Tony Pupello
Essay #16 July/Aug 2023
“Dēmokratia” a combination of “demos” (people) and “kratos” (rule). Simply put, “rule by the people”. Compliments of the early Greek city-states — most notably Athens — perhaps the singular basis for legitimate governmental authority, at least for the last two hundred and fifty years or so, in the industrialized west.
To be clear, I am not saying the industrialized west spawned democracy, nor had a monopoly on it, nor has practiced it in its “purest” form, if we consider direct democracy at all levels to be its “purest form”. There is evidence societies that pre-dated Athens in the near East and perhaps in India had representative assemblies of a sort, acknowledging they were of the high-born. Of course there is Athens itself, as well as some of its neighboring city-states. Even here, at the time of European contact, the Iroquois Confederacy in North America is acknowledged to have had a constitution and a “functioning democracy” — estimated to have been in existence since at least the mid-15th century.
The United States itself has, from the very beginning, been unsure of just how this “rule by the people” is to play out. Witness the debate over Jeffersonian Democracy, a form of “direct” participatory democracy; and Hamiltonian Federalism, an indirect, representative democracy predicated on a strong central authoritarian government. [As an aside I always chuckle when I hear or read about that Broadway darling, the play “Hamilton”. If folks actually knew their history, they would know that Hamilton, if he’d had his way, would have liked to see an “elective monarch” in power — an oxymoron if there ever was one, to my way of thinking — and I won’t mention the multitude of Brits extremely bothered by their monarchical displays of late!]
This cry for democracy — rule by the people — is so universal as evidenced by the great lengths to which even authoritarian governments expend a great deal of time and resources in what are generally acknowledged to be “sham” elections in order to “prove” ie: legitimize, that the “demos”, the people, have spoken.
And what has been the greatest expression of this “rule by the people”? This cry for democracy has been universally crystalized in the “very simple” two-word phrase: “majority rules”. Although universal adult suffrage has yet to be achieved, the notion of one-person, one-vote reigns supreme. In an election, generally, the person with the most votes — the majority — “wins”. Experiments in weighted balloting and ranked-choice voting aside — indeed, many feel these voting forms are actually contrary to democracy — we shall look at how “majority rules” plays out viz elections in haiku.
I have long held the belief, shared by no less than my esteemed colleague Evetts, (off, no doubt, on yet another Bashō-esque walk-about as I write these words), that “good”, effective political and social haiku are probably among the hardest to write. Failing to “capture the moment” at best, and proselytizing at worst, are among the major errors committed. The poems discussed below are clearly superior in their efforts. In every case these authors have captured the moment at hand deftly and effortlessly with no judgements, no proselytizing.
I think a fine place to start, for a number of reasons, is with the following piece by Louise Somers Winders:
Political Rally:
a monarch circulates
among the people
For those of us in the west, this piece highlights the tensions over the last 300 years or so between what was, a monarchical form of government, and what in most cases has become, a democratic form of government. Witness a political rally. A butterfly flits among the people. Perhaps stopping here, alighting there. This is a people’s rally, yet that touch of monarchy is never far off — indeed it is ever-present. It is worth noting that although this may have bearing on today’s political scene in not a few “liberal democracies”, it was written, or at least published, some forty years ago.
We enter the electoral arena by taking a look at how candidates act.
turtles slip the kokaburra
from a crowded log defends its crust —
election year election day
If you’ve spent any time at all beside a lake or pond where turtles dwell, you have no doubt witnessed the scene wherein as more and more turtles climb a fallen branch inevitably there comes a saturation point. As the pushing and shoving ensues, some will slip as they are literally pushed off. Sandi Pray offers this comical moment in the first piece above. As more and more candidates enter the fray in a frenzy of democracy, we often chuckle as they elbow and jockey for position, offering this position or that, many times changing positions in mid-campaign! Of course, inevitably, most will fall by the wayside.
