A Grand Bargain to Save Democracy

The Mandate

The Apparent Choice

The 2024 election will be about whether our nation can sustain democracy or will slide into a more authoritarian mode of governance.  This should be an easy choice given that this nation has been, from its very beginnings, about proving that a modern democracy can, not only survive, but thrive.

Democracy at Home and Abroad

Joe Biden, is the candidate seemingly representing the democratic option and domestically appearing to represent that old concern for the welfare of the ordinary people for which this democracy exists.  His foreign policies, however, hardly represent any of the idealism of democracy.  Since World War II our foreign policy has been used to extend our economic power, often with the help of covert operations and the military, all under the guise of spreading democracy.

All of that has led to our direct and indirect influence and interference with the sovereignty of many nations, sometimes ending in war.  The list is enormous, including Iran, Haiti, Central American countries, South American countries, Asian nations, African nations.  It is hard to find many nations that have not been affected by US intrusions.

Gaza

And then there is the crisis in Gaza in which the Biden Administration, as representing the leadership of the dominant superpower of the world, has not only given Benjamin Netanyahu a free hand in the process of wiping out the Palestinians in Gaza, with modern weapons supplied by us, but also has been complicit in stopping even the most basic humanitarian aid to an occupied people.  All of this while preventing any international influence to stop the massacre.

There is nothing of the basic precepts of democracy in how this is being handled, neither in international terms, nor even in domestic terms, since so many of our citizens are up in arms about this policy.  We, as a nation, are projected onto the world stage as an uncaring, uncivilized nation, willing to generously support and encourage a genocide being carried out in full view of the world, while supporting a rogue leader.  Meanwhile we seem to be working to prevent the rest of the world from its humanitarian attempts or even from its international judgement, attacking any who would question Netanyahu’s rampage.

Biden seems to be acting in our name and with our tax money, damaging our international reputation, as though he has dictatorial power to personally decide how this nation should act on the international stage.

The Mandate

Here is the bargain that must be struck to salvage this election for the Democratic Party, for Joe Biden, and for democracy.  In order to secure the votes of those who are appalled by the direction of our foreign policy, especially in Gaza, a vote for Joe Biden must be seen as a mandate, not for a continuance of the direction of our current policies, but for a change of direction, once again reflecting the idealism of our democracy with its focus on human rights and support of those who are trying to develop the basis for democracies for ordinary people in other nations.  In other words, it will be a mandate for a pivot away from our interference and focus on economics to a new focus on the good of the inhabitants of other nations, allowing them to find their own direction into the future.

This is, in fact, the only viable way to find common ground to work on solutions to global immigration, climate change, and global health issues.

Context

The fundamental idea of democracy from the American Revolution was that ordinary people were capable of effective governance of a nation, that they did not need some elite to run their lives for them.  And that example spread across Europe, from the French Revolution to the Russian Revolution, with the First World War spelling the end of rule by monarchs and aristocrats in Europe.

That idea spread to South America, Central America, and the Caribbean Islands, to Asia and the Asian and Pacific Islands.  It became a global phenomenon and a source of hope for all oppressed people.  It was the source of the idealism of socialism and of communism.  It could even coexist with capitalism if capitalism could be harnessed to support the egalitarian requirements of democracy.

And, as always with transitions of power, the old powers did not simply steal away into the night.  Those old powers of ruling elites, whether they were monarchs and aristocrats, economic elites, political elites or military elites, were not willing to forgo their past dominance, in order to allow ordinary citizens to make the ruling decisions.  Those elites fought back with all their entrenched power and guile to maintain control under the pretense of being a democracy.  Even very authoritarian regimes existed under the flag of democracy.

Even in this nation, the rich and powerful retained considerable power and control of the direction of this nation.  Only with outside threats was the idealism of democracy called upon as a source of unity and patriotism to support wars and provide the citizen-soldiers to fight those wars.

It was only because of the overreach of the economic elite, leading to the Great Depression, that power slipped from the grasp of that economic elite and found a new champion in FDR with his New Deal programs and immense popular support.  It was also the rise of an intellectual elite, helpful when it worked for the good of the citizenry but hiding an eventual hubris of putting mind over heart.

Resurgence of the Economic Elite

By the end of the 1940s the economic elite had regrouped and began to reassert control over the governance of this nation, helped enormously by the foreign policies of the Cold War years.

Even with a brief resurgence of democratizing energy during the Kennedy years, in an era ending with three assassinations, did the economic elite reassert itself into dominance once again with Nixon and the politicizing of the American Chamber of Commerce with the Powell Memorandum.  From then on, the slide toward economic solutions, secrecy and the military continued until our present situation.

We have watched the tax code being gutted to benefit the economic elite, until we can no longer find enough funding for necessary social programs and basic community needs, while developing an enormous income inequality, (antithetical to democracy), and a growing billionaire class.  All of this has led to a political system based on money, pushing out those who cannot pay to play.

We have watched the decline of Labor Unions, only recently seeing some resurgence.  We have watched the privatization of public services.  We have watched the growth of military spending, not to mention our funding of secrecy (NSA, CIA) and covert operations.  Our military spending is now larger than the combined spending of the next 5 nations, including Russia and China.

We cannot continue to exist as a viable democracy supporting a weakening democracy at home while we are far from anything resembling democracy in our foreign policies; especially, when that foreign policy direction is so financially supportive of the very corporations and billionaire class that is skewing our domestic politics to make authoritarian leadership look like a viable option.

The Necessary Bargain and a Mandate

We need to make it clear that a vote for Joe Biden, while a clear vote for democracy over authoritarianism, cannot be construed as any kind of mandate for our current foreign policy directions, especially in Gaza. It needs to be clear that such a vote can only represent a clear mandate for a major pivot toward a more humanized and democratically focused foreign policy.  It needs to be clear that it is a mandate based on a strong belief in human rights, and the rights of self-determination for all nations without our meddling.

To make this bargain requires that we let go or our past sins as a nation, including our shameful role in Gaza.  In return we need a clear promise of a new foreign policy direction, a direction that reflects a return to the positive international role that we have provided in the past, supporting a path for citizens of the world in their desire for the equality and human values that democracy promises.

I am basically an optimist, but I am not holding my breath for such a change to be allowed by the powers that be.

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