Final Word from Monday, October 1, 2012

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Politicians in a democratic state have an advantage over their monarchial and dictatorial colleagues. Democratically elected officials can always blame everything on their predecessors. They can justify their own disputable decisions by the failures of those who came before them. Monarchs and dictators aren't so lucky. The full blame for their actions falls upon them, unless they can find scapegoats from within or without. When democratically elected politicians keep getting elected over and over again, the distinction between them and monarchs or dictators becomes blurred. They, too, tend to look for scapegoats as a way to explain why their years of service have led to detrimental results. Václav Klaus has been at or near the top of Czech politics for 20 year but blames the country's current problems on external forces (usually the EU) and on domestic "hacks" who are attacking him and radicalizing society. Such are the pitfalls of a democracy. A dictator would merely pull the country out of the EU and begin censoring the media.[Czech Republic European Union assassination attempt MFD MF Dnes journalists]