{"id":8169,"date":"2011-12-10T14:02:28","date_gmt":"2011-12-10T20:02:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.davidmcelroy.org\/?p=8169"},"modified":"2011-12-10T14:03:16","modified_gmt":"2011-12-10T20:03:16","slug":"as-communists-gain-strength-things-could-go-from-bad-to-worse-in-russia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/?p=8169","title":{"rendered":"As communists gain strength, things could go from bad to worse in Russia"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.davidmcelroy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Moscow-protests.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-8170\" title=\"Moscow protests\" src=\"http:\/\/www.davidmcelroy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Moscow-protests.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"393\" srcset=\"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Moscow-protests.jpeg 250w, https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/Moscow-protests-190x300.jpg 190w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/a>Many of us have watched warily as Vladimir Putin has edged closer to turning Russia into an authoritarian state again. I&#8217;m supportive of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-europe-16122524\" target=\"_blank\">current protests against him<\/a>, but I&#8217;m concerned about the strength communists are gaining in the country.<\/p>\n<p>Everywhere you look in the pictures and video from the Russian protests lately, you see the red flag of the communist Soviet Union. It&#8217;s a reminder that things could easily get worse there.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve been told by friends in Russia that many Russians are supporting the communists simply because they see them as a realistic alternative to Putin&#8217;s United Russia party. There are western-style liberal political groups, but they&#8217;re apparently not the rising political bloc as was once hoped. (Remember that &#8220;liberal&#8221; here means &#8220;pro-liberty.&#8221; It has nothing to do with what the word means in U.S. politics.)<\/p>\n<p>I only have one point here. If you put your faith into a majoritarian political system, you&#8217;re playing Russian roulette, which seems like an appropriate metaphor in this context. You can only be free if other people agree you should be free. If most of them want a strongman such as Putin &#8212; or a return of the communists &#8212; you&#8217;re stuck with that, too.<\/p>\n<p>The real issue isn&#8217;t changing politicians or parties. The real issue is changing an immoral system that claims the right to make your decisions. That&#8217;s just as true in America as it is in Russia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Many of us have watched warily as Vladimir Putin has edged closer to turning Russia into an authoritarian state again. I&#8217;m supportive of the current protests against him, but I&#8217;m concerned about the strength communists are gaining in the country. Everywhere you look in the pictures and video from the Russian protests lately, you see <a href=\"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/?p=8169\" class=\"more-link\">Keep Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8169","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-uncategorized","7":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1x9iR-27L","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8169"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8169\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8179,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8169\/revisions\/8179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}