Democracy, the American Way

[unhappycamper]

http://watchingamerica.com/News/231660/democracy-the-american-way/

Democracy, the American Way
Al Arab Al Yawm, Jordan
By Dr. Amer Sabaileh
Translated By Kristine Anderson
28 January 2014
Edited by Gillian Palmer

Do Arabs have the right to dream of a democracy that transcends doctrinal divisions, sectarian partisanship, and geographical conflicts or cracks in the vertical-society system, among which is horizontalism?

Since the fall of Iraq, it has become clear that the example of Yugoslavia forms the largest concern and basic incentive for projects based on the model of U.S. democracy. Perhaps, what we most need today is to stand together and face the mechanisms of destruction that no longer serve any region, nation, sect or family.

What sort of democracy are we speaking of, as the prospects of religious and racial divisions haunt us? And, what sort of political result are we speaking of, when we are forced to request a DNA test certificate to determine the nature of our dealings with people and places? Have we fallen into the trap of false democracy? Democracy is a cultural behavior, resulting from cumulative consciousness and the sum of positive and negative experiences. However, the kind of democracy that is not guided by an ideological compass, in short, further roots a state of civil war, liable to explode at any instant for the smallest of reasons.

~snip~

Europeans consider ideology to be the most important factor in forming political parties that are capable of administering the democratic system. However, Americans remain insistent on a policy of leveling and simplification, dividing society into numerous components on the basis of geography, race, religious sect and doctrine.