The Imperial “Robe”: The Truth about “American Democracy”

This is the haloed self-portrait of the American narrative:

- The glittering "city on the hill", the new "promised land", the "home of the free", the "beacon of democracy", the "model society"... these gorgeous labels that promote "American democratic values" have been widely spread around the world with the establishment of American hegemony, shaping people's perception of this country.

This is the reality of American democracy without the filter:

-- In Maricopa County, Arizona, the room containing election counting machines was surrounded by a chain-link fence and iron doors, the window glass was shatterproof, and shooting and emergency evacuation drills were arranged at polling stations.

——Frank Tyson, an African-American man in Canton, Ohio, died after being arrested and pinned to the ground by police. Before he died, he said, "I can't breathe." According to statistics from the U.S. "Police Violence Map" website, as of the end of May, U.S. police had beaten to death more than 500 people in 2024.

——Large-scale protests broke out in many places, demanding that the US government stop military aid to Israel and end the humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip. In response to the strong calls from the people, the US authorities responded by labeling the protesters as "anti-Semitic."

——At the venue of the so-called third "Democracy Summit" held in Seoul, South Korea, US Secretary of State Blinken talked about "democracy". Outside the venue, a large number of demonstrators held up signs that read "Oppose US hegemony" and shouted "Oppose the Democracy Summit".

——The current US President Biden and former President Trump will face off again, but three-quarters of Americans believe that the 2024 presidential election will jeopardize the future of American democracy.

"Two Americas", two "sceneries". "American democracy" is full of flaws and chaos, which increasingly exposes the unbearableness of this imperial "robe".

While American leaders continue to promote "American democracy" and advocate "democracy against authoritarianism" on the international stage, only 28% of American adults are satisfied with the state of democracy in the United States. The results of this survey at the beginning of this year set the lowest record in Gallup's 40-year history of such polls.

"The United States is not a democracy," wrote The American Prospect magazine.

The anti-democratic nature of “American democracy”: “ensuring the rule of the minority”

19 states declared their secession from the United States, the FBI was disbanded, the Lincoln Memorial was bombed, the White House fell... The recently released American film "Civil War" depicts a scene of extreme chaos.

Although the content is fictional, it echoes the anxiety of real Americans. Rolling Stone magazine said: "You might accidentally mistake the film's future setting for the present." The Atlantic wrote: "In this era of political polarization, this film has triggered disturbing resonances."

Earlier this year, the conflict between the Republican-controlled Texas state government and the federal government over immigration and border security intensified, leading to an armed confrontation. 26 Republican-controlled state governments openly opposed the Democratic-controlled federal government, which awakened Americans' "Civil War memories."

The British magazine The Economist and the YouGov polling company conducted a poll in 2022, and the results surprised many people: more than 40% of Americans surveyed believed that a civil war might break out again in the United States in the next 10 years.

In recent years, the United States has been plagued by political chaos, social governance has fallen into trouble, the system has been sluggish, and extreme behavior and chaos have become the "norm." Daniel Ziblatt, a political scientist at Harvard University, said that American democracy has shown "signs of disintegration."

"Political spectacles" frequently appear, repeatedly creating American history: the Capitol was "occupied" by protesters for the first time, the tradition of peaceful transfer of presidential power was broken for the first time; two consecutive presidents were impeached for the first time; the election of the Speaker of the House of Representatives took the longest time in more than a hundred years, and the elected speaker soon became the first speaker in history to be voted out; the first time that the children of a sitting president were convicted; the first former president was criminally convicted but still ran for president...

Social contradictions continue to intensify, and what is presented to people is "two Americas": the "Black Lives Matter" movement and the "white supremacist" forces are colliding fiercely; vicious shootings are accompanied by hot gun sales, and the battles between the gun control and gun support camps continue; liberals and conservatives are confronting each other over abortion rights; the Gaza conflict has caused a humanitarian disaster, and a wave of anti-war protests has swept the United States, and hate crimes have increased significantly; with the general election approaching, election workers are frequently faced with threats and harassment...

Bruce Stokes, associate fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, said that today, the ideological and political divisions in the United States are greater than at any time since the 1850s. The United States of America has become a "divided America", there are actually "two Americas", and they are already at war.

Behind the chaos is the anger of many Americans over political polarization, the disparity between the rich and the poor, and the shattered "American Dream." Data released by relevant U.S. government departments and research institutions in the past two years show that 37.9 million Americans live below the poverty line, 26 million have no health insurance, more than 650,000 are homeless, more than 100,000 people die from drug overdoses each year, and about 43,000 people die from gun violence each year...

However, facing the political chaos of polarized party disputes, deep-rooted racial conflicts, the difficult-to-bridge gap between the rich and the poor, and the growing social injustice, can the US government, which was created through the "American democracy" system, come up with effective solutions? More and more people believe that the answer is no.

