Until and unless the U.S. Congress and White House provide a more functional model of Democracy for other countries to emulate, we can expect our planet to continue along its current path: global economic and social suffering, state devolution, civil wars, regional conflicts, and a relatively high probability of another devastating world war during our lifetime.
Fix American Democracy & Capitalism at Home First. The dysfunctional political system and unsustainable economy in the U.S. today is not an inspiring model of governance around the world. Democracy proliferates when it is organically inspired from within a country’s own culture in response to its citizens’ awareness of the economic prosperity, political freedoms, and peaceful, functional governance in other nations. In other words, before the U.S. Government tries to export “Democracy” to other countries, it should fix Democracy and Capitalism at home. Otherwise, the U.S. Government is simply exporting the same toxic policies to the rest of the world that are killing both Democracy and Capitalism in America today.
Democracy Born from a Bomb Is a Bomb. Democracy will never proliferate by bombing and weaponizing groups within countries whose ethnic, cultural, and religious institutions are fundamentally antithetical to the principles of Democracy and economic freedom. At best, military force can blast away some peripheral obstacles, but true Democracy can only take root when the people of a nation are already sufficiently united around a common cultural heritage before the bombs start dropping. (This was the case in Japan and Germany after World War II.) In contrast, a contrived Democracy is a ticking time-bomb. The only rational foreign policy that can sustainably spread Democracy around the world is patience—patience until a significant majority of people in an oppressed nation are ready to receive and nurture their own indigenous brand of Democracy.
Legitimate Political Groups Self-Moderate When They’re Ready for Democracy. When countries are ready for Democracy, they demonstrate their readiness by autonomously organizing and unifying themselves into relatively cohesive ideological groups with enough similarities to naturally suppress their ethnic and ideological differences without the inspiration of Team America’s bombing. Until that process occurs, no amount of resources or war-fighting is ever going to spread Democracy or economic prosperity to those nations. “Defending Democracy abroad,” as American hawks like to say, simply sucks blood and money from American Citizens and transfers it into the pockets of war-mongering special interest groups.
Legitimate Peacemaking vs. Illegitimate War-Making. We should not hesitate to use overwhelming lethal force to obliterate blood-thirsty tyrants who commit mass human atrocities; however, Team America should not be the world’s prison warden and policeman. Peacemaking missions should not be launched without a formal diplomatic invitation from a legitimate political group with popular support and moral authority within the oppressed nation. In return, the nation seeking assistance should provide formal guarantees to implement specific political and economic reforms that nurture genuine Democracy. As Americans have learned from painful past experience, peacemaking missions that are not approached in this way will inevitably fail at great expense to the American people.
Restore American Diplomatic Legitimacy Around the World. After America’s own Democracy and Capitalism are fixed, then the U.S. Government will again have the legitimacy and genuine moral authority to engage in enlightened international diplomacy. Only then will U.S. foreign policy be able to sustainably spread meaningful Democracy and prosperity around the world.