Democracy is Wasted on the Voters

Judith Armstrong, of the Contemporary European Research Centre at Melbourne University, has this to say about the French "non":

America's belief in democratic values stood itself and the world in good stead for a long time. The invasion of Iraq and the subsequent failure to mend what was broken should not destroy our gratitude for US intervention in World War II, or the magnificent generosity of the Marshall Plan. The leaders of the new Europe saw their proposed constitution as a way of strengthening those values, by its ranking of human dignity as the most important and most precious quality their union could nurture. In the event, a clear majority of the supposedly civilised French and Dutch populations have put fear and self-protection ahead of global balance. If, as the adage goes, education is wasted on the young, it is tempting to wonder whether democracy is not wasted on voters.

I owe this quote to Professor Bunyip, to whom I was directed by Ryne McClaren.