The talk from both ends of the political spectrum is that “democracy” will cure the ills of Iraq, Iran, and the surrounding Muslim nations. What if the “liberated” people of Iraq, with their newly acquired right to vote, decide that they want a Taliban-style social and political system whose goal is to defeat the infidel West and impose Sharia law on all Muslims? Democracy in the hands of wild-eyed fanatics is perilous. They will use the democratic process to deny the democratic process once they gain power through the democratic process.
Please don’t misunderstand what I am saying. There are democratic elements in our constitutional system, but these are balanced with courts and elected representatives. Moreover, western-style democratic principles are built on the remnants of a Christian moral order. Self-government under God’s government tempered the potential harmful effects of a pure democracy that could be manipulated by evil men. Attempts to export our political form without the worldview that gives it its heart will lead to unintended consequences. Democracy in the Mideast will only lead to the imposition of the prevailing worldview which is anti-Christian and anti-Western. There will be enough people in Iraq, influenced by Islamo-fascist terrorists who have their own special kind of death wish, especially since we invaded their country, dropped thousands of bombs, and killed who knows how many civilians, who will want to turn America into a burned out cinder. They would love to get the chance to vote in a “democratic election” so they can see their dream realized. In a perverse sort of way, Dr. Strangelove is their operating model. The Iranian president loves the bomb, and he’s not afraid to use it. He was elected in a democratic election.
Our founders did not have a high opinion of majority-rule democracy. The Federalist Papers were popular newspaper articles written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay in defense of the ratification of the Constitution. They described democracies as “spectacles of turbulence and contention,” said to be “incompatible with personal security or the rights of property. . . . In general [they] have been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths.”
Democracies degenerate into exploitation, because rulers discover that if they promise certain benefits to a majority of voters, they can get those voters to put them in power. The voters realize that with their chosen ruler leading the nation, they can pressure him to vote in their best interests by threatening not to vote for him in the next election. Those seeking power through majority rule always vote for the candidate promising the most benefits. The results are certain: Western democracies eventually collapse because the public treasury is milked dry due to greater demands by the majority of voters. The minority of wage earners realize that no matter how hard they work, the fruit of their labor will be confiscated to satisfy the demands of the majority. Social chaos is the result with either anarchy or a dictatorship to follow.
Islamic democracy is twisted since there is no place for dissent. You convert and conform. Dissension, the basis of western democracy, means reeducation, punishment, or death.