“As for the prosecution of Trump, for us what is happening in today’s conditions, in my opinion, is good because it shows the rottenness of the American political system, which cannot pretend to teach others democracy.”
Vladimir Putin
“I like that he said that. Because that means what I’m saying is right.”
Donald Trump, also suggesting he could solve the Ukraine war in a day.
As serious strongmen suggest that democracy is no longer a viable system of governance, that centralized decisions, made quickly and efficiently, are necessary in a rapidly changing world. Democracy, with its byzantine requirement of multiparty voting and elections, they argue, is too slow and too cumbersome to govern, often giving rise to irreconcilable differences among factions with diametrically opposed views. There is no question that democracy, even when well-practiced, is messy, but what exactly are the metrics by which democracy can be compared with other forms of governance. Military and political efficiency, imposed by a purportedly wiser autocracy, or something else.
Indeed, beginning with the Deng Xiaoping era in China (post-Mao, 1981 and following), China’s autocratic leadership brought modern economic reality to the hidden kingdom, lifting over a billion people out of poverty in about 30 years. China adopted a system of sequentially Politburo-elected leaders, each limited by a 10-year term… until Xi Jinping ascended to the top spot in 2012… and sequentially began purging anyone who disagreed with him and ended that 10-year term limit.
China rose in military stature, now having the largest navy in the world, but as Xi consolidated his power against the new barons of industry, faced a pandemic with ineffective vaccines and “zero tolerance,” his policies were failing. He was forced to distract his population with anti-US/Taiwan saber-rattling. He focused on dominating the East and South China seas, building a new military presence in the Spratley Islands. He stifled dissent, persecuted any emerging foe, and watched his economy shudder, younger unemployment soar to 20%, until he ordered that these economic statistics no long be reported
Daniel Hannan, writing for the September 16th The Telegraph, cites numerous academic authors, using statistical analysis, to determine those autocracy-vs-democracy metrics. Is it simply a measure of “good” vs “evil,” or are there more salient standards of comparison? Like happiness. Population growth. Economic well-being. GDP. And when those comparisons are made, does that justify the animosity and conflict that defines the world today? “One way to answer [those questions] is to ask people to rate their happiness on a scale of one to ten. Russians score lower than Westerners. North Koreans are not asked.
“Another is to look at where people choose to live. Here is a striking statistic. On the eve of the Russian revolution, Russia and the United States had roughly the same population. A century later, because of different rates of longevity, migration and abortion (Russia has one of the highest abortion rates in the world) there were twice as many Americans as Russians. I’d say that’s a pretty strong endorsement of liberalism.
“The tyrants (and their Western apologists) might object that this is not a fair comparison, insisting the United States somehow acquired its wealth by war rather than by free contract and property rights. They will struggle to argue that the United States was more imperialist than Russia which, as Henry Kissinger quipped, expanded at the rate of ‘one Belgium per year’, but let’s leave that aside. If you want a laboratory-quality comparison, consider Korea.
“The two Koreas began from the same place in 1953. If anything, North Korea had a slight edge, having been more industrialised, although South Korea had a larger population. But in other respects, the two sides were identical. They had the same language, the same culture, the same work ethic, and both had just come through a devastating war.
“Today, the economy of South Korea is 57 times as large as its northern neighbour’s. Its people live more than 10 years longer (North Korean life expectancy is as low as Russia’s). Its rivers are cleaner, its forests less depleted. Its children are several times more likely to survive infancy – and if that statistic doesn’t correlate with greater net happiness, I don’t know what does.” Hannan.
Yet somehow the lure of a White Nationalist America has become the mainstay of the MAGA Republican movement. Strangely, too many Americans, regardless of political affiliation, are addressing the two political parties along the “business as usual” liberal vs conservative mantras… perhaps not realizing that even getting to vote for those issues requires a functioning democracy. We are looking at age comparisons, which might be more relevant if the coming election were about traditional political issues. But it most definitely is not.
One party in our two-party system favors censorship based on fundamentalist Protestant precepts, ethno-cleansing to pretend slavery never happened, purging perceived gender anomalies, minority religions and cultures, marginalizing the voting power of non-white citizens, and severely restricting what rights women have over their own bodies. In short, White Christian nationalists rule, and elections that do not produce that result must be nullified. American democracy is facing an existential threat. What climate change does not do to us, our willingness to trade democracy for autocracy just might finish the job. Ukraine is willing to fight for that democracy reality. Are we? Does it bother MAGA voters that Trump and Putin are mirror images?
I’m Peter Dekom, and if we truly want to keep America great, then MAGA autocracy must be voted out of existence.
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