By STEPHEN McGRATH
Updated 4:50 PM EST, December 6, 2024
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — A top Romanian court on Friday annulled the first round of the country’s presidential election, days after allegations emerged that Russia ran a coordinated online campaign to promote the far-right outsider who won the first round.
The Constitutional Court’s unprecedented decision — which is final — came after President Klaus Iohannis declassified intelligence on Wednesday that alleged Russia organized thousands of social media accounts to promote Calin Georgescu across platforms such as TikTok and Telegram.
The court, without naming Georgescu, said that one of the 13 candidates in the Nov. 24 first round had improperly received “preferential treatment” on social media, distorting the outcome of the vote.
What a convenient turn of events for NATO and the Global American Empire. Much like with Orban, Trump, Le Pen, Meloni, or any other political "outsider," we can, reliably, count on our anointed and credentialed betters to discover electoral malfeasance which, in every case, created the opportunity for the no-good-very-very-bad "Far Right" guy to win (or come close to winning) an election. Truly, it is intervention from heaven that the good guys always find the evidence they need. Our democracy(tm) is safe, in Romania. Just as it is safe in Ukraine. Just as it is being saved in Georgia. Just as it is safe any and everywhere that our anointed and credentialed betters turn their gaze.
I am, obviously, being... sarcastic.
I don't like democracy. Among other reasons (see my post history for more philosophical ponderings) I don't like it because it is only ever tolerated by the Elite of a given nation provided the participants thereof don't notice power. And, as is the case for Ukraine and, now, Georgia should the participants ever attempt to express or, *gasp*, exert power... well... good thing there are so many cheap plane tickets available for the excitable student aged totally-not-professional interlocutors who, themselves, find that they always did have an interest in visiting [insert nation here] with a bag full of accidentally flammable materials. Democracy is, and has always been, a tool for obfuscating power. Not an ideal. Not a principle. Not something "good" or "valuable" or even in the interest of any number of people.
You know this is true. You've just never put much thought into it.
Consider: assume you and 9 of your friends want to eat dinner. 4 vote for pizza. 4 vote for hamburgers. The last two will decide. Right? Democracy! Yay!!!
But who among the 10 has the power? Is it with the majority? Maybe those last two guys vote pizza!? Yay! Democracy!
In reality, the power lies with those last two dinner-voters. They are the ones who actually decide what is eaten.
That is democracy.
Not majority rule. Not muh principles. Not muh coveted values. No.
It doesn't matter if you're progressive, liberal, conservative, or even reactionary... democracy is always this way.
And, in the case of Romania today... well... democracy wins!
For those who were confused about just how President Yoon of South Korea could argue that martial law was necessary to protect Korean democracy... read about Romania's court decision today. If you want to protect "democracy" as a principle, or as a value, then the credentialed and anointed few have to act. President Yoon, just like the Romanian court today, attempted to decide what was for dinner.
He backed down.
The court didn't.
Democracy. Guaranteed to work 51% of the time, all the time.
But what say you, oh enlightened masses of NSG? Am I being too cynical? Am I tilting at windmills? I mean... Don Quixote was a good book, after all.
