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Deepening The Swamp -- Tom Sullivan
https://digbysblog.net/2025/06/29/deepening-the-swamp/“democracy is fragile”
“I’m going to tell you how the people in charge of my country made the truth a crime,” Belarusian photo journalist Pasha Kritchko begins his New York Times essay. His country may be Belarus, but he resides in Poland now. In exile.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, Belarus had a brief window in which it might have democratized. Instead, pro-Russia Alexander Lukashenko won the presidency in 1994 “promising to drain the swamp.” And there he remains to this day:
And Lukashenko remains.
People like Pasha Kritchko. He concludes:
It has long been a requirement that U.S. politicians regurgitate that hoary patriotic cant about American exceptionalism. It’s like that old Chevrolet license plate from the 1970s bolted to the front of muscle cars owned by people who never set foot outside the U.S. It’s easy to wave the flag and boast when that faith is untested. It’s being tested now more than at any other time in my life. We are going to find out in the next few years just how exceptional we are, or are not.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, Belarus had a brief window in which it might have democratized. Instead, pro-Russia Alexander Lukashenko won the presidency in 1994 “promising to drain the swamp.” And there he remains to this day:
Belarusians tried to fight back. In the 2020 election, a stay-at-home mother, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, unexpectedly ran for president after her husband, a popular blogger, was arrested (he was only very recently released). When it was announced that Mr. Lukashenko would again be president, with official results awarding him more than 80 percent of the vote, there were massive protests.
And Lukashenko remains.
In hindsight, 2020 was a turning point. The regime sensed the danger of the moment and the ensuing crackdown was violent and swift. Tens of thousands of people were arrested, a local human rights group estimates that there are more than 1,000 political prisoners, and, according to U.N. estimates, more than 300,000 people have left the country in the time since.
People like Pasha Kritchko. He concludes:
Belarus is a warning that democracy is fragile and that authoritarianism is not a wrecking ball but a hatchet, which slowly chips away until everything is broken beyond recognition.
It has long been a requirement that U.S. politicians regurgitate that hoary patriotic cant about American exceptionalism. It’s like that old Chevrolet license plate from the 1970s bolted to the front of muscle cars owned by people who never set foot outside the U.S. It’s easy to wave the flag and boast when that faith is untested. It’s being tested now more than at any other time in my life. We are going to find out in the next few years just how exceptional we are, or are not.