Is America an example of good democracy for the rest of the world?

Would be interesting to know what people think about that.

I think, it is, except for the cultural aspect.

Chinese want to be Chinese, Serbians want to be Serbians, Iraqi want to be Iraqi, which is to maintain their ethnic groups happy and coexisting in peace. That is priority number one. Democracy is priority number two. The question is how to implement the later without destroying the former and do we, Americans, even know how to do that?

In America, many cultures coexist. It is a safe place from the rest of the 'crude' cultural world. However, America is also a place of no national culture but rather a cult of individual. We don’t respect the elders, intelligent people are made fun of unless they make good money or can be used to make money, true art is widely frowned upon since everyone prefers to think of themselves as artists or at least know what an art is, in other words, anything that makes an average Jo feel like he is an average Jo is not accepted. In addition, literature and movies promote the values of youth (life is a big party), individual wealth, and ignorance.

Well, these are all quite destructive aspects for any culture to survive. When Americans bring democracy to Iraq, they really want to help Iraqi people, they don't lie, they just don't tell all of the truth, which is they don't know how to merge Iraqi culture, or any culture for that matter, in American way of democracy.

Before we go on with this I think we need to go into further detail of our Democracy.. we are actually a Democratic Republic with a Capitalistic monetary system policed by the ruling party.

This type of political system requires a few things to run well and maintain a stable environment, Such as the separation of religion from law. This separation was not drafted into the constitution on a whim, it was added because the founding fathers knew of the ability for organized religion to corrupt the political system. Keep in mind that this was drafted less than 200 years after Henry VIII created the Church of England and the political *sand* storm that followed.

The interesting thing about Iraq is that under Saddam it was largely a secular run country and that Saddam did an excellent job of keeping out the theocratic rule. What you never hear about is that for the average middle class person in Iraq, life was not bad.

Now, Saddam is gone, we have opened the gates to theocratic rule in a democratic republic framework with several religious parties fighting for control of a newly religious state.

The political environment that created the USA was an anomaly, an environmental model that required the specific geographic location, area, seclusion, with a religious movement of freedom and open-minded leaders who understood the need for individual system of beliefs existing in a non-partisan framework of law in order to be successful.

Can this model be used to successfully create another free government? No.

It’s like taking wheat seeds that flourish in the Midwest and plant them in the Artic circle and wonder why they wont grow.


mod edit, do NOT circumvent the censors!!!

[edit on 31-12-2005 by DontTreadOnMe]

very good points, mrbunny (btw, jthm rules, i wish vasquez would do more!)

i think we are a rather poor example, after our "highly developed" system was shaken by the florida fiasco last time around. if i had an advertiser trying to sell me a car, i'd hate to find out that all the company's employees had severe mechanical problems right before it was bragged about to me...

if we could actually keep our house clean, and run gov't by the constitution; learn how to let people be people, and enforce the laws we have rather than cover our failures with more unenforcable laws, maybe we could set an example...

Our republic, this representative Democracy is great for us. It has somehow worked after all these years. Is it good for another people with a completely foreign culture to ours? It depends. India seems to diggit. It works in their way. Would it be good for Arab nations like Iraq? Maybe not so much. If it's one man one vote, you're gonna get ethnic trouble. The Shi'ites are definitely gonna be in control. Judging from their recent history (of Sunni rule), it might not be so good. Retribution and hypocrisies abound. Also, its a tribal land. They don't quite see things political the way we do. It's completely different.

I know one thing.. the Iraqis are fully capable of hammering out their own way. Now that Saddam and the Baathists have been deposed, it's time for us to let them take charge of their own destiny (with our hopefully limited help, of course).

The Iraqis need to hammer out their new rule, hopefully resulting in a stable state of rule. Unfortunately the method in which they have been forced to chose, and rushed to develop this new way of life is contusive to an unstable political foundation. I do not think it will survive more than a decade before disintegrating to a civil war ending in a theocratic rule.

