United States democracy frayed, fake




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Never mind what they say, never mind what they want you to believe, the United States is not democratic; it is in fact, a bully with a craving to crash every nation that does not toe its line and a bully with disturbing appetite to gain access to natural resources by hook or crook.

By Craig Wa Mutema

From Iraq, to little Zimbabwe, the USA tries to tell whoever cares that there is breach of democracy and hence the need to intervene militarily in the case of Iraq and through illegal sanctions in the case of Zimbabwe.

In Iraq it was oil not Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship, in little Zimbabwe it is the land, the vast gold and diamond fields not disrespect for human and property rights. NO! Don’t be fooled.

What the USA packages to the world as democratic forces are in fact, opposition political parties it formed and supports to effect regime change on countries it thinks are an affront to its access to natural resources. The rest of the narrative is a superfluous tell-tale.

What the USA packages to the world as non-governmental humanitarian organisations are in fact, regime change agents meant to clandestinely support selected opposition parties involved in its regime change agenda.

Democracy is a word the USA has abused again and again, and again and again, as a smokescreen behind which it hides the killing of thousands of people in the world, especially is smaller nations where it eyes natural resources.

Democracy is what it has abused to justify wars. It is all about access to natural resources.

When you look at this year we are about to end, you see USA dirt all over the world from Ukraine to Afghanistan, provoking situations in order to destabilise other countries.

Back to their home soil, American democracy frayed in 2021, as Republicans in states such as Georgia and Texas passed laws making it harder to vote, premised on the lie that fraud tipped the 2020 presidential election.

As GOP-controlled state legislatures forced through these antidemocratic policies on party-line votes, the USA Senate was silent, the Democratic majority unable to respond because Republicans filibustered bill after bill to ease access to the ballot box.

Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer announced last week that he intends to change this dynamic early next year, bringing up voting rights legislation once again and taking more assertive procedural moves to advance it.

Good. Voting is not an issue like health-care policy or tax rates, on which there is reasonable debate. No senator should cheer any move to weaken minority rights in the chamber, but these specific circumstances should compel even the most traditionalist of senators to contemplate change.

President Biden says he supports suspending the filibuster rules to get it done.

Neither voting bill that Democrats seek to pass should be controversial. One, the Freedom to Vote Act  would permit all voters to cast mail-in ballots in federal elections and require drop boxes.

Led by former president Donald Trump, Republicans have trashed these voting methods as fraud-prone; in fact, absentee voting has a long record of convenience and security.

The act would make Election Day a holiday, mandate early-voting periods, create automatic voter registration systems and provide same-day registration.

It would also curb partisan gerrymandering and limit the extent to which politicians could pressure local election officials. There is no credible argument against any of these provisions, yet every Senate Republican has united against the legislation.

The other bill Democrats want to pass, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act has bipartisan buy-in, if you count that a single GOP senator, Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski, supports it.

This Bill would repair the 1965 Voting Rights Act, after the Supreme Court declared in 2013 that Congress would have to revise the law for its strongest provisions to once again apply.

Crucially, it would reimpose “pre-clearance” on states with a history of racially discriminatory voting laws, obligating such states to submit proposed election rule changes for federal review before phasing them in.

Pre-clearance for decades discouraged state and local officials from seeking to tilt the playing field against racial minorities, recognising that discrimination could be as obvious as a poll tax or as subtle as a seemingly small shift in polling place locations.

Immediately after the court’s 2013 ruling, Republican-controlled states began passing anti-voting laws.

Reimposing pre-clearance would make them think twice, which helps explain why nearly all Senate Republicans oppose the John Lewis bill, too.

The underlying principle is that voting should be easy, convenient and fair, enabling all Americans to cast ballots without unnecessary difficulties.

Over the past year, Republicans have proved that they oppose this principle, raising barriers that discourage people from voting because some calculate that more Democrats than Republicans will be suppressed. Not only is their position morally indefensible; it is not even clear it is politically sound.

Republicans just claimed big victories in this year’s Virginia gubernatorial and legislative elections, amid massive turnout.

Instead of seeking to depress voting, Republicans should be running more popular candidates and campaigning on more attractive policies.

Mr Schumer should push hard to advance both voting bills. And if Republicans continue to fight them, Senate Democrats should look at reforming the filibuster.

Perhaps another generation of Americans will redefine democracy, be honest with the world and change politics. The USA in its current form and attitude sees China and Russia as enemies because these two countries play opposite politics.

There are better dealers than the US and every country seen to be in good books with these countries is treated as a rogue state. How undemocratic the US is! But when you look at real democracy, each country should be allowed to choose its friends, without fear or favour. Each country should be in charge of its own destiny. This does not seem to be in the current thinking and vocabulary of the USA.

The USA should stop to pose itself as the world’s policeman, should stop posing as the greatest democracy in the world, when it is very evil and oppressing many countries and killing people.  Africa Awake.

Hugh Wa Mutema is a Kenyan political activist and Pan Africanist. Here he writes in his personal capacity.