If Men Were Only Angels...

I admit to not blogging much on the site out of disappointment for the American Democracy Project -- for the failure by America's leaders to recognize the importance of establishing governments in the Middle East and elsewhere that promote self-rule (best embodied in the candidates for the Democratic Party's nominees for president), and the failure by the Bush Administration to get this effort right.

As a strong supporter of the Administration's effort to promote democracy globally, but yet a reluctant skeptic about how it has chosen to do it (more on this below), I have turned to books such as Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.'s The Age of Jackson for insight on how the Bush Administration and its intellectual supporters, such as this site, in the future can promote policies that will lead to peace, prosperity, and self-government in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere in the Middle East.

Interestingly, in the closing paragraphs of The Age of Jackson, Schlesinger -- who is widely considered one the great thinkers of American liberalism -- states the following, which would seem to contradict the current worldview by the realist naysayers in the Democratic Party and their strange Paleo-Conservative bedfellows about the Bush Administration's efforts to promote democracy in Iraq:

"The Jacksonian attitude presumes a perpetual tension in society, a doubtful equilibrium, constantly breeding strife and struggle: it is, in essence, a rejection of easy solutions, and for this reason it is not always popular. One of the strongest pressures toward the extremes, whether of socialism or of conservatism, is the security from conflict they are supposed to insure (ed. note a good example of this is outlined here in a review of a book by conservative theorist Russell Kirk). But one may wonder whether a society which eliminated struggle would possess much liberty (or even much stability). Freedom does not last long when bestowed above. It lasts only when it is arrived at competitively, out of the determination of groups which demand it as a general rule in order to increase the opportunities for themselves. To some the picture may not be consoling. But world without conflict is the world of fantasy; and practical attempts to realize society without conflict by confiding power to a single authority have generally resulted in producing a society where the means of suppressing conflict are rapid and efficient.

"'Sometimes it is said that man can not be trusted with the government of himself,' said Jefferson. 'Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him?' 'The unfortunate thing,' adds Pascal, 'is that he who would act the angel acts the brute.' The great tradition of American liberalism regards man as neither brute nor angel."

It's true that conflict is endemic to democracies, particularly democracies in their infancy. Remember the Jacobins of the French Revolution? While the great conservative thinker Edmund Burke in his Reflections on the Revolution in France expressed grave doubts about democracy after witnessing the crude events of the French Revolution, I would encourage the modern leaders of the Democratic Party to follow in the intellectual footsteps of Schlesinger and recognize that matters in Iraq and Afghanistan are not going to be perfect overnight. On the flip-side, the Bush Administration should not have been making statements that American boots on the ground would be viewed as liberators, when there was plenty of social science thinking that tipped us off to the fact that America would not be viewed as liberators inside a predominantly Muslim country. Harvard Professor Samuel Huntington writes in his classic, yet very controversial book, Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order:

"In the post-Cold War world, the most important distinctions among peoples are not ideological, political, or economic. They are cultural . . . People define themselves in terms of ancestry, religion, language, history, values, customs, and institutions. They identify with cultural groups: tribes, ethnic groups, religious communities, nations, and, at the broadest level, civilizations."

As evidence of this, Huntington notes:

"On April 18, 1994, two thousand people rallied in Sarajevo waving the flags of Saudi Arabia and Turkey. By flying those banners, instead of U.N., NATO, or American flags, these Sarajevans identified themselves with their fellow Muslims and told the world who were their real and not-so-real friends."

Perhaps what is needed is a dose of realism by both parties: the Democrats need to recognize that just because there is conflict in Iraq does not mean that progress isn't being made, nor that the citizenry there was better off under Saddam. On the other hand, those of us considered neo-conservatives should realize that men are not angels, and that perhaps Huntington was and is right about the fact that people across the globe are self-identifying with tribal affiliations, and cultural traditions, rather than embracing Western modernity.

Contrast the statements made by Schlesinger in The Age of Jackson to the statements made by some of Schlesinger's modern-day equivalents:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid: "I believe ... that this war [in Iraq] is lost, and this surge is not accomplishing anything, as is shown by the extreme violence in Iraq this week," Reid told journalists last April.

Party Chairman Howard Dean: "President Bush couldn't be more wrong," said Dean. "Last week, our own intelligence agencies reported that after Bush's escalation of the war in Iraq six months ago, violence remains high, sectarian conflict is raging, and the Iraqi government is failing to make political progress. American troops are doing their jobs honorably but it's up to the Iraqis, not the U.S. military, to achieve political progress in Iraq.

"The fact of the matter is the war in Iraq has diverted attention from the real war on terror, making America less safe and giving Al Qaeda time to rebuild. It is time for President Bush and his Republican allies to take a hard look at the situation in Iraq, listen to the will of the American people, and change course. But if they refuse to do so, electing a Democratic President next year will be the only way to end the Republicans' failed Iraq policy."

Senator and Leading Presidential Contender Hillary Clinton: Today President Bush will speak once again to the nation about Iraq. Our message to the President is clear: it is time to begin ending this war. Not next year, not next month, but today. We have heard for years that as the Iraqis stand up, our troops will stand down. Every year we hear about how next year, they may start coming home. Now we are hearing a new version of that very familiar song from the President. He claims that we can, with slight adjustments, stay the course."

It's time for Democrats to actually stand by their namesake and believe in democracy as suggested by the quote from Schlesinger. It may be messy and untidy, but all persons have the right to self-government. The question of course, is what is the proper role of the United States in promoting such an effort. As the bill for the War in Iraq's bill exceeds $200 billion with the next supplemental budget request by the President, perhaps we should ask whether if we had spent that same amount on a campaign to support the peaceful toppling of totalitarian regimes in countries like Iraq, Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea, and elsewhere, whether we would have better success. This is the theory behind this blog's Advisory Board Member Mark Palmer's book, Breaking the Real Axis of Evil, and the ADVANCE Democracy Act (which was inspired by Mark's book) now being considered in Congress. The purpose of the ADVANCE Act, which I co-authored, is to make the State Department's primary mission the support of peaceful efforts to topple totalitarian regimes worldwide by giving them the tools necessary to create a groundswell of popular support: through television ads, underground newspapers, websites, etc.

One of the problems in Iraq, is the United States did not have anybody it could trust when in came time to hand over the reins of government to the Iraqis. By supporting democratic movements across the globe, there will be a natural and inevitable leader to step in and run the country, just as there was in the Czech Republic with Vaclav Havel, and the same is true with Poland and the ascendency of Lech Walesa to the presidency in that country.

If the Democrats want to live up to their namesake and the great traditions of American liberalism, as embodied in Schlesinger's The Age of Jackson, then these candidates would be well-served by advocating the reduction in numbers of totalitarian regimes globally. The ADVANCE Democracy Act is the perfect way for Democrats to live up to their values of support for basic human rights and peace, while promoting America's security.