In much less comical fashion, the second poem by Nathalie Buckland speaks to the nitty gritty of electoral politics. Although the kookaburra is sometimes referred to as a “laughing kookaburra” and is known for its “cackle-like” call, bottom line, this is no laughing matter. I will stake out my position and defend it to the finish. I will make sure to get my piece of the pie for me and my constituents.
A feature of elective politics, in fact a staple of local politics, is the “stump speech”. This provides an opportunity for voters to see and hear candidates up close. It is not clear how much ground the stump speech may be losing to our internet-driven society, but that would be a topic for another time. Alan S. Bridges, Christopher Herold and Carolyn Hall, respectively, offer some insights below.
stumping for votes stump speech
the sound of wind one cloud
on a microphone then another
stump speech —
this black and white butterfly
in none of the field guides
Does Bridges’ poem speak to the hollowness of the candidate or the candidate’s promises or does it simply speak to an inevitability? What can a candidate, any candidate, ultimately achieve? As the candidate’s words, message, is “drowned out” by the sound of the wind, perhaps forces beyond any individual’s power are always in play.
In Herold’s piece we have a poem in which clouds are featured. Interestingly enough, (or perhaps not so in light of a seemingly pervasive “negative” view of politics), I’ve come across a number of election poems featuring clouds. Are Herold’s clouds a portent of not good things to come? Or, perhaps on a deeper level, the issues are just too complex and the candidate her/himself just cannot offer clarity or, perhaps deepest of all, the candidate’s message is purposely cloudy; an attempt to obscure or disguise an issue?
Hall’s poem is superbly deft. Contrary to my musing on Herold’s piece, most candidates will try to communicate with the voters in the “simplest” terms possible, ie: they will try to make things “black or white”. They are coached to “stay on message”. I long ago stopped watching “debates” precisely for the reason that when asked a question, a candidate will ofttimes rapidly shift away from what a moderator has asked and gone into their “prepared” or “stump” speech without actually addressing the question or topic at hand. From both sides “of the aisle”. Yet, per Hall, as any attentive voter knows, there are very, very few issues that can be reduced to “black or white”. This seems to me to be the crux of the poem and a clear criticism of oversimplification on Hall’s part.
In any election cycle the voters are treated to a variety of promises. “I will do this”. “I will change that”. “I will make this better”. Whether well-meaning, well-intentioned, or purposely inflated, most campaign promises [at least on the writ-small level] are soon forgotten or not achievable. I am sure that many an elected official has come upon the reality that one person in a system can only accomplish so much. Whether inflated or not, campaign promises not achieved lead to a jaded view of the system. The following poems by LeRoy Gorman and Joanna M. Weston speak to election promises.
Christmas greetings election promises piled high thunderheads
the politician’s card
leaves glitter everywhere
Gorman’s piece speaks to inflated promises that go unfulfilled after a campaign is over. Surface fluff, these “glittering” promises have been discarded, left by the wayside, as the ofttimes ubiquitous left-over glitter that annoys and frustrates after the holiday gloss wears off. Weston’s piece points in a similar yet much darker direction. Have there been simply too many or too complex promises for the candidate to fulfill? Or have these election promises been fulfilled — yet not bringing the “positive” results hoped for? Thinkers such as Edmund Burke long ago posited that any new or amended law brings change — that change, however, may not necessarily result in the effects we had hoped for!
election night
bounced checks
and balances
As every middle schooler here in the US knows — or should know — our system is predicated on “checks and balances” — one branch of government holding another in check — executive, legislative, judicial; one layer of government holding another in check — federal, state. Is John Pappas merely offering a playful take above, riffing on the notion of “bounced checks” viz failed election promises? Or is there much more here? Has something gone awry and has the very fabric of our system of checks and balances been threatened or abrogated in some manner?
