Safe Democracy Foundation - Safe Democracy

John Lee
10/27/2010

In Asia today, the source of America’s strategic pre-eminence is not just the dominance of the Seventh Fleet but strong regional support for a continued US presence. China has long viewed American pre-eminence in the region as a historical accident and an aberration and wants to ease America out of the region, but other nations want to reaffirm the US role. Therefore it is no wonder that Beijing is now rooting for Asean-plus-three–which does not include America–to be the primary problem-solving meeting. However, if expected US membership transforms the East Asia Summit into the region’s principal security institution, clumsy and impatient Chinese diplomacy will have contributed to the rise of a multilateralism that largely entrenches an extended US-led network of security alliances and partnerships.

Lee is a foreign-policy fellow at the Centre for Independent Studies in Sydney, a visiting scholar at the Hudson Institute in Washington, and the author of “Will China Fail?” (CIS, 2007).

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Bob Herbert
10/26/2010

Our nation’s water systems are deteriorating, Herbert says, with some built around the time of the Civil War. Sewage systems are contaminating drinking water and many are overwhelmed by heavy rain. Rather than fighting wars, Herbert says we need to spend money to fix our nation’s infrastructure, yet politicians don’t seem to have the political will to do so. If we don’t start correcting the problem now, we will pay dearly later.

Herbert is a New York Times columnist.

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George Soros
10/26/2010

Soros details the reasons he supports California’s marijuana legalization initiative, Proposition 19. He says the criminalization of marijuana has resulted in extensive costs and negative consequences to society. We should invest in effective education rather than ineffective arrest and incarceration. While legalizing marijuana wouldn’t solve all the problems connected with the drug, it would represent a major step forward and its deficiencies can be corrected on the basis of experience. He concludes that proposition 19 already is a winner, whatever happens on Election Day. The mere fact of its being on the ballot has elevated and legitimized public discourse about marijuana and marijuana policy.

Soros is chairman of Soros Fund Management and founder of the Open Society Foundations.

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Richard Cohen
10/26/2010

Anger is the primary motivation behind the Tea Party, but that is not an unusual trait among political movements of the past. Even Obama’s campaign for hope and change was one step away from anger. What unifies the Tea Party today and contributes to its nebulous nature is the internet. Obama can not engage a political enemy that is so hard to identify (a search by The Post turned up only 647 of the alleged 2300 local Tea Party groups). Cohen notes that it is not unlike trying to do battle with the elusive Taliban.

Cohen is a weekly columnist for The Post, writing on domestic and foreign politics.

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Barry C. Burden and Kenneth R. Mayer
10/25/2010

The authors conducted research showing that the opportunity to vote by mail actually depresses voter turnout, typically by three percentage points. Although early voting does not eliminate the two-step process of registration and then voting, it does dilute the intensity of Election Day because campaigns begin to scale back their efforts once a significant portion of votes have been cast. To improve voter turnout, their research shows that combining early voting with same-day registration reverses the depressive effect of early voting.

Burden and Mayer are professors of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

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Jackson Diehl
10/25/2010

The technology created by UltraReach and its affiliate, Freegate, works as it is intended: it allows internet users in China, Iran, and other countries where the internet is heavily regulated to breach firewalls and surf the web at will. In fact, millions more internet users under dictatorships worldwide could benefit from UltraReach’s software, but at least $30 million in funding is required. That money actually does exist in the form of $50 million in earmarks in the State Department’s budget. Despite rhetoric supporting freedom of the internet, the money sits unused while the “strategy” for its usage is honed. Diehl suggests that the hesitation to act is partially due to a fear of offending China. Regardless, the State Department has a poor record when it comes to promoting freedom of the internet.

Diehl is deputy editorial page editor of The Post.

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