Democracy is imperfect but at its heart lies our ability to hit the DESTRUCT button. Part of the imperfection is that when we destroy the incumbents, we kill off some of the good bits and replace them with not much better bits.

That said, democracy is like an Australian bush fire. The destruction of the status quo is part of the life cycle in our special version of public life. Yes, at times we end up with a scorched earth but the result can often be creativity and new growth in the most unlikely places. Renewal. Clover grows out of the crap.

I sense the forces of renewal in Australia and America.

A new era is about to dawn, but I’m not sure what it will be. We’ve been duped on a number of fronts. Being conned is not nice and citizens of the Anglo world need to weigh their choices carefully.

George Bush and John Howard are the living dead. I’m utterly convinced of this.

Democracy is so exhilarating. Breathe deeply and experience the awakening. The oxygen that gets the mind working again. An awakening where you know that no matter what happens, we have the power. At the end of it all, it is us and not them. We give power to them and then we take it away with greater vigour than we give it. It’s in the taking that we gain our greatest strength. We, the people. It’s our moment again.

Every now and then, the people of a democracy have their moment.

Who couldn’t but weep with the Swedish people? In the past few days, the weeping has not been just for Anna Lindh but for Swedish democracy. Sweden is a country with so much to be proud of. A tolerant, open, caring, diverse and pragmatic society. A society were it seems perfectly normal for the Foreign Minister to wander a Stockholm department store unaccompanied.

So much is taken for granted.

In the end though, the Swedes have found this so hard to bear. One of my best friends is Swedish and this weekend he described the feeling from the streets of Stockholm. From Stockholm to Barcelona (where I was), I could hear the incredible strength of his feeling about this tragedy. How could such a beautiful, energetic, intelligent woman be so senselessly slain? She could have been the next Prime Minister. Anna Lindh was the embodiment of all that is good about Sweden.

There was an important poll this weekend. Should Sweden adopt the Euro or not?

For the tens of thousands who turned out on the streets of Stockholm this weekend, the issue of the Euro was insignificant. The important thing was that Swedish democracy is intact and the poll would go ahead.

It is what Anna Lindh would have wanted.

In that sense, the Swedes are like the Australians. Pragmatic democrats. We don’t want extremes and we cherish democracy more than anything else.

Rest in Peace Anna Lindh, because the world you left remembers you for who you were and what you represented.

The white hot fire of democracy burns on. Construction and destruction.

What if we were allowed to dream for a second? Of a world where Anna Lindh and her ideas were writ large? A world where a kind of workmanlike dedication to social justice and pragmatism became pervasive? A world of big ideas and open minds?

That’s my kind of world and it was the world of Anna Lindh. Her legacy will live on, beyond Sweden.

Her mission was accomplished then, despite whatever that bastard intended.