For years, Americans have been taught to believe that Democracy is the supreme form of government. If only, the thinking goes, all countries were governed through American- style democracy, all the world’s problems would be solved.
One famous adherent of this philosophy was George W. Bush, whose Freedom Agenda sought to establish and strengthen Democracy throughout the world, no matter what positions the leaders of those countries represented.
But Democracy has its weaknesses. Taken to its conclusion, the Freedom Agenda’s simplistic philosophy would lead us to the absurd position of supporting democratically elected governments whose stated goals are the destruction of other democratically elected governments.
The Hamas government in Gaza is a good example. In 2006 Gazan inhabitants, in an election deemed free and fair by Western observers, voted Hamas into office. Hamas’ platform called for the destruction of their democratic neighbor, Israel, along with the murder and subjugation of Jews and Christians worldwide for good measure. Believers in the Democratic system above all would need to support their government.
In 1933, Germany’s democratically elected president, Paul Von Hindenberg, appointed Adolph Hitler, the leader of the National German Workers’ Socialist Party, to the position of German Chancellor. In 1934, by a huge majority, Germans voted to consolidate the positions of President and Chancellor under Hitler. Democracy is clearly not always the answer.
Our form of Democracy has internal weaknesses as well. It relies on the goodwill and shared values of its citizenry. John Adams, the second president of the United States and one of the staunchest and most articulate advocates of government by the people, perhaps put it best. In a 1798 letter to the Massachusetts Militia, he wrote, “We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion.”
That one line neatly encapsulates democracy’s greatest vulnerability. It is premised on the assumption that people are moral, through religious teachings or through their own internal guidance. However, it doesn’t always work out as our Founding Fathers envisioned.
Modern morality is often self-serving and dangerously critical of the opinions and beliefs of others. And today’s religious interpretations are very different from the way they were viewed in the past. Some versions are inherently intolerant and extremist. Yet, our government still abides by laws based on Adams’ vision.
Under Democracy’s greatest ideals, freedom to live life as you want and free expression for all, we have permitted almost unvetted immigration for years, both legal and illegal, assuming that new immigrants will naturally embrace our way of life. All too often, they don’t. Certain religions are based on the view that bigotry is a religious imperative and tolerance toward others is heretical.
Yet, we don’t even attempt to teach potential citizens the underpinnings of our Constitution, and we don’t vet them based on the likelihood of their adherence to our ideals. Questions on our naturalization exams only ask applicants about the workings of American-style democracy, but ask nothing about what it's based on.
Enemies of Democracy have become experts in using our own outdated laws as a cudgel to dismantle the freedoms that they were enacted to protect.
Recently, campus protests featured participants calling to globalize the intifada. This chant encouraging the murder of Jewish-American citizens went unchallenged by many University presidents as expressions of free speech. Some supported the protests; others felt powerless to prevent them. Yet, these universities are supported by our government through research grants, student loans and material support.
Advocacy groups such as CAIR, an organization that bills itself as the largest Muslim advocacy group in America, press for Sharia law to be practiced in the United States. Although held up by CAIR as a “personal, religious and moral path” for Muslims, Sharia law has a dark side, not publicized by its advocates. One of Sharia’s principles is dhimmitude, the belief in a Muslim-superior society where followers of other religions are either deemed second-class citizens or heretical.
Thus, with our encouragement, they use our deeply held free speech principles to promote the undermining of the Constitution to Congress and to the public. Our convoluted system awards their perfidy with tax-exempt status.
Democracy may be the best method of People-governance yet developed, but in order to remain relevant, it can’t be stagnant. Today, we are confronting threats that Adams and his illustrious colleagues never envisioned, and we need to develop laws to protect ourselves. We need to exclude those from without who want to supplant our principles of tolerance with their version of morality and to stop encouraging those from within from undermining the basis upon which our Constitution was developed. Otherwise, we risk becoming the theocracy that our Founding Fathers despised.
Rabbi Moshe Parnes is the Southern Regional Vice President of Coalition for Jewish Values
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