Xinhua Agency, Beijing, June 29feature| Empire's "Chinese robe"-the truth about "American democracy"

Xinhua Agency reporter

This is a self-portrait shrouded in the American narrative:

--The shining "City on a Hill", the new "Promised Land","Home of Free People","Lighthouse of Democracy","Society of Model"... 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 truth of American democracy in reality after removing the filter:

--In Maricopa County, Arizona, rooms containing election counting machines were surrounded by barbed wire fences and iron doors, windows were shatter-proof, and shooting and emergency evacuation drills were arranged at polling stations.

--Frank Tyson, an African-American man in Canton, Ohio, died after being arrested by police and pinned to the ground. 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 have killed more than 500 people in 2024.

--Large-scale protests broke out in many places, demanding that the U.S. government stop military assistance to Israel and end the humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip. Faced with strong public calls, the U.S. authorities responded by labeling the protesters "anti-Semitic".

--At the so-called third "Democracy Summit" held in Seoul, South Korea, U.S. Secretary of State Blinken talked a lot about "democracy." Outside the venue, a large number of demonstrators held slogans "Oppose U.S. Hegemony" and shouted "Oppose Democracy Summit."

--Current U.S. President Biden and former President Trump will face off again, but three-quarters of Americans believe that the 2024 presidential election will endanger the future of American democracy.

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"Two Americas", two "landscapes". "American democracy" is full of shortcomings and chaos, increasingly exposing the uneasiness of this imperial "robe".

While U.S. leaders continue to promote "American democracy" and advocate "democracy versus authoritarianism" on the international stage, only 28% of American adults express satisfaction with the democratic situation in the United States. The results of this survey at the beginning of this year set a record for Gallup. The lowest such poll in 40 years.

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

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

Nineteen states declared secession from the United States, the FBI was disbanded, the Lincoln Memorial was bombed, and 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 Americans in reality. The American magazine Rolling Stone said: "You may accidentally mistake the future setting of the film for the present." "In this era of political polarization, the film has a disturbing resonance," The Atlantic wrote.

At the beginning of this year, conflicts between the Republican-controlled government of Texas and the federal government on immigration and border security issues intensified, triggering an armed confrontation at one time. 26 Republican-led state governments openly opposed the Democrat-controlled federal government, which awakened Americans 'former "Civil War memories."

A poll conducted by the British weekly "Economist" and the survey company Public Survey in 2022 surprised many people: more than 40% of the Americans surveyed believed that the United States might have another civil war in the next 10 years.

In recent years, political chaos has emerged in the United States, social governance has been in trouble, systems have been sluggish, and extreme behaviors and chaos have become the "norm." Harvard University political scientist Daniel Ziblatt said American democracy has shown "signs of disintegration."

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

Social conflicts continue to intensify, and what is presented to people is the "two Americas": the "Black Lives Are Lives" movement and the "white supremacy" forces collide fiercely; vicious shootings are accompanied by booming gun sales, and there is constant fighting between gun control and gun ownership camps; liberals and conservatives fight against abortion rights; the Gaza conflict triggered a humanitarian disaster, anti-war protests swept across the United States, and hate crimes increased significantly; The election is approaching, and election workers frequently face threats and harassment...

Bruce Stokes, associate fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, said the United States is now more divided ideologically and politically than at any time since the 1850s. The United States of America has become a "divided nation of the United States", there are actually "two Americas", and they are already at war.

Behind the chaos lies the anger of many Americans at political polarization, the gap between rich and 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 people in the United States live below the poverty line, 26 million people do not have medical insurance, more than 650,000 people are homeless, drug overdoses kill more than 100,000 people a year, Gun violence kills about 43,000 people a year...

However, in the face of polarized political chaos, deep-rooted racial conflicts, the irreconcilable gap between rich and poor, and growing social injustice, can the U.S. government 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 cannot find reasonable solutions, nor can it find any solutions to its most pressing problems." said Harlan Arman, senior adviser to the U.S. Atlantic Council.