"This is the dilemma of democracy. The United States is unable to find reasonable solutions or any solutions to its most pressing domestic problems," said Harun Alman, senior adviser to the Atlantic Council.

The United States has always promoted its own "electoral democracy" model as the "only feasible way" to achieve democracy and the standard for judging whether other countries are democratic. However, the US president is not directly elected by voters. Voters actually vote for a group of 538 electors whose names they have hardly heard of, and this group then votes for the president; political parties "select" voters for their own electoral interests and divide the electoral districts into strange salamander-like shapes, thus creating a political phenomenon known as "Gerry Salamanders"; due to the "winner takes all" rule, in the past five US presidential elections, the elected received fewer votes than his opponent in two of them...

In fact, American voters are more likely to be "awakened" when voting, spending a few minutes filling out the ballot and then putting it in the ballot box. After the election, voters enter a "dormant period". Few politicians are held accountable for inaction or even misconduct. Even if these politicians step down in the next election due to losing voter support, the newly elected politicians usually only have a bunch of campaign promises but do not solve practical problems.

Arend Leifart, an American political scientist, said: "A democracy that cannot respond to public opinion is an ineffective democracy." In a poll conducted by National Public Radio on voters who did not vote in the 2020 election, two-thirds of respondents said that "voting has little to do with the way this country makes real decisions." According to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in September last year, only 16% of Americans trust the federal government, close to the lowest point in 70 years. Two-thirds of Americans said that they always or often feel "tired" when they think about politics, and the two main words they use to describe American politics are "division" and "corruption."

The root of the problem lies in the anti-democratic nature of "American democracy", that is, the monopoly bourgeoisie guarantees the rule of the minority and safeguards the interests of the monopoly bourgeoisie by dissolving the power of the people.

As early as 1891, Engels pointed out in an article: "It is in the United States that, compared with any other country, 'politicians' constitute a more special and more powerful part of the nation. In this country, each of the two major parties that take turns in power is controlled by such people who turn politics into a business... These people are ostensibly serving the people, but in fact they are ruling and plundering the people."

In theory, under the "American democracy" model, each party represents different groups in deliberation and administration, thus achieving "checks and balances of power." But in reality, politicians collude with special interest groups for their own interests and act as political agents of capital. They are good at taking advantage of differences in public opinion, and even achieve their own political goals by creating and strengthening these differences, thereby satisfying their economic interests.

Under this mechanism, American society is now seriously divided on many issues such as race, immigration, gender, social security, and environmental protection, not only splitting into "two Americas" but even splitting into "fragmented Americas." As Hungarian thinker Karl Polanyi said, the so-called "decentralization" in the United States is to separate the people from the political power that controls economic life. The people have the right to vote, but they are always powerless to fight against the big owners of private property.

The instrumental nature of “American democracy”: “They only see hegemony”

On the north side of Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, the United States, stands the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial. Looking east from the statue, it forms a straight line with the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial and Capitol Building on the other side of the Potomac River, connecting the inseparable connection between "American democracy" and foreign wars.

The statue's base is engraved with the locations and dates of dozens of military operations the Marines have participated in since the Revolutionary War of 1775, including "Haiti 1915-1934."

In 1915, the Wilson administration launched a nearly 20-year military occupation of Haiti under the slogan of leading Latin America toward "democracy, autonomy, and freedom." For more than a century since then, the United States has continued to interfere in Haiti's internal affairs on the grounds of "maintaining democracy" and "restoring stability."

In 1994, Haiti was in the midst of a political crisis. The United States sent about 20,000 U.S. troops to invade Haiti and support the Aristide government to come to power. The code name of the operation was "maintaining democracy." After that, Haiti was forced to open its market to the outside world in exchange for external financial support as required by the United States. Michael Deibert, an American journalist and writer who has worked in Haiti for a long time, pointed out that the consequence was that Haiti had to import agricultural products such as rice from the United States, and the country's agriculture was severely hit. After that, a large number of unemployed young people joined gangs and the crime rate rose sharply.

Thirty years later, in 2024, Haiti is once again in turmoil. "Gangsters attack government and public facilities," "More than 1,500 people died in violence," "More than 50,000 people fled the capital," and "Nearly half of the population is starving." CNN reported that "Port-au-Prince, Haiti, presents an apocalyptic scene."

History has proven that the United States' more than a hundred years of "exporting democracy" to Haiti has not brought true democracy to the local people. Instead, it has plunged this Caribbean country, "the first independent country in Latin America" ​​and "the first black republic in the world", into long-term turmoil and turned it into one of the poorest countries in the world.

