Islam Times - Hillary Clinton and the Hypocrisy of Democracy

Islam Times - In a classic case of do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's hypocritical approach to Democracy and freedom was epitomized during her recent speech about the failure of foreign leaders to respect people's rights and freedoms when a senior citizen was brutally assaulted before being dragged away in two sets of handcuffs by one of her guards and a police office...

Ray McGovern, a 71-year-old war veteran and former CIA analyst, was brutally beaten and arrested when he remained standing -- silently -- with his back to Hillary Clinton as she began giving her internet freedom speech at George Washington University (link: http://www.justiceonline.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5553). Mr. McGovern, sitting near the back of the auditorium, wearing a shirt that read "Veterans for Peace," stood up at the start of Clinton's speech and blocked the view of media and guests sitting behind him for about 5 minutes (link: http://media.www.gwhatchet.com/media/storage/paper332/news/2011/02/17/News/Protester.Arrested.During.Clinton.Speech-3978169.shtml). Clinton never paused during her speech when Mr. McGovern was grabbed from the audience -- in her plain view -- by police and an unidentified official in plain clothes.

Mr. McGovern was blindsided by Clinton's security, arrested for "disorderly conduct" and left bleeding for three hours in a jail cell for quietly disrupting Clinton's speech. Mr. McGovern, who was heard saying "So this is America?" as he was removed from Clinton’s speech, suffered bruises, lacerations and contusions from his assault. The charges against Mr. McGovern have since been dropped. Secretary of State Clinton speaks eloquently of Democracy, totalitarian governments, and protecting protesters and rights, but her actions, or lack thereof, tell a much different story.

In the U.S., Democracy is more rhetoric than reality, and the U.S. approach to Democracy is extremely hypocritical. Democracy requires a free press, an independent legislature, and courts that actually apply the rule of law equally. Mainstream U.S. media reports or ignores what Washington tells it to, the majority of the U.S. Congress is bought and paid for by large corporations, think tanks, and lobbies, and the U.S. "Justice" system is anything but just. The law only applies to the people, not the politicians responsible for committing heinous crimes against humanity under the guise of Democracy. The United States is more of a republic that functions like a Plutocracy than a Democracy.

In America, Democracy is a Useful Fallacy

A Democracy is a form of government in which people decide policy matters directly. In a Democracy, the government derives its power from the people and is accountable to them. To date, few in the government have been held accountable for their actions and decisions are made in Washington, regardless of public opinion. As Chris Hedges noted last January, Democracy in America is a useful fiction (link: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/democracy_in_america_is_a_useful_fiction_20100124/).

Democracy in America has been replaced by plutocracy and fascism. The U.S. government is controlled by large corporations who have bought and paid for most of the politicians in Washington. The U.S. Treasury, the IMF and the World Bank all exist to ensure that rich countries like Egypt wallow in poverty. These same entities are trying their damnedest to achieve the same result in the U.S. and other economically viable countries. Fascism, as noted by John Pilger, is abused as propaganda against America's official enemies and to promote the West's foreign adventures (link: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article27568.htm). Doublespeak and propaganda are often used to cover ulterior motives, terrorize and misinform the public, and allow the removal of more freedom. Since 1945, the U.S. has been involved in destroying and subverting more than 50 governments (link: http://pakalert.wordpress.com/2009/06/21/a-history-of-cia-coups-and-atrocities/), some of which were democracies, and assassinated many leaders to sustain dictatorships in the Middle East and elsewhere. Conveniently omitted from all the talk about instability in the Middle East is the fact that the U.S. is responsible for creating most of it.

In a July 2010 speech about supporting Democracy in the 21st century during a Community of Democracies meeting in Krakow, Poland (link: http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2010/07/143952.htm), Clinton spoke of too many governments in the Middle East and North Africa region that still resort to intimidation, questionable legal practices, restrictions on NGO registration, and efforts to silence bloggers and activists, noting that progress on this issue, especially in Egypt, has often been subjected to government pressure in the form of canceled conferences, harassing phone calls, and frequent reminders that the government can close organizations down and stifle dissent by imposing detention, long-term imprisonment and exile. She spoke of Venezuela, and how its leaders have tried silencing independent voices seeking to hold the government accountable and how Russia targeted human rights activists and journalists for assassination. The U.S. government has been guilty of all those tactics for decades.

Clinton spoke of crackdowns in the 20th century against civil society that frequently occurred under the guise of ideology, noting that behind these actions was an idea, an alternate conception of how societies should be organized, and that the belief that people are subservient to their government rather than the government being subservient to their people should be challenged by democracies. She urged attendees to think about the civil society activists around the world who have been harassed, censored, cut off from funding, arrested, prosecuted, and killed, reminding everyone that governments by the people, for the people, and of the people will look like the people they represent.

The notion that governments will look like the people they represent is a total fallacy. The crimes against humanity committed by the U.S. government all over the world, do not represent the people of the United States. Not even close. But again, the U.S. government serves the large corporations and lobbies that own it, not the people it allegedly represents. In the U.S., the days of government by the people, for the people, and of the people ended in 1963 when the CIA assassinated President Kennedy (link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaH-lGafwtE&feature=player_embedded#).

Democracy Requires the Involvement of the People

Clinton also noted that just because countries have elections, doesn't mean they have Democracy, and that democracies don't fear their own people when they protest. She even went so far as to note that restrictions on the people's right to protest only demonstrates the fear of illegitimate rulers, and the cowardice of those who deny their citizens the protections they deserve, claiming that an attack on civil activism and civil society is an attack on Democracy. The U.S. government has been attacking Democracy for years. Consequently, it fears the people it represents, and reveals its cowardice by hiding behind illicit secrecy to keep its crimes covered up. As America has repeatedly seen, "free"' elections have nothing to do with Democracy.

Democracy requires a lot of work and the involvement of the people. With the constant misuse of "National Security" to cover up all the illegal activities conducted by and ineptitude of the U.S. government, too many secrets are kept from its citizens. When someone gains a conscience and comes forward with information that desecrates Washington or exposes its lies, they're tucked away somewhere in a little prison cell indefinitely despite not being charged with a crime.

The hypocrisy espoused by Clinton and most others in Washington is blatantly obvious, and becoming impossible to contain. True Democracy in the Middle East -- or the U.S. for that matter -- would virtually put the military-industrial complex and the national security state out of business, and reveal the depths of corruption that comprise the U.S. government and its policies.

Democracy has been perverted to make us all believe that we matter and have a voice. We don't (link: http://www.federalobserver.com/2010/11/08/the-fallacy-of-democracy/). Democracy doesn't work when it's a republic, when people are intentionally left misinformed by concentrated media, and when the rule of law is subverted by corporations and corrupt Judges appointed by corrupt politicians, and politicians will never abide by the will of the people who elect them when large corporations and lobbies are bribing them. Until the day comes that people actually have a say in what their government does, Democracy will remain a fallacy.
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