The United States has always promoted its own model of "electoral democracy" as the "only feasible way" to achieve democracy and the criterion for judging whether other countries are democratic. However, the President of the United States is not directly elected by voters. Voters actually vote for a group of 538 electors whose name they have hardly heard of, and then vote for the president. Parties "select" voters for their own electoral interests and divide weird districts shaped like salamanders, thus giving rise to the political monster known as "Jerry Salamanders"; Due to rules such as "winner takes all", in two of the past five U.S. presidential elections, the winner received fewer votes than his opponent...

In fact, American voters are more "awakened" when voting, spending a few minutes filling out their ballots and then casting them in the ballot box. After the election, voters enter a "dormant period". Few politicians are held accountable for inaction or even misbehavior. Even if these politicians step down in the next election because they lose voter support, newly elected politicians often only have a bunch of campaign promises but do not solve practical problems.

American political scientist Arend Levat said: "Democracy that cannot respond to public opinion is invalid democracy." In a National Public Radio poll of 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 survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in September last year, only 16% of Americans trust the federal government, close to a 70-year low. Two-thirds of Americans say they always or often feel "exhausted" when they think about politics, and the two main words they use to describe American politics are "division" and "corruption."

The root cause of the problem lies in the anti-democratic nature of "American democracy", that is, the monopoly bourgeoisie, which protects the rule of a few people 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 'politicians' constitute a more special and powerful section of the people than in any other country. In this country, each of the two major political parties that take turns in power is run by people who turn politics into a business... These people ostensibly serve the people, but in fact they rule and plunder the people."

In theory, under the "American democracy" model, each party represents different groups in conducting deliberations and governance, thereby 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 adept at taking advantage of differences in public opinion, and even creating and strengthening these differences to achieve their own political goals, thereby satisfying their economic interests.

Under such a mechanism, American society today has serious opposition on many issues such as race, immigration, gender, social protection, and environmental protection. It has not only been divided into "two Americas," but even broken into "fragmented America." As the Hungarian thinker Carl Polani said, the so-called "decentralization of power" in the United States is to separate the people from the political power that governs economic life. The people have the right to vote, but they are always unable to resist the big owners of private property.

The instrumental nature of "American democracy":"There is only hegemony in their eyes"

On the north side of Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, USA, lies the U.S. Marine Corps War Memorial Statue. Looking east from the statue, it forms a straight line with the three landmarks across the Potomac River: the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial and the Capitol, connecting the indissoluble connection between "American democracy" and foreign wars.

The base of the statue is engraved with the locations and dates of dozens of military operations the Marine Corps participated in since the War of Independence in 1775, including "Haiti 1915-1934."

In 1915, the Wilson government began its nearly 20-year military occupation of Haiti under the slogan of leading Latin America towards "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 deep political crisis. The United States sent about 20,000 U.S. troops to invade Haiti and put Aristide's government to power. The operation code name was "Maintaining Democracy." Since then, Haiti has been forced to open its markets to the outside world in accordance with U.S. requirements in exchange for external financial support. Michael Debert, an American journalist and writer who has worked in Haiti for a long time, pointed out that the result was that Haiti had to import rice and other agricultural products from the United States, and its agriculture was severely hit. Since then, a large number of unemployed young people have joined gangs, and the crime rate has risen sharply.

Thirty years later, in 2024, the situation in Haiti is once again in turmoil. "Gangsters attacked government and public facilities""More than 1500 people were killed in violence""More than 50,000 people fled the capital""Nearly half of the population fell into famine"... CNN reported that "Haiti Port-au-Prince presents a scene of the end of the world."

History has proved that the United States 'century-long "export of democracy" operation to Haiti did not bring true democracy to the local people. Instead, it caused the Caribbean country as "the first independent country in Latin America" and "the world's first black republic" to fall into long-term turmoil and become one of the poorest countries in the world.

