it’s also driven by the educational system in Hong Kong. When a few years ago proposals for educational reform to introduce some patriotic curriculums to bridge the differences, or even some Mandarin teachings, it faced intense opposition and China backed down. The education system is essentially unchanged since colonial time and the colonial servile attitude, and worshipping of Western values remain. For successful merging of two systems it is incumbent that education reform or as liberal pushback called brain washing needs to commence.

  8. The problem with Hong Kong is that the Western paid politicians did do a good job of manipulating public opinion. Pro-establishment candidates is always blamed for taking orders from Beijing while they do nothing about fake pro-‘democracy’ candidates and not placating them as taking their barking orders from the west. The pro-democracy candidates basically use Trump’s tactics to strike fear into the people in Hong Kong not to align with the pro-establishment candidates. The pro-establishment has always played defense while the pro-‘democracy’ has always played offense. Since the NPC kicked out the 2 clowns from Legco, there has to be some kind of turning point where the pro-establishment candidates has to use the same ugly tactics to go against pro-establishment people otherwise they will lose control.

  9. “The education system is essentially unchanged since colonial time and the colonial servile attitude, and worshipping of Western values remain. For successful merging of two systems it is incumbent that education reform or as liberal pushback called brain washing needs to commence.”

    Yes, and I think Beijing putting its foot down on this legal interpretation is a good start.

    I have had enough of HK’s racists and US’s racists, and their respective supporters.

    Like I told some HK “Democrats” recently: If you really need 2 potty mouth kids to use Racist slurs to “represent” you, you ARE a racist.

    Some people want to give “freedom” to the racists. I say that’s just cowardly pandering to ignorance. That’s how Nazis gained power, through tolerance of the ignorant.

    China needs to clamp down on HK’s racist trends. (I’m sure it will be derided as “reeducation” or “brain washing”, but I don’t care. Chinese shouldn’t care about that either. If China says anything, it would be called “propaganda” any ways. So if it’s “propaganda” any ways, let’s just make it serious.)

    Call out the racists, humiliate them in public, confront them in public.

    Call it “intimidation” if they want to. It’s not like they don’t “intimidate” tourists just because they can like a bunch of Nazi Brown-shirts.

    * So, bottomline, I’m way past caring “public perception” for HK any more. If those “nice” HK people won’t F*ing shut up their own racist kids, let the CCP do it, and give them a good spanking if necessary.

  10. “The pro-democracy candidates basically use Trump’s tactics to strike fear into the people in Hong Kong not to align with the pro-establishment candidates. The pro-establishment has always played defense while the pro-‘democracy’ has always played offense. Since the NPC kicked out the 2 clowns from Legco, there has to be some kind of turning point where the pro-establishment candidates has to use the same ugly tactics to go against pro-establishment people otherwise they will lose control.”

    Yep. It’s not just Trump’s tactics. It’s White Racist “White Power” Alt-right tactics.

    Occupying public property illegally, (State park in US, Streets in HK).

    occupying PRIVATE property illegally, (show up in high school games with racial slurs on shirts in US, blocking and breaking into shopping plaza in HK).

    intimidating private citizens who do not go along.

    re-“interpreting” laws to mean whatever the F they want to mean. (Since when can people decide to modify “official oaths” on their own? And that’s their idea of “rule of law”??)

    China cannot let this one go, because we are seeing the consequences of the “soft approach”. Generosity is viewed with suspicion and derision. Law and order even more so. Racism is now tolerated.

  11. China seems to be happy that Trump won the election. Obama and the crony democrats made life difficult for them as they started the “Asian Pivot” against China but it will probably die down by the time Trump becomes president.

    Probably a lesser known thing that around the time when Obama became president, the NED funded to NDI (National Democratic Institute, Democratic version of the NGO) and they started a ‘movement’ to stir up the discontent within Hong Kong. Here’s a youtube video of a couple of clowns from the NDI with the locals in HK to start a ‘localist’ movement in 2009.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_w0DcbpJZE

    They were discussing how to trigger the defacto referendum in July/2009.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong_by-election,_2010

  12. Strategically, neither Clinton nor Trump are good for China. But while Trump is less predictable, he will be facing a sizable GOP and DNC establishment in Congress, and there will be MORE in fighting in US politics (Trump essentially promised a “purge” and even now all the veteran politicians are preparing their defense strategies).

    So, it will be very difficult for US to get its geopolitical strategies aligned (or even properly funded).

    Also, Trump and his cronies are far more incompetent than people realize. And China is laughing quietly at the prospect of watching them making fools of themselves in the international stage.

    He wants to back US out of NAFTA and WTO? does he even know how to do that?

  13. Well, the international repercussions of Trump presidency will be subject to debate and unveiling, but domestically election does have consequences. I wonder the millennials and African Americans that are indifferent to the election ( the total votes were less then 2012 votes, less than 120 million, and Hillary did have a plus 200K over Trump.). I’ll list some obvious ones below.
    1. Supreme Court, Roe V Wade may be in jeopardy, Citizen United decision will stand, forget about any gun control.
    2. Law and Order will be the order of the day, “Black Lives Matters” will be an after thought until explosions and riots.
    3. Obama Care will be repealed, all of his executive orders will be rescinded.
    4. Iran nuclear deal will be in jeopardy.
    5. Repeal of Dodd/ Frank consumer protection bill.
    6. Tax cuts for the 1% and corporations, probably a regressive national sales tax or value added tax.
    7. Climate change as Trump stated obvious a Chinese plot, expect more coal usage for jobs to payoff. Paris agreement on CO2 sidelined.
    8. EPA probably will be eliminated.
    9. NAFTA repealed or renegotiated.
    10. Some form of Mexico wall and increase in deportation of illegal immigrants.
    11. Minimum wage increases will stop and may roll back.
    12. Expect military budgets to increase regardless what Trump said about decreasing foreign entanglements.

