U.S. in no position to give lectures on democracy

(Cartoon by Lu Lingxing)

On Dec. 9, the U.S. will hold its so-called “democracy summit.” However, the international community generally believes that the U.S. has lost the “moral high ground” in sharing its “democratic experience” with the world.

A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in June 2021 indicated that in Germany, only 14 percent of the respondents thought that U.S. democracy was worth learning from, and surveys conducted in France, the U.K., South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand all showed similar results. The Washington Post pointed out that American democracy has collapsed in the eyes of the U.S.’ allies, and has now become a thing of the past.

Analyses showed that the Capitol riot that took place at the beginning of 2021 marked the bursting of the bubble of the myth of American democracy. Refusing to accept the results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, violent demonstrators stormed the Capitol, which is seen as a cornerstone of U.S. democracy, breaking through a door to get into the Capitol and trampling on its sign.

After the Capitol riot, former U.S. President Donald Trump was banned from U.S. social media platforms. Richard Nathan Haass, who is president of the Council on Foreign Relations of the U.S., pointed out that after the farce, America was no longer “a shining city on the hill.”

Bad apples come from rotten trees. The Capitol riot was more like a symptom of dysfunction in American democracy than the reason for its collapse.

Democracy is not lip service; it is about solving the concerns of the people. In the U.S., the number of confirmed deaths from COVID-19 has surpassed the number of Americans who died in any war launched or engaged in by the U.S. in its history; ethnic minority groups face racial discrimination in education, employment and healthcare; tens of thousands of Americans die from gun violence each year; migrant children are kept in small rooms under U.S. border custody at the U.S.-Mexico border. A poll has indicated that more than 80 percent of Americans are dissatisfied with the democratic situation in the U.S.

The practice of American politicians-- doing their best to woo voters during elections while neglecting their needs after they win elections-- shows that American democracy is just an unattainable illusion. In 1988, George H. W. Bush, the vice president of the U.S. and a candidate for the country’s presidential race, made a commitment not to levy more new taxes. Just two years after he took office as U.S. president, he admitted that his government would take a series of measures to restore the U.S. economy, including tax increases.

George H.W. Bush was not the only American president to have made unrealistic commitments in order to win elections while selectively turning a blind eye to their commitments after they became U.S. presidents.

Statistics indicated that Barack Obama made 533 campaign commitments, but only fulfilled 48 percent of them, while Donald Trump fulfilled only 21 percent of his. The voters were cherished and given attention only during presidential elections. After that, nobody cared about what they needed.

When he was a presidential candidate, U.S. President Joe Biden said he would offer “unity and healing” and called for a moderate approach toward reviving the U.S. economy, but according to U.S. media outlets, Biden is now taking an aggressive approach. According to The Hill, a U.S. political website, by making this 180-degree turn in his attitude toward campaign commitments during the presidential campaign and after he became the U.S. president made the U.S. government more untrustworthy in the eyes of the general public.

The fact is that U.S. politics has become polarized; American society has been torn apart, and the U.S. government is incapable of managing the country’s domestic affairs properly. U.S. media outlets pointed out that whatever party is in power, their reaction to the needs of the country and the people is causing anger, hostility, hatred and cynicism.

U.S. democracy is full of loopholes, but it continues to mock countries that find a democratic model that is suitable for them. U.S. democracy is hypocritical, has failed to function properly, is decaying, and is full of lies and formalism. It is not the model from which the world can learn.

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U.S. ‘democracy summit’ actually seeks to divide countries in the name of democracy