.. Voridis

I was under the impression that the Greeks were trying to deal with their crisis by forming a government of national unity. Usually (not always) that requires including in the govenrment representatives of ALL parties that have any significant share of the vote. The price that has to be paid for a temporary state of NOT "politics as usual".

I said "not always" but in the special case of being able to exclude some significant parties it might have been possible to have formed an ordinary coalition government (there were enough parties able to come together to form a strong majority government without these elements). Isn't that precisely the problem? That this was NOT possible.

I do NOT like fascists (probably dislike them more than most of you do). But in a democracy, the fascists get to vote too.

Or a sad lonely politically confused kid, either way, sick of his constant ridiculous comments that only an immature kid geek or bitter rightwing old twat would make...

Who is politically naive here?

You mean you haven't ever met anybody from the anti-authoritarian left before? Who takes "democracy" seriously? You've never met any real anarchists? (by which I do not mean wearing black or thinking violence when you're badly outgunned is a bright idea).

Look, democracy is not a sacred cow. If you don't believe in it, be willing to admit that. In the debate we can document in Western tradition going back at least as far as Plato vs Aristotle it isn't disreputable if you want to agree with Plato's side of the case.

Democracy is NOT about "good government", wise, just, fair, etc. etc. decisions. It's about what the people want for good or ill, no matter how foolish in your eyes and no matter how much better than they you know what their true interests are. Even the *ssholes get to vote, even those who do not believe in democracy and would do away with it, no matter if they are on the right OR THE LEFT.

I might not like the reality that far too many Greeks support the fascists so that they cannot be left out if there is to be a govenrment of national unity. I would vastly prefer if it were possible to form a majority left government. But let's not ignore some of the problems with that. A good chunk of the Greek left is just as anti-democratic as the Greek fascists. Sorry, but authoritarianism of the left is not a whole lot better than authoritarianism of the right. Look at this from the point of view of the Greek middle.

What do YOU suggest the Greeks do?

Excuse me, but how the hell is it democracy to have the government been APPOINTED by faceless beurocrats and bankers?

A referendum on paying the debt, as proposed by Papandreos, that would have been democracy - but the (unelected) euro-elite rejected that as the Greek people might have said no. So they imposed an autocratic government instead - it's basically a coup by the bankers and EC.