in finding mister right
Oops.
In Ukraine, where Viktor Yushchenko's triumph is all but assured as of this writing, the question of secession will immediately arise, and the vehement reaction of the central authorities in Kiev will unveil the true colors of the "orange revolution" – centralist, statist, and fanatically nationalistic. If the eastern Russian-speaking districts that went for Yanukovich dare to demand autonomy, and even independence, the "revolutionary" and "democratic" pretensions of the orange faction will be peeled away to reveal a rather unattractive form of ultra-nationalist authoritarianism.
The claim of the Yushchenko forces to the mantle of European "liberalism" is phony through-and-through, and this is proved by the "orange" position on the question of Ukraine's "official" language. This is a real issue in Ukraine, where a law was seriously proposed last summer that would have gone after Russian-speaking bus drivers for playing Russian music on their buses. Yushchenko would retain the status quo, which is that all official documents, court cases, official business, etc., be carried out in Ukranian, although, in a last-minute election ploy, he said he would be willing to "discuss" the proposal, favored by Yanukovich, to add Russian to the official language list.
The rights of all ethno-linguistic groups to speak their own languages and practice their own religious and social customs has always been the hallmark of European classical liberalism. By this standard, the "orange revolution" is horrifically deficient: instead of the vanguard of "market liberalism," the Yushchenko camp is a stalking horse for NATO. When Ukraine applies for NATO membership, and is readily accepted, the neocons and their Kristofian liberal allies will be in seventh heaven – while the rest of us will be back in the hellish world of mutual assured destruction. They didn't call it MAD for nothing….
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