Those of you who know me or have read much of my writing will be aware of my Jeffersonian love of democracy. It is great to see well-informed citizens struggling with how the country they love can be better governed. We may not see the changes we are striving for brought about as quickly as we would like or in the ways we would like. As Winston Churchill said, “Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those others that have been tried.”
Today, we remember the crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations at Tiananmen Square and hope for true democracy growing in countries around the world. Today we saw two citizens, Mayor DeStefano and Mayor Malloy struggle together with how we can make our state better.
Mayor DeStefano started off with the observation about how there are many other things that people could be doing on a beautiful day like today, as illustrated by the number of people at ball fields on the way to the school in Wilton.
Like the two other times that the gubernatorial candidates met, they were respectful of one another and spoke about very similar themes; how the Rowland and Rell administrations have failed Connecticut, not only Rowland’s criminal corruption but more significantly in the corruption of low expectations and not having a vision for our state.
They spoke about similar concerns of job growth, education, transportation and health care, similar thoughts about how they would address these concerns and examples from their personal lives and their history as great mayors in addressing these concerns.
When they were asked what question they would ask the other candidate, Mayor DeStefano demurred calling the question a debate question that doesn’t serve Democrats working together well and instead spoke about his respect for Mayor Malloy.
So, where was the difference? For me, Mayor DeStefano summed it up nicely in his final comments. Instead of delivering the typical political, “Vote for me and I’ll solve all your problems”, he sounded closer to Governor Dean in urging all of us to own our power to change politics by calling everyone who attended the forum to not only chose who you are going to vote for but to get actively involved in the campaigns.
Democracy may not have come to China the way many people had hoped sixteen years ago. We may never have the opportunity or courage to stand before a column of tanks, the way a lone Chinese hero did in the famous picture of Tiananmen Square, yet we should all do our part in standing up for democracy by showing up at candidates’ forums, by becoming well-informed and by getting involved.
