My Take: Demand better of our government

Quite a few years ago, I had the opportunity to study abroad in Madrid, Spain, at the Universidad Complutense. It was my junior year at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. It was on a lark that I even applied to go and was accepted. My major was political science, with a minor in Spanish. My fluency in Spanish was pretty poor, to put it mildly.

Francisco Franco had just died after more than 40 years in power as a dictator. A significant portion of the population had known no other leader than el caudillo. Franco ascended to power with the aid of Mussolini and Hitler after a bitter Spanish Civil War that spanned from 1936 to 1939. It is believed Hitler used the Spanish conflict as a testing grounds for his later forays against the European democracies.

Even though Hitler and Il Duce had both been defeated, Franco lived on. He was even supported, or at least left alone, by the U.S. One has to remember this was the Cold War, and Franco was seen as a good “anti-Communist.” We supported all sorts of “anti-Communists, such as dictators Franco in Spain and Fulgencio Batista in Cuba.

This was an exciting time to be in Spain for a political science major. Very few under the age of 40 had any idea as to what democracy entailed. One saw posters all over Madrid for different candidates from many different political parties and interest groups. The Spaniards could buy little informational pamphlets at the magazine/newspaper kiosks near the Metro giving general information about different political ideologies.

Graffiti was also seen on the Metro walls. Quite a few far right parties were not very enthusiastic about democracy and an open society. They pined for what they saw as the good old days with el caudillo. Change for many can be frightening. The unknown. Many young people, however, were ecstatic about a future in which their views and desires were taken into account. After 40 years of Franco, Spain — once a world power — was far behind the other European powers, as was Portugal. Sad, sad relics.

Seeing the excitement and optimism in the faces of the Spaniards was intoxicating. Having always lived in a democracy, I never thought about what it would be like to not have the choices and freedoms my citizenship conferred.

We are at a dangerous crossroads here. We have gotten terribly close to having our own version of Franco or Batista. Too many of our politicians have been too supportive of this situation as well. We have been, are and need to continue to be a shining star for others in the world who yearn to be free. We must not succumb to a party or group that wants to reverse that trend and snuff out the spirit of liberty and freedom that we have enjoyed for so long. Demand better.

— Jeff Raywood is a resident of Holland.