I am, of course, put off by the whole cornpone act, but what really sets my teeth on edge is when Bush starts lecturing people on democracy. Put aside for a moment the question of the state of democracy in our own country these days. I am embarrassed by the arrogance of a guy who thinks Americans invented democracy, who has no awareness that every where he goes people have been struggling for hundreds of years with these issues.
And back to the sad state of democracy in our country, the brothers Michael Froomkin in Bush v. Facts and Dan Froomkin in the WaPo's White House Briefing chase down the facts about the Bush and Putin meeting.
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I totally agree with Mr. MacLeod that Bush is a hypocrit when encourgeing other countries to join in democracy with the United States and others. A big reason why is the Patriot Act which destroys our civil liberties. I don't remember a time when Americans had the opportunity to vote on whether to subject themselves to unannounced and unathorized government taps of their phones, bank accounts, and credit card records. I fail to see what's so god damn patriotic and democratic about this act.
A second and more direct example of Bush's hypocracy would be how he got elected in the first place. Granted, we've had the electoral process for a long time, but how can one say the 2000 election was purely democratic when five hundred thousand more people voted for Gore instead of Bush. Let's also not forget Florida's electoral votes from 2000, which were tainted by the supreme court and probably the candidates themselves.
Dan Froomkin makes a great argument that America needs to clean up its own problems before having the right to promote and help extend democracy. He says that the process must start with the press asking tougher questions more frequently until the Americans gain satisfaction for their concerns. Not only that, he goes onto say questions of the past still need to be anwsered like ones concerning weapons of mass destruction. If these kinds of issues are not dealt with, our eroded democracy will become unrestorable for a long time.
ABT
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