In any political system that allows it, there will always be a “taking of sides”. I can be pro or con, in favor of or not. Susan Godwin and Mark Gilbert allow us a perspective on taking sides in their following respective pieces.
thunderheads shuffling the deck —
new book club member my ism trumps your ism
brings up politics
In Godwin’s piece the “aha!” moment is to be found in the “oh-oh” moment. Witness a book club which no doubt has members that are literate, therefore readers who gather and sift through layers of information more than the “usual” citizen. One might assume certain levels of definite opinion on this or that as well. In order for the club to survive and thrive, there are established norms which most probably include prohibitions on certain topics – ie: politics and religion! Here the new member is entering ultimate “no-no” terrain. Are the thunderheads a portent of stormy discussion ahead or has the debate already been engaged?
As any card player knows, when you trump you are playing the higher card, hence winning the trick. Electoral politics, for better or worse, is often reduced to winners and losers. Over this ostensibly friendly game of cards, has the subject of politics come up and has one ideology, or at least the expression of it by the more adroit speaker, trumped another? Not knowing when this piece was written, it is very hard to ignore allusions to a former president as well. Again, as with many of these poems, although light on the surface, I think Gilbert’s piece a fairly deep one indeed. As political commentary it is an effortlessly adroit piece.
I, as many of us were, was first exposed to the use of “election ink” during the 2005 election in Iraq. Images of voters with their fingers stained as evidence of having voted, many proudly displaying these fingers, flooded the internet, newspapers and tv. Many of these individuals put themselves at risk simply by identifying as having had voted. For many of my fellow US citizens, who were spoiled and took the right and privilege of voting for granted, and were not aware of some of the Jim Crow anti-voting tactics used in the south, this was a real wake-up call. I have since learned that no fewer than twenty-five countries and as many as ninety may use election ink.
election fever —
my preschooler inks his
index finger
I do not know where Yesha Shah hails from. I can only hope it is from a country where election ink is used, but does not put voters at risk; where displaying an inked finger is a display of pride, not having to be a display of courage. In any event, the juxtaposition between this most serious and appreciated of events, and a child copying adults produces an eye-opening moment. As in many similar situations, here an action normally performed by an adult, imitated by a child, is thus magnified many-fold. The simple act of a toddler dipping his finger into ink, an action that he no doubt performs many times in his preschool class with fingerpaints, becomes an action of civic consciousness and perhaps even more, a display of defiance in the face of an unjust or corrupt system.
Try as I could, aside from a very occasional piece such as Pray’s, I could not find good work on this theme that was for the most part light-hearted and playful without conveying deeper meaning. The following pieces by Bill Cooper and Jan Dobb come close but even they have, I believe, serious if not “heavy” overtones.
election poll election day
a honeybee slides children in the park
down the stamen ride the seesaw
Polls go up, polls go down. I have often thought that politicians need to have a “cast iron stomach” to endure the rigors of the campaign trail. Polls often reflect popularity, and it is no easy feat to remain steadfast as your popularity is up one day, down the next. Cooper’s politician as honeybee – now there’s a sight!
Who exactly are the children in Dobb’s piece? There has been no dearth of accusations against politicians as being infantile. Is Dobb’s referring to the candidate as child or we, the voters, as children. Are the candidates being taken for a ride on the election seesaw or are we, the voters being taken for a ride by the politicians? Or both? During the course of a campaign both the candidates and concerned voters will certainly experience their share of ups and downs.
We end this essay as ever if I’m not being too cheeky, with a bit of hope – Louise Hopewell, to be precise.
election day
jumping the queue
for a democracy sausage
In this light-hearted piece – is it so? – we are treated to a piece not of pie, but of sausage. Jumping a queue is simply not fair. As we have seen “majority rules” speaks to perhaps our best attempt at political fairness. Is Hopewell looking into the dark depths of our collective political (un)conscience where this fails OR would we be reading too much into that? In my reading Hopewell recognizes our foibles and is simply poking fun at this time-honored tradition recognizing, of course, that no system is perfect and humans will find a way to bump up against any system.