"This is the evil consequence we planted." "It was the United States that killed democracy in Haiti." James Foley, former U.S. ambassador to Haiti, and Robert Fadon, a Haiti expert at the University of Virginia, all believe that the long-term U.S. interference is closely related to the current bad situation in Haiti.

What happened to Haiti is a microcosm of the consequences of the United States 'strong promotion of "American democracy" in the world. Over the years, the United States has been keen on exporting "American democracy": either forming gangs to incite confrontation, interfering in internal affairs to subvert political power, or militarily invading and wantonly killing... In fact,"exporting democracy" has become a hypocritical packaging and important tool for promoting hegemony.

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

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

The New York Times once beautified the Iraq War launched by the United States: "The Iraq War is the most important plan of the United States to promote American democracy, freedom, and revolution since the Marshall Plan. It is one of the most magnificent things the United States has attempted abroad." However, the consequences of this war were the deaths of 200,000 to 250,000 Iraq civilians, of which more than 16,000 were directly killed by the US military and more than 1 million were homeless. Weapons such as depleted uranium bombs used by the US military have left long-term harmful radioactive contamination in Iraq, resulting in a significant increase in the local neonatal birth defect rate and the public's cancer rate.

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

On October 20 last year, Biden touted the U.S. military industry in a nationally televised speech on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the Ukraine crisis: "Just as in World War II, today patriotic American workers are building an arsenal of democracy that serves the cause of freedom."

These words seem familiar. "Democratic Arsenal" was a mobilization slogan put forward by then-US President Roosevelt in his "Fireside Talk" in 1940. During World War II, all major military industrial enterprises in the United States received large government orders, and the arsenals were at full capacity to produce. Driven by the war, the arms industry was closely tied to the government, resulting in the formation of the military-industrial complex and gradually developed into a huge interest group composed of the military, military enterprises, members of Congress, academic institutions and the media.

Since then, the military-industrial complex has influenced U.S. national policy, and "war economics" plays an important role in the U.S. government's decision-making. The escalation of the crisis in Ukraine has lasted for more than two years. The new round of Palestinian-Israeli conflict has been deadlocked. However, the United States continues to provide huge amounts of military assistance to Ukraine and Israel. An important reason behind this is that the ongoing conflict is in the interest of the U.S. military-industrial complex.

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

Recently, an American veteran posted a video on social media accusing the U.S. government: "Look at our government. In addition to printing money, it relies on taxes or other means to steal our money. I used to be a soldier, and I am now ashamed of what our country has done because this country doesn't care about its struggling people." The video has been viewed hundreds of millions of times, and netizens believe that "she speaks the hearts of millions of Americans."

William Harton, a senior researcher at the Quincy Institute for Governance Strategies, an American think tank, said that the U.S. military-industrial complex has made a fortune and has been continuously "praised" by the highest political levels in Washington. Profiting arms companies are becoming "complicit in a humanitarian disaster", a practice that "does not fall within the scope of defending democracy."

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 film was actually a "work" of the CIA and was used as a tool of 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 people to persuade his widow to sell the rights to "Animal Farm" and funded its adaptation into a screenplay that significantly revised the storyline to conform to the "universal values" of the United States. In 1954, the movie "Animal Farm" held its premiere celebration at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. The so-called anti-communist message of "democracy versus totalitarianism" spread to the world through the big screen. It was not until 1974 that the CIA's secret operation was exposed.

Seventy years later, similar scenes are still being played out.

In March 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 a vigorous statement: "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."

Shaping oneself as a "beacon of democracy" and putting opponents on the opposite side of "democracy" is a common technique used in the false narrative of "American democracy".