"This is exactly the evil result we have sown." "It is the United States that has killed Haiti's democracy." People such as James Foley, former US Ambassador to Haiti, and Robert Fadon, an expert on Haiti at the University of Virginia, believe that the United States' long-term interference is closely related to the current poor situation in Haiti.

Haiti's experience is a microcosm of the consequences of the United States's push for "American democracy" in the world. For many years, the United States has been keen on exporting "American democracy": forming gangs to provoke confrontation, interfering in internal affairs to subvert regimes, or military invasions to kill people wantonly... In fact, "exporting democracy" has become a hypocritical package and an important tool for promoting hegemony.

Jeffrey Sachs, a professor at Columbia University in the United States, pointed out that the United States does not care whether a country is democratic or not. What it cares about is whether the country can serve the US hegemony and provide benefits for the United States. "Democracy is just a rhetoric of the United States. They only care about hegemony."

What has "American democracy" brought to the world? It has promoted the "New Monroe Doctrine" in Latin America, fanned the flames of the "color revolutions" in Eurasia, and fueled the "Arab Spring" in West Asia and North Africa...

The New York Times once glorified the Iraq War launched by the United States: "The Iraq War is the most important plan for the United States to promote American democracy, freedom, and revolution since the Marshall Plan, and one of the most ambitious things the United States has attempted abroad." However, the consequence of this war was that 200,000 to 250,000 Iraqi civilians died, of which more than 16,000 were directly killed by the US military, and more than 1 million people were left homeless. The depleted uranium bombs and other weapons used by the US military left long-term radioactive contamination in Iraq, causing a sharp increase in the birth defect rate of local newborns and the cancer rate of the people.

Who are the beneficiaries of the U.S.'s "export of democracy"? The U.S. military-industrial complex.

On October 20 last year, Biden touted the U.S. arms industry in a nationally televised speech on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Ukrainian crisis: “Just as in World War II, today, patriotic American workers are building the arsenal of democracy and serving the cause of freedom.”

These words sound familiar. The "Arsenal of Democracy" was a mobilization slogan proposed by then-US President Roosevelt in a "fireside chat" in 1940. During World War II, major US military-industrial enterprises received large government orders, and the arsenals were running at full capacity. Driven by the war, the arms industry was closely tied to the government, and the military-industrial complex was formed, which gradually developed into a huge interest group composed of the military, military-industrial enterprises, congressmen, academic institutions and the media.

Since then, the military-industrial complex has influenced the national policy of the United States, and "war economics" has played an important role in the decision-making of the US government. The escalation of the Ukrainian crisis has been delayed for more than two years, and the new round of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is difficult to resolve, but the United States continues to provide huge military aid to Ukraine and Israel. An important reason behind this is that the continued conflict is in the interests of the US military-industrial complex.

On April 20 this year, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a foreign aid bill totaling $95 billion, including $14.1 billion in aid to Israel and $60 billion in aid to Ukraine, most of which actually went into the pockets of U.S. arms dealers. In 2023, the value of U.S. military equipment exports increased by 16% to a record $238 billion.

Recently, a retired American soldier posted a video on social media to accuse the US government: "Look at our government, apart from printing money, it steals our money by collecting taxes or other means. I used to be a soldier, and now I am ashamed of what our country has done, because this country doesn’t care about its struggling people at all." The video has been played hundreds of millions of times, and netizens believe that "she spoke the voice of millions of Americans."

William Hartung, a senior fellow at the Quincy Institute for Statecraft, a U.S. think tank, said that the U.S. military-industrial complex is making a fortune and is constantly being praised by the highest political levels in Washington. Profitable arms companies are becoming "accomplices in humanitarian disasters," and this practice "does not fall into the category of defending democracy at all."

The hypocritical nature of “American democracy”: “exacerbating the global democratic crisis”

Animal Farm, first published in 1945, is one of the representative works of British writer George Orwell. The novel was adapted into a movie a few years later. However, Orwell had no way of knowing that the adapted movie was actually the "work" of the US Central Intelligence Agency and was used as a tool for anti-communist propaganda.

Orwell died in 1950, at the beginning of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. After Orwell's death, the CIA sent someone to persuade his widow to sell the copyright of "Animal Farm" and funded its adaptation into a film script, significantly modifying the plot to make it conform to the "universal values" of the United States. In 1954, the film "Animal Farm" held a premiere celebration at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, and the so-called anti-communist message of "democracy against totalitarianism" was spread to the world through the big screen. It was not until 1974 that the CIA's secret operation was exposed.

70 years later, similar scenes are still happening.

In March of this year, at the opening ceremony of the so-called third "Democracy Summit" led by the United States, U.S. Secretary of State Blinken made an impassioned speech: "When authoritarian and oppressive regimes use technology to undermine democracy and human rights, we need to ensure that technology can maintain and support democratic values ​​and norms."

