AN IMPERIAL DEMOCRACY
[Col. Writ. 5/30/02]
by Mumia Abu-Jamal
"Somoza may be a son of a bitch, but he's our son of a bitch!" -- Franklin D. Roosevelt, (on Nicaraguan dictator, Anastasio Somoza) frmr. U.S. President
There is something surreal about George W. Bush crowing to the world about "democracy," "freedom," and building a system "where every vote counts" in socialist Cuba.
There is a place, 90 miles closer than Cuba, where the heralded "freedom" to meaningfully participate in a "democracy .. where every vote counts" is an illusion. We call that place -- Florida. For that deep southern state smothered "democracy" on Election day, as it used its armed state troopers, an intentionally defective computerized list, and obstructive election registrars, to suppress, void and scare off African-American, Haitian and liberal Jewish voters from exercising their "freedom" to vote.
In light of the extraordinary lengths Jeb Bush's Florida went to, to insure the state's electoral votes went to big brother George, there is every reason to believe that the election was stolen. The present head of the U.S. empire is there because of the unwritten rules of dynastic blood succession, not because of a system "where every vote counts."
Nor has the Bush administration (or any other U.S. presidential administration, come to think of it) ever given a tinker's damn about "democracy," at home or abroad.
Consider, if you will, some of the prominent "allies" in the U.S.-declared 'War on Terrorism'; Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Pakistan, Jordan ...; any democracies among them? Can we expect the president to demand "free and open elections," "freedom for political prisoners," or creation of a system "where every vote counts" in any of these nations?
I don't think so.
For these nations, run by princes or by military rule, keep oil flowing to U.S. tanks, and where there is a choice between human rights and oil, oil always triumphs.
Any serious student of U.S. history must recognize that Roosevelt's observation about Nicaragua's dictator, Somoza, could be echoed by every U.S. president, up to the present president. There has not been a brutal dictator in the world who did not enjoy U.S. support, for they served U.S. interests when they suppressed national democratic movements to bow to U.S. big business; Cuba's Batista, Chile's Pinochet, Perus' Fujimori (and his U.S.-trained torture/intelligence chief, Vladimiros Montesinos, who doubled as drug-lord), Zaire's Mobutu, the Shah of Iran, Angola's Savimbi, Indonesia's Suharto, Marcos of the Philippines, Trujillo of the Dominican Republic, Pretoria's Botha, ... you name 'em, the U.S. once claimed 'em. They were all, at one time, "our sons of bitches."
"Freedom," "democracy," "free and fair elections" are just words that have little meaning to an empire built on bombs, bullets, and CIA terrorism. It is but an imperial democracy.
Text © copyright 2002 by Mumia Abu-Jamal.
All rights reserved.
Reprinted by permission of the author.International Action Center
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