I Propose an Exchange

I love irony.

The fellows on the left are in Korea. They’re angry that their President is trashing their country’s alliance with America, and they want him prosecuted for treason. The fellows on the right are in Seattle. They’re angry with America, of course, but also with their President. They think he’s plotting to sell their country to top-hatted Yankee capitalists. They want him brought before a People’s Revolutionary Court for bourgeois splittism, but they’ll probably vote for him until they can arrange that.

Now, suspend sarcasm for a moment. What do scenes like these represent? They represent a declining respect for democracy and the rule of law. The left sees violence as a shortcut around the democratic process, and when the government won’t impose the rule of law, why wouldn’t they? More than ever, I fear that the right is at least implicitly threatening a coup. The wearing of military uniforms at political demonstrations is inappropriate in the extreme.

Someone in our government should send a very clear signal that no coup or military government will have U.S. support. Someone in the Korean government should either get a grip on the reins of state or rent an auditorium, pass out bats, and lock up any survivors.

Pic 1 from Yonhap, Pic 2 from the Joongang Ilbo.