Newspaper logo  
 
 
  Democracy Is Not Freedom (and We Are Not the Government)

COMMENTARY:

Democracy Is Not Freedom (and We Are Not the Government)

by Jacob G. Hornberger

It’s not difficult to see how our American ancestors felt about democracy. They considered it so bad that they enacted the Bill of Rights to protect us from it.
President Bush and his neoconservative supporters were practically teary-eyed on election day in Iraq. No longer did it matter that the weapons of mass destruction that had been used to scare the American people into supporting the war didn't exist. Or that thousands of US troops and tens of thousands of Iraqis were now dead or maimed. Or that the Pentagon and CIA had plunged America into a shameful orgy of torture and sordid sex acts. Or that billions upon billions of dollars of US taxpayer money were being frittered away, even while the value of the dollar continued to plummet in international markets.

No, all that mattered now was that the Iraqi people had finally been given the opportunity to elect their rulers.

Let's not forget the simple truth that democracy is not freedom. Thus, the mere fact that many of the Iraqi people voted in a national election does not mean that Iraqis are now free or that they're going to be free in the near future. In fact, given the political and religious beliefs of the Shiite group that garnered the most votes, early indications are exactly the opposite.

"What?" you ask. "How can that be? Democracy is freedom! President Bush and our military leaders tell us so."

Unfortunately, however, it just ain't so. President Bush and the Pentagon are as wrong about freedom and democracy as they were about WMDs in Iraq.

The fact is that democracy is the very worst form of government there is, except for all the rest, as Winston Churchill once pointed out. Its only real advantage, as Ludwig von Mises observed, is that it provides the citizenry with the ability to peacefully change a regime by voting it out of office. To change a totalitarian regime almost always entails violence, such as a revolution.

What ultimately matters with respect to freedom is not so much how a ruler is selected but rather the extent of the ruler's powers once he's installed into office.

What matters is not so much how a ruler is selected, but rather the extent of the ruler’s powers once he’s installed into office.

Let's assume, for example, that an elected ruler has omnipotent power over the citizenry. That is, there is no legislature that enacts laws and no judicial branch to interpret them. Whatever the ruler says, goes. He rules by decree. He has the power to jail anyone he wants for any reason whatsoever, to torture people, to punish critics, to shut down the press and public assemblies, to confiscate weapons, and to send the nation into war. He has unlimited power to tax. He even has the power to force people to attend religious services.

Could people in that society be considered free? President Bush would undoubtedly say, "Yes, because people had the right to vote, and he was the one who won. And if people feel that their ruler has abused his powers, they are free to oust him from office in the next election."

But how can living under dictatorship, albeit democratically elected, be considered genuine freedom?

It's not difficult to see how our American ancestors felt about democracy. They considered it so bad that they enacted the Bill of Rights to protect us from it.

After all, carefully read the Bill of Rights. You'll notice something interesting: It doesn't give people rights at all. Instead, it protects us from democracy.

The popular refrain, "We are the government," is false too. After all, if we are the government, then why does the Bill of Rights protect those of us in the private sector from those in the government sector?

Will Bush's militarily installed democracy bring freedom to the Iraqi people? He says it already has, because the Iraqi people were free to vote. There are strong indications, however, that the new Iraqi regime intends to establish close ties to the Islamic regime in Iran, which Bush says is evil and unfree, and may even mirror many Iranian policies. If that happens, one can only wonder whether he will change his tune about democracy and freedom, especially if US troops end up killing and dying both in Iraq and Iran.


Jacob Hornberger is founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation.


Copyright © 2005 The Baltimore Chronicle. All rights reserved.

Republication or redistribution of Baltimore Chronicle content is expressly prohibited without their prior written consent.

This story was published on February 28, 2005.

 
Local News & Opinion

Ref. : Local Newsbriefs

Travel
Films, Arts & Education
Letters

Ref. : Letters to the editor

Open Letters:

06.24 Mr. Holder, You Must Hold Torturers Accountable

Health & Environment

06.29 Thinking about Climate

06.26 False Health-Scare Ad on CNN

06.25 Louella Learns the Limits of Medicare

06.23 The Simple Answer to America’s Health Care Crisis: Medicare for All

06.23 Tell ABC: Include Single-Payer in Healthcare Debate

06.23 Serving the Medical-Industrial Complex

06.22 Thinking about Recoveries

06.20 Obama's Health Care Waterloo

06.15 Obama, Like Clinton Before Him, is Blowing the Chance for Real Health Care Reform

06.11 Two Key Health-Care Numbers

06.10 Big Breakthroughs for Single Payer Health Care

06.10 Readying Americans for Dangerous, Mandatory Vaccinations

Media Watching

06.29 WP's Connolly Back, on Health Reform

06.17 Hypocrisy and Hope: Western Coverage, Iranian Courage

06.15 Excusing Outrages of the Right

06.11 Tying Obama to Bush's Budget Mess

US Politics, Policy & Culture

06.30 Obama's Torture Hypocrisy

06.30 Court Circular: Annals of Imperial Continuity

06.29 Obama, They Want You to Fail

06.26 Who to Trust on a Truth Commission?

06.26 Tarnished Shields: The Morally Bankrupt 'Family Values' Republican Leadership

06.25 America's "Bases of Empire"

06.24 Twelve Angry White People: Jury Nullification in a Pennsylvania Coal Town

06.24 Touring Empire's Ruins

06.23 Employers are Undermining the Economic Stimulus Program

06.19 Criminalizing Dissent: Obama Pot Calls Iranian Kettle Black

06.17 Afghanistan's Operation Phoenix

06.16 Are You Ready for War with a Demonized Iran?

06.13 Where's the Anger as the Wheels Come Off Obama's and the Democrats' Recovery Program?

06.10 Waiving the Rules for Old Glory

06.10 Obama's Era of Openness Is Closed

“High Crimes?”

07.03 Reviewing Marjorie Cohn and Kathleen Gilberd's "Rules of Disengagement"

07.01 Iraq: A Bitter Strategic Failure

06.25 It's All Good, Again: 'Uptick' in the American-Made Tides of Violence in Iraq

06.22 Obama Opposes Plame-gate Release

06.21 Dexter's Legions: The "Good" Killers of the "Good" War

06.18 Extending the Tradition: Proudly Taking American Torture Into the Future

06.15 New UN Report Denounces America's Human Rights Record

06.14 Fear Rules

Economics & Business Non/Mis/Malfeasance

07.01 Michael Hudson's "Super Imperialism:" The Economic Strategy of Imperial America

06.23 Obama's Financial Reform Proposal - A Stealth Scheme for Global Monetary Control

06.10 Cyberscares About Cyberwars Equal Cybermoney

International

07.01 Pirates of the Mediterranean

06.29 Color Revolutions, Old and New

06.25 Iran Divided & the 'October Suprise'

06.23 Astringent Corrective: AbuKhalil on Iran's Turmoil

06.22 Reviewing F. William Engdahl's "Full Spectrum Dominance: Totalitarian Democracy in the New World Order:" Part I

06.20 Are the Iranian Protests Another US Orchestrated “Color Revolution?”

06.20 Through a Glass Darkly: Sifting Myth and Fact on Iran

06.19 Iran's Election and US - Iranian Elections

06.16 The Ir-Af-Pak War: Obama Looses the Manhunters

06.12 Israeli War Crimes Against Children During Operation Cast Lead

We are a non-profit Internet-only newspaper publication founded in 1973. Your donation is essential to our survival.
Google
This site Web

Public Service Ads:
Verifiable Voting in Maryland