Universal adult suffrage on a common voters roll is one of the foundational values of our entire constitutional order. The achievement of the franchise has historically been important both for the acquisition of the rights of full and effective citizenship by all South Africans regardless of race, and for the accomplishment of an all-embracing nationhood. The universality of the franchise is important not only for nationhood and democracy. The vote of each and every citizen is a badge of dignity and of personhood. Quite literally, it says that everybody counts. In a country of great disparities of wealth and power it declares that whoever we are, whether rich or poor, exalted or disgraced, we all belong to the same democratic South African nation; that our destinies are intertwined in a single interactive polity.
Yesterday 80 000 people turned out for a Barack Obama rally in Portland Oregan. This picture pretty much sums it up. I know if he is elected he will not necessarily change US foreign policy that dramatically and that he will still act in the interest of the US and not the rest of us. But still, I am rooting for him all the way because for a politician he seems remarkably honest and reflexive.
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