Bush's Contempt For Democracy
by
Robert Jensen; March 03, 2003
Many around the world are skeptical when George Bush says he wants to use war to help create democracy in Iraq. As a step toward bolstering his credibility, Bush might start taking seriously democracy in the rest of the world, and at home.
U.S. reaction to the weekend news that Turkey's parliament had rejected a proposal to accept the basing of U.S. troops for an Iraq war only confirmed what has long been obvious:
The Bush administration believes democracy is wonderful -- so long as it doesn't get in the way of war.
Let's remember the basic notions behind democracy: The people are sovereign. Power flows from the people. Leadership is beholden to the people.
If those ideas are at the core of democracy, Bush's recent reaction to the will of the people suggests he has contempt for the concept.
Bush has a habit of praising as "courageous" those leaders who most effectively ignore their people.
(a) In the U.K., polls show more than half the public against the war, and close to a million people turned out for the Feb. 15 protest in London.
(b) In Spain, 2 million hit the streets of Barcelona and Madrid, and 74 percent oppose the war.
(c) . The Italian prime minister has to ignore the 80 percent of his people who object to the war, and on Feb. 15 the largest demonstrations in the world were in Rome, where police put the crowd at 1 million and others estimated two to three times that many.
But Bush has praised the courage of prime ministers Tony Blair and Jose Maria Aznar in remaining fanatically prowar in the face of massive public opposition. Silvio Berlusconi is another favorite of Bush
But perhaps the most courageous leader in Bush-speak is the prime minister of Turkey, Abdullah Gul.
The Bush team found that it took some convincing (and $15 billion) to secure the ruling Justice and Development Party leadership's support for U.S. use of bases for a war. The State Department, expecting a favorable vote, had prepared a statement of congratulations. Because the initial reports out of parliament suggested the proposal had won, that statement was released and -- you guessed it --
it applauded the Turkish government for its "courageous leadership"
In that effort, as a former Pentagon planner and ambassador to Turkey explained, "the biggest problem is that 94 percent of the Turks are opposed to war." After winning over the key leadership, U.S. officials faced another problem: The Turkish constitution requires a vote of parliament to allow those new U.S. troops. With tens of thousands of Turks protesting in the streets during the debate, the proposal failed by a narrow margin.
And what of democracy at home? When asked about his reaction to the hundreds of thousands of Americans who rallied on Feb. 15 to oppose a war, Bush brushed them off as irrelevant. To pay attention to the largest worldwide political event in recent history, he said, would be like governing by focus group.
Of course,
political movements -- people coming together because of shared principles to try to affect public policy -- are not quite like
focus groups, which are convened by folks in advertising and marketing to test out their pitches.
-- Demonstrations are real democratic expressions of the strong commitments of people;
-- Focus groups are a research tool used to craft manipulative slogans and advertising strategies in order to subvert real democracy.
Robert Jensen is a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin and author of "Writing Dissent: Taking Radical Ideas from the Margins to the Mainstream."
Bush's Contempt For Democracy
by
Robert Jensen; March 03, 2003
Many around the world are skeptical when George Bush says he wants to use war to help create democracy in Iraq. As a step toward bolstering his credibility, Bush might start taking seriously democracy in the rest of the world, and at home.
U.S. reaction to the weekend news that Turkey's parliament had rejected a proposal to accept the basing of U.S. troops for an Iraq war only confirmed what has long been obvious:
The Bush administration believes democracy is wonderful -- so long as it doesn't get in the way of war.
Let's remember the basic notions behind democracy: The people are sovereign. Power flows from the people. Leadership is beholden to the people.
If those ideas are at the core of democracy, Bush's recent reaction to the will of the people suggests he has contempt for the concept.
Bush has a habit of praising as "courageous" those leaders who most effectively ignore their people.
(a) In the U.K., polls show more than half the public against the war, and close to a million people turned out for the Feb. 15 protest in London.
(b) In Spain, 2 million hit the streets of Barcelona and Madrid, and 74 percent oppose the war.
(c) . The Italian prime minister has to ignore the 80 percent of his people who object to the war, and on Feb. 15 the largest demonstrations in the world were in Rome, where police put the crowd at 1 million and others estimated two to three times that many.
But Bush has praised the courage of prime ministers Tony Blair and Jose Maria Aznar in remaining fanatically prowar in the face of massive public opposition. Silvio Berlusconi is another favorite of Bush
But perhaps the most courageous leader in Bush-speak is the prime minister of Turkey, Abdullah Gul.
The Bush team found that it took some convincing (and $15 billion) to secure the ruling Justice and Development Party leadership's support for U.S. use of bases for a war. The State Department, expecting a favorable vote, had prepared a statement of congratulations. Because the initial reports out of parliament suggested the proposal had won, that statement was released and -- you guessed it --
it applauded the Turkish government for its "courageous leadership"
In that effort, as a former Pentagon planner and ambassador to Turkey explained, "the biggest problem is that 94 percent of the Turks are opposed to war." After winning over the key leadership, U.S. officials faced another problem: The Turkish constitution requires a vote of parliament to allow those new U.S. troops. With tens of thousands of Turks protesting in the streets during the debate, the proposal failed by a narrow margin.
And what of democracy at home? When asked about his reaction to the hundreds of thousands of Americans who rallied on Feb. 15 to oppose a war, Bush brushed them off as irrelevant. To pay attention to the largest worldwide political event in recent history, he said, would be like governing by focus group.
Of course,
political movements -- people coming together because of shared principles to try to affect public policy -- are not quite like
focus groups, which are convened by folks in advertising and marketing to test out their pitches.
-- Demonstrations are real democratic expressions of the strong commitments of people;
-- Focus groups are a research tool used to craft manipulative slogans and advertising strategies in order to subvert real democracy.
Robert Jensen is a journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin and author of "Writing Dissent: Taking Radical Ideas from the Margins to the Mainstream."