From the introduction of the "Monroe Doctrine" in the 19th century, which opposed "republican and democratic" America against "authoritarian and decadent" Europe, thereby driving away European forces and turning Latin America into its "backyard"; to the Cold War During the period, he concocted the "democratic peace theory" in international relations to win over other countries to jointly confront the socialist camp led by the Soviet Union; In recent years, the narrative of "democracy versus authoritarianism" has been exaggerated, labeling China, Russia and other countries as "authoritarianism", and trying to piece together the so-called "democratic alliance"... The United States, which has a serious "democratic deficit" of its own, has used "American democracy" The false narrative runs through foreign policy, weaving excuses for maintaining hegemony and suppressing other countries.

After the escalation of the crisis in Ukraine in February 2022, the United States continued to advocate that "NATO's eastward expansion is Western democracy's confrontation with Russian authoritarianism." In fact, after the end of the Cold War, Russia once "turned to the West", adopted radical economic reform measures to completely Westernize, and even sought to join NATO. However, in order to safeguard its geostrategic interests, maintain the continued existence of NATO, and ensure continued control of Europe, the United States chose to regard Russia as a strategic threat and continuously strengthened its encirclement from the geographical level. The United States not only promotes NATO's continued eastward expansion, bringing the border of this military organization closer to Russian territory, but also instigates "color revolutions" in Russia's neighboring countries, using the so-called "democratic" narrative to sow discord 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 military confrontation.

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

Organizing a "democracy summit", planning "NATO's entry into Asia", advocating "decoupling and breaking links"... Under the false narrative of "democracy versus authoritarianism", the United States attempts to divide camps by ideology and use the banner of democracy to interfere, subvert, and invade seriously undermine global stability and development. Institutionalizing and weaponizing democratic issues is in itself contrary to the spirit of democracy. Not to mention that the United States has never truly followed democratic principles in international relations. It always creates divisions and incites confrontation under the guise of "democracy", fully exposing its hypocrisy and double standards.

Ong Sijie, former deputy speaker of the House of Commons of Malaysia, said that when talking about "American democracy," American lawmakers seem to be more concerned about enacting legislation aimed at other countries to maintain the dominant position of the United States rather than seeking benefits for the American people. Relying on false narratives such as "either friend or enemy" and "democracy versus authoritarianism", the U.S. government weaponizes democracy, initiates regime change, and imposes its own democratic model on other countries.

Students at IE University in Spain initiated a discussion on "American democracy" and concluded: "Democracy has always been the scapegoat for the United States and other Western countries to defend their interventionism and exploitative behavior on a global scale, and is essentially irrelevant to democracy."

On April 18 this year, the United States voted in the United Nations Security Council to veto the draft resolution on Palestine's application to become a full member of the United Nations, once again standing on the opposite side of the international community. The United States supports the "two-state solution" in lip service but blocks 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 Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the U.S. veto was a "blatant aggression... pushing the region further to the brink of the abyss."

Nowadays, people are becoming increasingly clear that "American democracy" is far from true democracy. An article published in the bimonthly magazine "Foreign Affairs" pointed out: "From the COVID-19 pandemic to global trade rules, from climate change to economic development, the United States is actively obstructing the priorities of most democracies in the world. In the process, U.S. foreign policy has exacerbated the global democratic crisis in the name of democracy and deprived U.S. power of legitimacy."

Democracy is a common value for all mankind, not the exclusive preserve of a few countries. Marx pointed out that the demise of feudal and autocratic states and the emergence of representative democracy were a great progress in human society. However, bourgeois democracy has also created a "democratic scam" that gives people formal equal political rights but does not allow them to obtain substantive equal economic rights. It only "allows the oppressed to decide every few years who member of the oppressive class should represent and suppress them in parliament."

According to Mohammed Jubri, a professor of journalism at the University of Iraq, the United States boasts that its democratic model is the best, but the fact is that many countries have their own democratic systems. True democracy should get rid of the control of capital, never enslave people, and serve the development of society.

When the glory of "American democracy" recedes, there will be no way to hide the unbearable empire. (Written reporters: Liu Si, Zhu Ruiqing, Liu Pinran, Sun Ding, Liu Jian; participating reporters: Liu Yanan, Chen Haoquan, Wang Zhiying)