Spreading Democracy
President Bush has painted boldly his desire to be the Johnny Appleseed of democracy throughout the world and it’s an ambitious goal. Hard to argue with the ambition, but plans are one thing and implementation quite another.
Democracy is a process rather than a door opened to those who are shut out. Democracy means a continuing dialog with the governed that our own country has struggled with since its inception two hundred, twenty-nine years ago. It can’t be delivered like independence.
Independence can be fought for and won or given at the stroke of a pen by colonial powers. But either way, history bears witness to how seldom democracy delivers the goods and how often the experiment evolves into dictatorship. Dictatorship is the last grasp of idealism foundering on the rocky shoals of establishing democracy. It’s always out there under the surface, a malevolent force to be reckoned with, a greed ready to assert itself.
Democracy is more agony than celebration and revolutions have…