REPUBLICAN LIBERTY IN A NUTSHELL:

From a more limited point of view, Ukraine's war is a fight for freedom from Russian domination and the principle of national self-determination; a conflict that will allow Ukrainians to continue their own experiment in democracy and the personal as well as political freedoms that democracy can provide.

Part of that self-determination is the right to choose their own leader, rather than a Russian puppet or even Putin himself, and to choose their leader through democratic elections, not sham elections (which are not elections at all, but a form of political theater).  

Democratic elections themselves rest on two other principles of liberal democracy: political equality - one person, one vote - and popular sovereignty - the idea that the source of political power and legitimacy is not force of arms or conquest, but in the people's decision to grant authority to a person or persons, who use the power of their office on behalf of the people whom they are appointed to serve.

The structure of democracy is rooted in not just political equality but equality under the law: a democratic people is ruled not by an individual, but by laws duly established and enforced not by a monarch, dictator, or president for life, but by an officer of the court: by a person who is herself subject to the law she enforces. 

Tweet   @brothersjudd