America’s Irrelevance in the Age of Global Democracy
I’m drinking beers in a smoky basement pub in the city center of Prague, discussing politics with an American I’ve met only a few hours ago. It is the kind of heated debate where voices are raised and faces are getting red. Of course, we are talking about Egypt, and ultimately America, and their role in the current conflict. I feel bad for my new friend, she’s been forced to defend herself, as most Americans are when living or traveling abroad, because my accusation, and that of others at the table, is that Obama must shoulder some of the blame for some of the violence that has been committed in Egypt.
My argument was this. The American government sat on the fence for far too long in deciding to stand up for the pro-democracy movement, and call for Mubarak to step down. Obama’s decision to at first back the regime, than plead with it to reform, not only missed the opportunity to stand up for the ideals of America (and by this I mean liberal democracy), but could also have led directly to the violence. The lack of fortitude on Obama’s part to stand up for democracy must have left Mubarak feeling empowered. His biggest ally, his economic benefactor does not want him to go. “They’ve got the biggest military in the world, why on earth should I step down?” he must have thought. At this point, the government everyone looks towards for approval was still legitimizing him. What would Mubarak have done 5 days ago, if he knew he was alone on the throne? And so yes, when I hear Obama finally decide to call for an immediate transition of power only after violence erupts, I feel strongly that he should shoulder some of the blame for the violence happening in the first place.
My friend sat in opposition to me, and at the risk of misrepresenting her, I’m going to try and explain her arguments; many of which I think speak volumes of where we are in the world and America is today:
- Time. There simply was not enough time to put together an official policy.
- Domestic Problems. Obama is simply stretched to thin domestically, the US is in such chaos this couldn’t be a top priority.
- The Republican Factor. The Republican Party is so strong at the moment, and the people so misinformed, that Obama cannot risk making the wrong move, because the possibility of another Republican presidency is tantamount to disaster.
- No Real Power. Obama simply does not have the power to say what he thinks; he’s just a figurehead for the competing voices inside the White House.
- Damned if you do, Damned if you don’t. The US can no longer be seen to be meddling in the affairs of others.
- Why us? Why should the US have to stand up for other people’s rights?
The first thing I find fascinating about the arguments is the degree of sympathy accorded to Obama. He’s too busy with domestic problems? He’s can’t risk it politically? He doesn’t have any real power? From an outsiders perspective it’s easy to balk: this is the most powerful man in the world! If he doesn’t have the power to stand up for what he believes than who does! But there is some truth to the arguments. The US does have a tremendous amount of domestic problems, all of which undermine the Presidents political power because of their importance to ordinary Americans. And I’m not just talking about the economic burdens, but the press, education, health care and most definitely, the political situation. America is a divided, corrupted, and troubled nation, and the reality is: Obama might not have any of the clout that a real President should. And so I can understand her sympathy in a way. She knows the man has his hands tied, that he is forced to bite his tongue, that to a certain extent he’s become removed from his ideals.
“The United States has been one of the greatest sources of progress that the world has ever known. We were born out of revolution against an empire. We were founded upon the ideal that all are created equal, and we have shed blood and struggled for centuries to give meaning to those words – within our borders, and around the world. We are shaped by every culture, drawn from every end of the Earth, and dedicated to a simple concept: E pluribus unum: “Out of many, one.”
-Barak Obama, Cairo, 2009
But sympathy is about as far as I can go with Obama – it doesn’t cut him loose at all, and it certainly doesn’t dismiss his inaction, or that of his administrations. Regardless of the political situation at home, America is still involved in two wars, and as we’ve seen through the US diplomatic cables leak, they are still intricately involved in the politics of almost every government in the world, including Egypt and Mubarak’s regime. It is impossible to allow the US domestic situation to be the excuse for a President who on one hand is fighting two wars for the supposed purpose of bringing democracy to countries, while on the other hand, supporting a President who has ruled under emergency law for 30 years. The domestic situation might be the reason for this hypocrisy, but it shouldn’t be accepted as the excuse. And so we have to ask ourselves the next question. Why?
Why do we bother listening anymore to what this once great country has to say? If the US political situation is so tenuous as to deem it’s own President irrelevant, than why do we care what he says at all? If the great leader cannot even muster the strength to stand up for it’s own ideals – the ones it’s supposed to be fighting both its wars for – why are we even bothering?
The answer is simple. As I write these words, the US administration is, as reported in the New York Times, “discussing with Egyptian officials a proposal for President Hosni Mubarak to resign immediately and turn over power to a transitional government headed by Vice President Omar Suleiman with the support of the Egyptian military.” Using, as Newsweek put it on December 13th, 2010, “geopolitical muscle like no one else”. If there is one thing the Wikileaks cables presented to the world, it is the amount of influence the United States still wields around the world, and how much the other powers in the world still need their support. And so maybe that is what America has come to encompass; muscle. Governments still look towards the US, not because of the ideal of America, but because of the muscle they still wield.
And if muscle is what the United States now represents, rather than the ideal, than the global civil society needs to check it’s own hypocrisy and stop asking a country that has, for generations now, destroyed and undermined the democratic aspirations of countless people, to back them up. This is the 21st century. Democracy, and civil society with it, is now the force de jour. It’s gone global, connecting the international with the local. It exists on the web, and in the kitchens of dwellings the world over. Even dictators in the Middle East are now in fear of it. Global democracy is growing up, and it needs to start wielding some of it’s own muscle.
My American friend said one other thing that still resonates with me today. She said, we’re living in “dangerously exciting times”. And it’s true, like any coming of age, the future is uncertain, and it is changing. And so, as we watch what is likely to be another American stool put into power in Egypt, I think it’s time the world finally admit the new reality. America still holds the muscle, but the hope it once gave of a democratic future is now what the world offers, and maybe, given America’s own perilous position, it could use some of our ideas.
Well said Brad.