Asked
what he thought of Western civilization, Mohandas
Gandhi replied, "it might be a good idea."
What might the man who orchestrated the campaign
to drive the British out of Indian think of George
W. Bush's efforts to browbeat, bully, threaten,
coerce and bomb the world into adopting American-style
democracy? Would Gandhi agree that invading soverign
nations, killing tens of thousands of innocent people,
destroying entire cities, torturing, raping, and
murdering prisoners of war is the best way to spread
democracy?
Mr.
Bush insists that the world must embrace, indeed
emulate, American democracy. Perhaps the resident
in the White House is unaware that the gap between
the rich and poor in America is wider and growing
at a faster rate than any country in Europe. Or
maybe he doesn't know that our nation has more people
in prison per capita, with the possible exception
of Russia, than any nation in the world. Mr. Bush
doesn't seem to understand that nearly 50 million
Americans do not have health insurance; that over
3,000 inmates are sitting on death row, even while
DNA evidence continues to exonerate Americans convicted
by racist juries and condemned to die by racist
judges; that one 1 out of every 5 children in America
go to bed hungry; that the war in Iraq is bankrupting
the United States; that Americans are suffering
from a cancer epidemic caused by toxic chemicals
in our food, air, and water supplies.
A
genuine people's democracy would never allow its
wealthy citizens to keep getting richer while the
poor sink ever deeper into debt and despair. A true
democracy would not provide brutal dictators with
arms and financial support, while condemning courageous
people who rise up against oppression. A democratic
nation would not allow millions of its citizens
to live in squalid, crime-ridden, polluted neighborhoods,
while those fortunate enough to earn large sums
of money build palatial homes in the suburbs. A
democracy would never allow an organization like
the National Rifle Association to intimidate people
who want to protect their families by taking off
the streets.
Mr.
Bush and his so-called conservative friends are
demanding that Syria remove its troops from Lebanon.
Would these champions of freedom agree that it's
time for China to leave Tibet? Would they join a
campaign to convince the British to get out of Ireland
for good? In all of the many years that Israel has
been killing Palestinians, bulldozing their houses,
jailing and torturing them, building settlements
on their land, why haven't those who champion democracy
demanded that Israel leave the occupied territories?
Mr. Bush and his supporters want Iran to stop working
on a nuclear reactor, but would they like to see
the Columbian army stop assassinating union leaders,
stop murdering innocent peasants, and stop disappearing
and torturing those the military suspects of being
guerrilla fighters?
In
a true democracy, would enormously profitable corporations
establish offshore offices in order to avoid paying
taxes? Would these same corporations fight all efforts
to hold them accountable for polluting the country
their multi-millionaire CEOs and their stockholders
claim to love? If they truly cared about the United
States of America, wouldn't these corporations refuse
to send manufacturing jobs to Mexico, China, El
Salvador, and other slave labor markets, preferring
instead to keep millions of American workers employed?
In
a real democracy there would be more than two political
parties, joined at the wallet by greed and corruption.
No democracy would allow people like Rupert Murdoch
to turn readable newspapers into sensational rags
good for little more than wrapping one's garbage.
In a democracy there would be opposition newspapers,
opposition political parties, opposition television
and radio stations. There would be open and honest
debate within the halls of power, rather than the
kind of pseudo discussions that lead to passage
of the Patriotic Act, the invasion of Iraq, and
most likely future attacks on other nations that
resist Mr. Bush's call to democratize, or else.
The
real irony in all this is that at the very moment
that the Central Intelligence Agency is torturing
suspected terrorists, Mr. Bush is demanding that
autocratic governments in the Middle East agree
to respect human rights. At the very moment when
the United States military is occupying Iraq, the
United States is ordering Syria to remove its troops
from Lebanon. At a time when the Bush administration
is planning to build an entire new generation of
atomic weapons, the United States is warning Iran
and North Korea not to build weapons of mass destruction.
On
a grass roots level, Americans do practice democracy,
discussing and debating issues of local and sometimes
national interest, voting on things that matter
to ordinary people. But on a national level democracy
is a game played by and for the rich, by and for
arms manufacturers, by and for those who wish to
purchase a share of the power machine in order to
help expand the American empire. To the Cuban people
who have suffered terribly from American sanctions,
democracy must appear to be a strange, rather sadistic,
concept. To Iraqis who watched their children die,
500,000 according to UNICEF, because of American-sponsored
sanctions that were supposed to punish Saddam Hussein,
democracy must seem like relentless cruelty. To
Native Americans living in abject poverty, cold,
hungry, abandoned, democracy must feel like a hideous
joke played out by the very people who stole their
land, slaughtered their children, and who seem determined
to punish the victims of their own genocidal crimes.
Mr.
Bush and the ideological fanatics who keep him company
live in a bubble of self-deceit. If they really
want to see what democracy looks like, they should
risk (for them this would be a big risk) listening
to people who have lived, and continue to live in
fear of armies and governments trained and armed
by the United States of America. Mr. Bush's worldwide
crusade must strike terror into the hearts of people
who have seen their loved ones tortured, disappeared,
and assassinated, all in the name of democracy.
