President Biden has promised a Summit of Democracies during his first year in office. It will aim to shift his China policy from inconvenient trade disruptions to the high-minded plane of democracy and human rights, rope in the US allies to bolster an otherwise weakening effort and weaponized democracy in a new way. It will no longer be just a pretext for military actions abroad but also make the defence of democracy at home – against ‘Russian interference,’ ‘Chinese propaganda’ and the like – a security issue. Expect bonanzas for the military-industrial complex, particularly its information/disinformation technology companies.
The idea could not have been worse timed: U.S. democracy’s fortunes, sinking for decades now, have sunk to a new low, as the Black Lives Matter protests, the demeaning 2020 U.S. elections, the contestation of its results and the invasion of the Capitol Hill show. No wonder we read in The New York Times that many in Biden’s own administration would prefer to ‘hold a democracy summit at home – one focused on “injustice and inequality” in the United States, including issues like voting rights and disinformation.’
The decay of U.S. democracy is easily outlined. Abraham Lincoln famously defined Democracy as the “rule of the people, by the people and for the people.” How well does U.S. democracy fare by these three standards?
Is U.S. democracy the rule of the people? Wealthy and credentialed elite dominates U.S. elected institutions. A majority of the current Congress members are millionaires and are led by the richest among them. Considering the wealth of many long-serving members, serving in Congress can be lucrative. No wonder resentment against the U.S. political establishment seethed over and carried Trump to the White House.
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