Election Without a Choice

Vox populi has spoken, and I cannot pretend that I like what it had to say. The ballots are still being counted (nothing happens fast here), but it looks like the people will have the choice between “radical reformer” (who has not quite figured out what reform means) Kuchma and “back to the future” Communist Symonenko, who wants us all to be “back in the USSR,” with Natalia Vitrenko, who accuses the Communists of being soft on capitalism, hot on his tail.

This is not much of a choice for a European nation — or, at least one with every chance of becoming one, if they can figure out just what that means. We at this paper have tried our best, but sometimes one fights the good fight and loses. Well, it’s as good a reason as any to get blind drunk. As America found out during the Vietnam War, you can’t save Vietnam from the Vietnamese, and you can’t save Ukraine from the Ukrainians.

If the democrats had been united, things could have been different, but they say that Ukrainian democrats will unite five minutes before they face the firing squad. As I see it, it’s ten minutes and counting.