Kalistan

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The Democrat and the Autocrat
Meeting between Brandt and Princess of the Empire "cordial and informative"
Eveari, Grand Duchy of Ananto
December 18, 5730


Dr. Kristen Brandt, of the New Democrat Club, meets with Her Highness, Princess of the Empire Carolina Ananto-Connor in Eveari

Dr. Kristen Brandt accepted an invitation to sit down with Her Highness, Princess of the Empire Carolina Ananto-Connor at her home in Eveari last week. The former Empress, now retired, wanted the opportunity to meet the political dynamo from Suldanor who engineered the the most significant political upset in decades. The two women spoke with La Moda following their very lengthy visit, which reportedly covered many aspects of the current political situation in Kalistan.

"I have wanted to meet with Dr. Brandt for a few years now," said Lady Ananto-Connor. "I couldn't very well do that when I was the Empress, of course, but now the responsibility to keep up appearances has decreased. And I am glad she accepted my offer to visit and speak with me about the things she sees that we could be doing better."

"The Empress, excuse me, the Princess was very welcoming to me," said Brandt who took the train from Kaliburg to Eveari. "She drove her own vehicle from the Estate out to the Train station and picked me up personally, and showed me around her town. She is extremely well known and quite popular here in Eveari and it was a revelation to me, so that was the first of many surprises of my day. But I found Her Highness to be very warm, very curious, and very attentive. She is clearly highly educated, but also I found her to be quite elegant in her speech: She did not speak much, but when she did, it was always profound. And it was most often in the form of a question, which I was not prepared for."

According to both women, much of the conversation revolved around Dr. Brandt and her movement. "The Princess requested information. She wanted to know what we stood for, whether we had had any success recruiting in Ananto, how she could help us. It was strange because it was so unexpected." When asked what she did expect, Dr. Brandt thought for a second before answering. "The Princess is renowned world wide for her, shall I say, hostility toward the concepts of popular government. And she did not hide the fact that she felt that way about some of the platform pieces in the New Democrat's mission. But her hostility was not based in either a misunderstanding of democracy or a hostility toward the people."

Brandt said Lady Ananto-Connor's feelings about popular government have more to do with problems that even democratic theorists find with the system: Low information among voters, the susceptibility of the system to demagoguery, a deep suspicion of indirect democracy where people claim the right to speak for others when in fact only speaking for themselves. "She said democracy in any practical form must predicate itself upon dishonesty--its the only way to get the people to actually participate in elections which are necessary for democrats to claim legitimacy. She's not wrong, what can I say? A rational person should not vote unless he thinks he is getting something out of the time and effort it takes for him to learn about candidates and positions, and then go actually vote. So democrats more or less have to engage in advertising, which is essentially propagandizing the people they are asking for a vote: its the only way to get people to actually turn out and vote when they don't actually get anything themselves for the act."

"I told Ms. Brandt that I admire the ideas around deliberative democracy that were published by the Valruzian thinker Gawel Sandów," said Princess Carolina. "I understand this was a theory piece, and in practice, the current system falls a ways away from this ideal, as all democratic systems in practice must, but I was able to compare that theoretical ideal with the practical forms of democratic governance we see in almost every nation that even pretends to base the legitimacy of their government and their laws upon the popular vote of the citizenry. The liberal form of democracy is a sham in every aspect of the word, and I would prefer to live in a society which tells me the truth about what it is doing, even if it is an autocracy, than ever accept lies from my government for a practical purpose. As a Brethrenist, a citizen and an adult, I have the right to expect good honest and clean government, and if I was a democrat living in a liberal society I would never get it because I would always be outvoted by millions who are engaged not in providing good government, but government that serves their own individual interest, or, as is most often the case, people voting in more or less a beauty contest."

The nuance in the Princess position was "refreshing" according to Brandt, who had always assumed that the former Empress was merely a knee-jerk reactionary. "I admit, I had not had taken the opportunity to read most of her writings, and only ever saw her actions from afar, but in fact we have a lot more in common than I previously suspected, and I say that as a committed democrat myself. If there was a way to create a democracy which does what it claims to be doing, I would think she would likely be the thinker to invent it. Alas, she has no desire to do so."

The Princess laughed, "She told me she was kinda scared about visiting me. But I like to think I am a pleasant person, and I had the opportunity to ask her questions about herself and her Club, and I tried my best to be a good host to her. I found her to be intelligent, dedicated, and serious, and I really think she is head and shoulders above the others in Terra who claim the mantle democrat but have never once thought about what the word actually means, or how to actually practice true, meaningful democracy, let alone build a political system that actually functions like a substantive democracy. But when she asked me if I would be willing to help do just that, I respectfully passed. Because unlike her, I do not want democracy anywhere near this nation. And unlike her, I made that decision for close to four and a half decades, and now my son makes it. So, we let it go at that point."

According to both, the meeting was cordial and informative. The Princess invited Dr. Brandt to lunch with her at the Garden Club, "a first for me," admitted Brandt, who said she was more terrified of being underdressed in such a prestigious club. "She laughed about it when we arrived," said Lady Ananto-Connor, "and saw that one of the best things about the Garden Club is, there's no dress code. There doesn't really need to be when everyone there is of the same class. Why should there be a dress code? Who do we need to impress?"

Brandt said she found the food at the Garden Club good and appreciated the opportunity to attend with the Princess, but the visit to the Garden Club confirmed to her that the hierarchy that is visible in the State was baked into every institution in Kalistan: "Women connected to power met women with power, and decisions were made with a smile and a business card before they ever made it to the people for consent. And Her Highness was very candid about this fact and didn't even try to justify it. She simply said that this was the correct order of things in this nation. It's just how things are. Someone else might be demoralized by that fact, but for me it was very eye opening: It really is about what your last name is and how close you are to someone with a more important last name. And that's really it."

Dr. Brandt remained at Ananto Estate for the afternoon and the two met with His Highness, the Prince Elliot Rosenfeld, who gave Dr. Brandt a lesson in Go. "We had intended to visit Her Highness' Stables on the property, but as is the case on so many days this time of year in this part of the country, a steady cold rain forced us to remain indoors, and so the Princess treated her Husband and I to hot cocoa while Lord Elliot introduced me to Go. It was a pleasant afternoon." Dr. Brandt was back in Kaliburg that night.

"I'm glad she had the courage to come for a visit," said the Princess of the Empire. "She had a lot of I think preconceptions about me, as a person or about my thoughts that would have caused a lesser woman to stay away. But I think mutual curiosity brought her to Eveari, and I was very glad to sit down and speak with the Doctor. She may be committed to the cause of popular participation in our state and who can fault her, really? On some of those points we will never agree. But I think there are also some areas where we see eye to eye on: I think she is committed to making our nation better, and she was more than happy to share those ideas which I found very reasonable and most of them to be quite moderate. And so it was a good meeting. Plus she's very serious on TV, but she has a good sense of humor and an easy personality, and on a personal level, I think we got along well."

@LaModa