  14. I don’t think he can get most of that stuff done. He and his minions simply don’t know how to do it, and they will face sizable opposition from establishment GOP. (except perhaps Obamacare, even then, there are problems that Trump might want to do it).

    Repeal or renegotiate NAFTA? Like the corporations will let him?

    Of course, Trump will much more likely just make up excuses/lies for why he couldn’t get stuff done, and fire his minions every now and then as scapegoats.

    See, the thing the people are missing from Trump is he’s a LIAR in his core. He lied as a business man, he will lie to get political power. He has no real intention of “fulfilling any promises”, except where it is easy to do.

    Run into any roadblocks, he will just give up very quickly and just lie his way out of his promises.

  15. @N.M.Cheung,

    Trump’s mandate is to the rural voters who got fed up with the short end of the stick. He defied the big business, Media, the fellow Republicans who went against him. So he owes the establishment nothing and she can push the mandate to its republicans. “Make America Great Again,” is a slogan that meant something by focusing on rebuilding back America whereas Hillary’s slogan “I’m with her” don’t mean anything.

    My guess is that with the revelations from wikileaks is that she is part of the establishment and failed to convince the millennials, blacks and latinos to vote for him. At this point we don’t know what is going to happen. He could very well be like Obama’s Audacity of hype campaign when he got elected but failed his promises miserably. Maybe he can carry on in his mandate.

    One thing that we have to watch out for is the people that Trump managed to burned thru, IE, the establishment companies, Media, and the democrats. might conspire ways to get back at Trump. They might find a way to bite back.

  16. @pug_ster

    Something to consider: This election is conceivably as close as 2000, with several states down to very narrow margins.

    Consider Florida, the margin between Trump and Clinton was less than 1%, about 100,000 votes, and the 3rd party candidates came in at more than 200,000 votes in Florida.

    Yet again like in 2000, 3rd party candidates managed to send victory to the stupid candidate.

    Idiotic Millennials who did “protest votes” have at least 4 years to live with the consequences of what they have done. (Much like the Brexit voters, many are undoubtedly thinking “I didn’t really mean it, I didn’t think my vote would have mattered”.)

    Again, leaving such a big decision in the hands of stupid people is itself a very stupid idea for a government.

  17. Also, there was this whole last minute “vote trading” scheme on the internet, where 3rd party supporters “promised” to trade votes in key swing states like Florida.

    I thought that scheme was way too suspicious. It probably violates some election laws somewhere.

  18. Well, 1, 4, and 7 of my predictions are already come off in the front pages of Washington Post. Supreme Court, Obama care, and Paris climate agreement cancelled. Michael Moore in his film “Trumpland”, trying to reach Trump voters predicted that Michigan and Ohio might go to Trump, but even he didn’t predict that in addition Wisconsin and Pennsylvania also. With all 3 branches of government in control Trump will wreck a lot of damages before his term expired. Just hope there will not be another Reichstag fire to make his control permanent.

  20. just so you guys know, I have little doubt that things will get ugly.

    How ugly? Let’s just say that I’m looking for jobs in China.

    Let’s just say that I lost all faith in any God that could have allowed this to happen, and now I believe that People only created God the idea out of desperation because stupid morons ruin countries like this

    when they throw away their capacity for rational thought and facts, the ONLY thing left to do is to pray a Supernatural being for divine help to save their collective asses.

    Is US going to become “fascist”? Never officially. You will never see US admit to it at least.

    On that note, with it private prisons, large prison population, suppression of Native American and Minority rights via heavily militarized police (now law and order), how is it not technically “fascist”?

  21. Personally, for me, I am not pessimistic. I voted for Johnson because I am sick and tired of the 2 party system. I am actually not that upset that Trump won considering that things are looking much better for China and Russia because Trump’s platform is more isolationist compared to Hillary. Hopefully when the US start sending troops home and closing bases and we will see less of a chance for foreign conflicts around the world in the next 4 years. Perhaps we start to see the waning days where US conflicts around the world and we can start giving peace a chance.

    I’m sure that the Democrats will slow down Trump’s mandate and we will get 4 more years with limited stuff done. Who knows, if Trump can actually get his act together, maybe I will vote for him.

    For once I am glad that the western propaganda label 3rd party voters as “spoilers.” People under the Johnson camp were actually happy that they got 4 million votes compared to 1.2 in their last election so perhaps they can build the momentum for the 2020 election.

  22. Well, I am not optimistic things will turn out well as some from left whom wants to sharpen the contradictions and cause an explosion. Since I have been retired for a while, Social Security whether privatized as Republican wants, will not affect me as older people are the bulwark of Trump voters, even if it’s a Socialism policy. As for China, don’t be misled by his rhetoric, empire does not voluntarily shrink, as a matter of fact I expect military to expand as it’s also one of his main supports. More ships, more troops, they have go to somewhere. When some Iranian sailors gave the finger to U.S. sailors, Trump wants to bomb the hell out of them. I expect him to expand the involvement in Middle East, as any provocation will be met with overwhelming response. He will not be able to drain the swamp in Washington D.C., but more likely to drown in the larger swamp around the world. The only worry is he may lightly use the nuclear weapons as the ultimate blackmail.

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