I do need to correct myself from my first post in this.. the USA is not a Democratic republic... we are actually a Federalist Republic with a strong democratic tradition.... just want to be precise here.

and Yes, Johnen is just way too cool. He drew a Happy Noodle Boy on a scrap of cardboard for a friend of mine.

Americans are sumthin else (the USA variety, anyway). They assume that Iraqis are ignorant backwater hicks. Like there's never been civilization there before. Like they can't figure out how to rule themselves. It wouldn't be so hard if all those expletive bombs weren't going off everywhere 24/7. That would get kind of hectic, no?

These people came up with algebra, for God' sake! As I've said before, if it weren't for the math, we wouldn't be able to bomb the X out of them. Ain't life crazy?

Originally posted by EastCoastKid
Americans are sumthin else (the USA variety, anyway). They assume that Iraqis are ignorant backwater hicks. Like there's never been civilization there before. Like they can't figure out how to rule themselves. It wouldn't be so hard if all those expletive bombs weren't going off everywhere 24/7. That would get kind of hectic, no?

These people came up with algebra, for God' sake! As I've said before, if it weren't for the math, we wouldn't be able to bomb the X out of them. Ain't life crazy?

yea.. but those bombs are going off because they can't establish an accaptable rule. too many people think of the "Iraqis" as a single national entity, a singlar group of people with.

Sorry folks it ain't that way.

as for their advances in mathmatics.. well isn't it interesting how religious rule can throw a civilization into a darkage.

Is America an example of good democracy for the rest of the world?

Lately?

I'm undecided. Seems like Americans foreign policies and domestic policies are determined by two major underlining factors, too me:

1) The Corporate $

2) The Collective fears of Americans (who may be failing to resolve their own fears within their minds, before manifesting them in a shared reality.)

Is America an example of good democracy for the rest of the world?

Not currently, the political realm in America has been hijacked by corporations (media + wealth). A good democracy would be one which featured better election controls. The controls should include equal media exposure for each candidate and protections versus media bias.

- Attero

[edit on 6-1-2006 by Attero Auctorita]

We live in the worst kind of dictatorship.....the dictatorship where the people dont know its a dictatorship. The dictatorship that gives the illusion of freedom. Why? Because people dont rebel against not being free when they believe they are. The dictators know this.

The dictators you never see in the public arena. They operate from behind the scenes under various organizations and corporations.

Whole political parties are like fingers. And by letting us choose which finger we want to rule us, we think we have freedom. But what are the fingers attached to? They're attached to the same hand.

Conservative, Liberal, Democrat, Republican, it doesnt matter. Its all New World Order at the top. These different political parties are just used to give us the illusion of choice, and then they can have us in different camps and arguing with each other, while they secretly rule us.

Its called Divide and Conquer. Divide the people into different camps, then play them off against each other, then you can easily conquer them. Folks we have been conquered for a long time.....

Is America really a good example to the world? Well, if you think about it, not really.

Police brutality, poverty, crime, corruption, destruction of civil liberties, prostitution, drug trafficking, and yes, even sex slavery.... ALL are currently rampid in our country, mostly with the help of the federal government.

Abroad, we have a phony ''war on terror'' that is costing us taxpayers $2 trillion dollars, and is achieving nothing except the deaths of innocent people, and US corporate chieftans are getting more and more wealth and power.

Republic literally means ''of the public''. As in the public is the government, basically. They decide their own policies, and decide their own fate.

Our republic no longer exists, the public even acknowledge this. Most people consider America a ''democracy'', but there is a large difference between a republic and a democracy. A democracy is mob ruled, meaning a 51% majority wins. A republic represents all individuals, and their rights. Unfortunatly, America is neither.

All you have to do is is look at the 2000and 2004 ''elections'' to see that even our democracy no onger exists.

It is very sad to see this happen to this country. It is sad to see a once proud and noble people, become slaves and sheep....following their ''leader' in whatever new adventure he embarks on.

Very sad, indeed. What happened to America?



[edit on 18-1-2006 by LetKnowledgeDrop]