A wake instead
I may have mentioned this recently but I came across a quote the other day that stuck in my mind. “If the US constitution is so brilliant why has no-one else adopted it in the last 250 years?”
I am not even sure if the quote is accurate and surely the US political system has had a great influence elsewhere. But that influence is almost certainly over.
Because off the top of my head I can’t think of anywhere else that has been dumb enough to not prosecute treasonous attempts to overthrow the government. Nor one that allows the political appointment of the most senior judges by whoever is power, then gives them life membership of the Supreme Court, then blocks the appointment of their rival party’s judges for years.
Nor can I think of a country that regularly allows the gerrymandering of electoral districts by racist local governments, allows those states to cancel ongoing elections in order to rig the result better, lets the same local politicians run national elections in a shamelessly biased way, and allows the ruling party to turn the courts and law enforcement agencies on its critics and democratic rivals.
Nor one that allows the head of state to build his own monuments to his glory, accept huge bribes, pardon criminals for money, steal billions for his family, and destroy scientific research and medical progress because of his own dumb opinions. Oh and lets him fight wars, murder people, and betray his country to its enemies, all while blocking enquiries into his paedophile crimes and rape conviction.
Well, when I say I can’t think of a country that does these things, I mean I can’t think of a democracy that does many or even any of these things. I can think of dictatorships and authoritarian countries that do some of them, but even then I am hard pushed to think of one that ticks all the boxes.
Many have some combination of corruption, racism, illegality, electoral fraud, scientific denial, and maybe even sexual perversion at the top, but helping the enemy that has nukes pointed at your home? Not so common.
Only the “great” USA, the city on the hill, the bright shining light for the poor, huddled masses, the world’s first democracy, the only super power in the world, the guarantor of democracy and the rule of law, has all these things.
This week we have seen applicants for top federal legal positions incapable of saying whether Biden won the 2020 election, or whether the attempted coup by Trump was illegal. They apparently have no opinion or knowledge about these matters and will probably get appointed too.
And yet we have come to live with this situation all too quickly, it is the new normal and reversing it seems increasingly impossible and unlikely.
So maybe we should not be celebrating the 250th birthday of the USA.
How about a wake instead?
Such a pity, you almost made it to the big 250, but not quite.
From Jonty Bloom Media Ltd
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.
“the world’s first democracy”.
How many hundreds of years into the 250 before all the blacks and indigenous peoples (well those that had managed to survive) were granted participatory rights in this strange democracy?
There have recently been numerous references to the USA constitution being based on the main provisions of our British Magna Carta. I think that is probably true but we had to modify those terms several times until we eventually had universal suffrage giving voting rights to women and people who did not own property. The purpose was for the Barons (medieval oligarchs) to take away the absolute power of the monarch to abuse their position and to effectively give a tax cut to the wealthy. The USA retained the right for the wealthy to have the last say in extra votes from each state in a unique manner that should have gone years ago. The Barons still have control in the form of excess influence from private and corporate wealth. In the UK, we have controls but they are again under attack and need further tighter control of potential corrupt influence. So we are right to celebrate your 250 years but it doesn't mean we approve the incomplete state of your political democratic development so far.