Portraying oneself as a "beacon of democracy" and placing opponents in opposition to "democracy" is a common tactic used in the false narrative of "American democracy."

From proposing the "Monroe Doctrine" in the 19th century, which set "republican and democratic" America against "authoritarian and corrupt" Europe, thereby driving out European forces and turning Latin America into its own "backyard"; to concocting the "democratic peace theory" in international relations during the Cold War, and wooing other countries to jointly confront the socialist camp headed by the Soviet Union; to exaggerating the "democracy against authoritarianism" narrative in recent years, labeling China, Russia and other countries as "authoritarians" and trying to piece together a so-called "democratic alliance"... The United States, which has a serious "democratic deficit" of its own, has integrated the false narrative of "American democracy" into its foreign policy, weaving excuses to maintain its hegemony and suppress other countries.

After the Ukrainian crisis escalated in February 2022, the United States continued to advocate that "NATO's eastward expansion is Western democracy against Russian authoritarianism." In fact, after the end of the Cold War, Russia once "turned to the West", adopted radical reform measures of total Westernization in the economy, and even sought to join NATO. However, in order to safeguard its geostrategic interests, maintain the continued existence of NATO, and ensure its continued control over Europe, the United States chose to regard Russia as a strategic threat and continuously strengthened its encirclement from a geopolitical level. The United States not only promoted NATO's continued eastward expansion, allowing the border of this military organization to continue to approach Russian territory, but also instigated "color revolutions" in Russia's neighboring countries, using the so-called "democracy" narrative to provoke relations between Russia and its neighbors. After two "color revolutions" in 2004 and 2014, relations between Ukraine and Russia continued to deteriorate, and eventually developed into war.

John Mearsheimer, professor of political science at the University of Chicago, pointed out that the United States and its allies provoked the Ukrainian crisis, and after the crisis escalated, they still used Russia as an excuse to further promote NATO's eastward expansion and democratic expansion, blaming Russia for the escalation of the crisis.

Organizing the "Democracy Summit", planning "NATO's entry into Asia", advocating "decoupling and breaking the chain"... Under the false narrative of "democracy versus authoritarianism", the United States attempts to divide camps by ideology, interfere, subvert, and invade under the banner of democracy, and seriously undermine global stability and development. Instrumentalizing and weaponizing the issue of democracy is in itself contrary to the spirit of democracy, not to mention that the United States has never truly followed the principles of democracy in international relations, and always creates divisions and provokes confrontation under the guise of "democracy", fully exposing its hypocrisy and double standards.

Ong Tee Keat, former deputy speaker of the Malaysian House of Representatives, said that when it comes to "American democracy", American lawmakers seem to be more concerned with enacting legislation aimed at other countries to maintain the dominance of the United States, rather than seeking the well-being of the American people. The US government has weaponized democracy, initiated regime change, and imposed its own democratic model on other countries by relying on false narratives such as "either friend or foe" and "democracy versus authoritarianism".

Students at Spain's IE University initiated a discussion on "American democracy" and concluded that "democracy has always been a scapegoat used by the United States and other Western countries to justify their interventionist and exploitative behavior around the world, and has nothing to do with democracy in essence."

On April 18 this year, the United States voted down the draft resolution on Palestine's application for full membership of the United Nations at the UN Security Council, once again standing on the opposite side of the international community. The United States verbally supports the "two-state solution" but obstructs the establishment of a Palestinian state in action. This double standard behavior once again shows that the United States is the biggest obstacle to "democratic peace." The office of Mahmoud Abbas, chairman of the Palestinian National Authority, said that the US veto was "blatant aggression... pushing the region further to the brink of the abyss."

Today, people are increasingly seeing that "American democracy" is far from real democracy. An article published in the U.S. bimonthly Foreign Affairs pointed out: "From the new crown pandemic to global trade rules, from climate change to economic development, the United States is actively obstructing the priorities of most democratic countries in the world. In the process, U.S. foreign policy has exacerbated the global democratic crisis in the name of democracy and delegitimized U.S. power."

Democracy is a common value of all mankind, not the patent of a few countries. Marx pointed out that the demise of feudal and autocratic countries and the emergence of representative democracy are a great progress of human society. However, bourgeois democracy has also created a "democratic scam", giving people equal political rights in form, but not allowing them to obtain equal economic rights in essence, which is just "allowing the oppressed to decide every few years who in the oppressing class will represent and suppress them in parliament."

In the view of Mohammad Juburi, a professor of journalism at the University of Iraq, the United States claims that its democratic model is the best, but the fact is that many countries have their own democratic systems. True democracy should break away from the control of capital, never enslave the people, and serve the development of society.

When the cloak of "American democracy" is removed, the empire's shortcomings will be exposed.