Fighting Tyranny and Suppression of Freedom or Fighting Democracy?

The US ranks 17th world wide on the Economist Intelligence Unit's Democracy Index.
It rides barely above the line separating Full and Flawed Democracies.

Let’s close our borders to terrorists and fight wars against Muslim countries that harbor fundamentalists.  We can bankrupt our nation, alienate allies, and further feed the fire for anti-imperialist sentiment onto the world – as long as it’s all in the name of “Fighting Terror” and protecting Democracy.

We claim to silence the voices of extremists and promote democratic principles across the globe.  But at home, talking heads broadcast politically charged cries to arms across airwaves.  Congressional candidate Sharron Angle declared, “Second Amendment remedies” are “for us when our government becomes tyrannical.”   She alluded that Barak Obama’s agenda is beyond his rights as president and that citizens should take to arms to fight against opposition views – a similar view mimicked by Sarah Palin, Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and BIN LADEN. 

Bin Laden regularly releases speeches where he has stated, “the tyranny and suppression of freedom to his own country” is righteous justification for jihads attacks.  This is no different from the banter spilling off neoconservative tongues.

In the US, populist extremists infect mainstream political discussions – the effects of entertainment and political fusion – and elicit the notion that political differences are something to violently fight for, not vote against.  This is not a promotion of democracy.  This is the same strategy for which we condemn Osama Bin Laden.

Conservative Americans seems to tolerate breaks from democracy when lawmakers have opposing views.  A Gallop poll and a Bloomberg News poll concurred that 60% of Americans wanted to eliminate tax breaks for the rich, as opposed to only 18% who strongly supported the extension.  But the congressional minority held the majority hostage with a procedural loophole.  The minority threatened to shutdown Congress with filibusters to prevents talks of any other laws until the Bush tax cuts were extended unaltered.  Now, House Republicans are sidestepping budget discussion to simply enact their spending cuts without a vote.  Is this the democracy Americans fight to impose on the Middle East?

While the US military attacks those posing threats to America overseas, it ignores threats from within.  Looking past the Twin Towers, the only terrorists to wreck havoc on US soil have been the works of homegrown Americans.   Oklahoma City was a militia movement sympathizer who bombed a US federal building.  The Unabomber was a Harvard alum and University of Michigan PhD graduate living in Montana.  This weekend, a white, conservative, Christian gunman killed Arizona’s Chief Federal Judge and a House Representative.

Fighting wars to “Protect Democracy from extremists” abroad has costs citizens $1.14 trillion since 2001.  At the same time, American has fallen to #17 worldwide on the Democracy Index.  The US is not sufficiently protecting its own democracy from extremists on the inside.

The latest attack this past weekend does prove the effectiveness of keeping Muslim fundamentalists out.  Its result: our terrorists will assuredly be homegrown Americans.




UPDATE 1/13/2011:  To further put things in perspective, Hezbollah, an Arab terrorist organization that has formed a coalition government in Lebanon, is causing a government collapse by removing its third of the government because it doesn't agree with an assassination investigation.  This is no different from the tactics employed by the minority party in US politics.  Today's New York Times' article reporting on the Lebanese government is strongly titled, "Hezbollah's Latest Suicide Mission."  When will those harsh titles reach American politics?

Fighting Tyranny and Suppression of Freedom or Fighting Democracy?