Category: democracy

The Return to a Premodern State

Commentary Throughout these three most difficult years of our lives, many friends have predicted that there would be justice on the other side. The courts will speak out. Fairness and truth will prevail. The people who have done these deeds—lockdowns, mandatory face coverings, forced medicines we don’t need and which are often harmful—won’t get away…


Hong Kong Government Demands to Take Down American Artwork

A large LED display outside SOGO Department Store in Hong Kong Causeway Bay recently exhibited works of the Italian art institution Art Innovation Gallery as part of Art Basel 2023. Patrick Amadon, a renowned Los Angeles artist in the United States, was asked to submit a contribution. Still, Art Innovation Gallery said it was taken…


A ‘Voice to Parliament’ Challenges Our Democratic System

Commentary Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s proposed constitutional change to give Aboriginal people a “Voice to Parliament” is well-intentioned. However, as the proverb says, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” Albanese’s Voice proposal challenges the very foundation of our nation as a representative democracy. Like other representative democracies, this nation is constituted by…


Democracy as an Identity in Hong Kong

Commentary Not all Hongkongers celebrate the handover of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to mainland China on July 1. Some prefer the Hong Kong Festival on Jan. 26, the day that marked the beginning of British rule as the British navy landed on Hong Kong island in 1841. The tenth Hong Kong Festival, held this…


Hong Kong 47: Pro-Democracy Figures On Trial in Landmark Case

A group of 47 pro-democracy activists in Hong Kong (HK 47) charged with “conspiracy to subvert state power” are back in court after almost two years. Among them, 16 defendants who have pleaded not guilty began their trial in the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Court (acting ad interim for the High Court) on Feb. 6. The…


Israel’s Judicial Reform ‘Controversy’ Is Much Ado About Nothing

Commentary Like a dog returning to its own vomit, the supercilious elites of our so-called international community maintain a rather curious fixation. Like clockwork, these elites always find a way of singling out for opprobrium one tiny nation-state, no bigger than New Jersey. That state, of course, is the Jewish state, the modern State of…


Dogma Trumps Democracy for America’s Climate Change Advocates

Commentary Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell dismissed the notion that the Federal Reserve should take a hand in making climate policy. “Without explicit congressional legislation, it would be inappropriate for us to use our monetary policy or supervisory tools to promote a greener economy or to achieve other climate-based goals,” he said at a forum…


Is There a Single Best Electoral System?

Commentary As several blue states in the United States consider adopting “ranked choice voting” in their jurisdictions, it is opportune to examine the experience of other countries that use a similar system, notably Australia. Preferential voting—as we call it Down Under—has been part of the Australian electoral landscape for many years. Unsurprisingly it has its…


How Do We Get Our Nation Back on Track?

Commentary Some thoughts about our country as Christmas and the new year approach. In his Farewell Address to the nation in 1796, America’s departing first president, George Washington, observed: “It is substantially true that virtue or morality is a necessary spring to popular government.” And what is the basis upon which we define morality? Washington…


A Republic If You Can Teach It

Commentary President Biden has a civics lesson that he is fond of and regularly repeats. It is about how the United States is unique in the world because of the founding ideals enshrined in the Declaration of Independence. “Unlike every other nation on Earth, we were founded based on an idea,” he notes before adding…