Democracy

You hear a lot of talk from Bush about promoting democracy. Democracy promotion is a long standing American tradition that waxes (Kennedy, Carter) and wanes (Nixon) as time goes on. Democracy is such a duh good thing in American culture that even Queen Amidala in the new Star Wars movies is elected, with term limits, which doesn't make her much of a queen if you think about it. Anyway, it's easy to talk about Democracy, but as always, results matter. As you can see the world has made a lot of progress in the 1990's with the fall of the Soviet Bloc and liberalization of Latin America. This process started under Bush I and continued under Clinton. How has Bush II done? Not so well. Iraq and Afganistan are not democracies they are chaosocracies (my new word). Chaos rules not 'Freedom.' The Arab world remains the least free region in the world. Most troubling Russia under Putin seems to be taking a huge step backwards.

The former KGB spy's directive for revamping the way Russia is governed included an end to the direct popular election of governors and a major rearrangment in the rules for selecting members of parliament, already deeply loyal to the Kremlin.

Critics charged the Russian leader was using the bloody outcome of the Beslan school siege to grab more power.

The rules for electing members of parliament are less troubling to me. Different counties use different systems to elect their legislators, it's like the difference between Sweden and Great Britain. The ending of direct election of governors is really troubling. It reminds Political Animal of Imperial policy in Episode IV of Star Wars (Two Star Wars references in one Post!) Things that we worry about in the US, like using terrorist attacks to seize power are now playing out live and in color in Russia. There is a lot of talk about Bush II dealing with his father's legacy in Iraq. But Bush II is in real danger of watching as the greatest achievement of Bush I presidency is destroyed: Democratic Russia.