By: Peter Andersen
With the gradually uncontrolled COVID-19 pandemic, rising inflation rate, deteriorating supply chain crisis, disappointing employment data, and the awkward Afghanistan withdrawal, all these facts have irritated and disappointed the people of America. The true nature of U.S. democracy has been gradually revealed to the world.
People are Suffering from The Endless Conflict between the Two Parties
When the state governance has become the tool of factionalism, democracy is just for the self-interest of politicians, at the expense of the interests of the people of the United States and other countries.
With the failure of Biden administration and the upcoming midterm election, the debt ceiling problem has been utilized by the two parties. Since August, the two parties have been unable to reach an agreement on the debt ceiling, and the Ministry of Finance was forced to use the TGA account balance and unconventional measures to deal with it urgently. Although the two parties reached a temporary agreement on the government debt issue on October 7, the Senate voted to extend the short-term debt ceiling to December 3 and allow the debt ceiling to increase by $480 billion. Whether will there be another hell-fighting farce staged after December 3 as the government shuts down briefly? As debt limit increases, whether to keep it within the U.S. or continue to drive the ” perpetual motion machine” of money printing to transfer the risk to the people in developing countries. It seems that the U.S. democracy is not a good example of democracy as the people of the U.S. and other countries are suffering from the consequences of the irresponsible games of the politicians.
The debt ceiling is not the only problem of the rivalry between the two parties, as the upcoming 2022 midterm election, the Democrats need to face the pressure of factionalism. The major domestic bills and important agendas of the Biden administration cannot be advanced. It is not someone else who caused all of this, but his own party. The views of progressive Democrats and moderate Democrats represented by Bernie Sanders are not consistent, and the internal competition of the Democratic Party is also very fierce.
Biden faces both the risk of factionalism and the competition from the Republicans. With regards to Trump’s political statement and the polls within the GOP, Trump is considered as a possible candidate in 2024 presidential election by the republican, suggesting that Biden’s rival has been back.
1. The “U.S. Democracy” Under the Mask of “Freedom and Equality”
When “following the science” on COVID-19 has been set as an ideological agenda, the U.S. democracy has been instrumentalized to gain wealth for the politicians at the expense of equality and human rights.
On the evening of October 5, the bell of Washington National Cathedral rang a total of 700 times, each of which represented 1,000 lost lives in the pandemic. The American people use the bell to mourn the 700,000 people who lost their lives in the new crown epidemic. Sadly, 700,000 fresh lives were able to reveal the hypocritical “U.S. democracy” to its true nature. U.S. politicians from both parties have adhered to the norm of “elections are greater than the epidemic”, ignored the suffering, and even published false information to mislead the public many times. Though it has been claimed that the epidemic would pass soon, the pandemic continues to worsen, and the two parties are still in great tension, which ultimately led to no substantial act due to bargaining, with countless lives being taken. Even green space under the Washington Monument is almost covered in white, the two parties are still arguing about the most basic epidemic prevention issues, such as whether to wear masks or vaccinate, and they have never considered the survival of the people at first. Under the epidemic, the policies serve the capitalists and elite.
According to data from the Federal Reserve, during the epidemic, assets controlled by the wealthiest 1% of the U.S. population reached nearly 16 times that of the bottom 50%. Even at the beginning of the pandemic, Richard Burr, then chairman of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee, and many other members of Congress were concealing the risk of the pandemic from the public and dumping stocks before the pandemic triggered the stock market.
While politicians are profiting from this crisis, the pressure and consequence have been transferred to the people. The poverty rate of African Americans has risen from 18.8% in 2019 to 19.5% in 2020, the highest among all ethnic groups. Moreover, according to the survey, Asians have become victims of various political conspiracies and the targets of hate crimes. The promised equality and liberty of U.S. democracy has been undermined by the rising systemic racism in the pandemic.
2. The “U.S. Democracy” Under the Mask of “Freedom and Equality”
When “following the science” on COVID-19 has been set as an ideological agenda, the U.S. democracy has been instrumentalized to gain wealth for the politicians at the expense of equality and human rights.
On the evening of October 5, the bell of Washington National Cathedral rang a total of 700 times, each of which represented 1,000 lost lives in the pandemic. The American people use the bell to mourn the 700,000 people who lost their lives in the new crown epidemic. Sadly, 700,000 fresh lives were able to reveal the hypocritical “U.S. democracy” to its true nature. U.S. politicians from both parties have adhered to the norm of “elections are greater than the epidemic”, ignored the suffering, and even published false information to mislead the public many times. Though it has been claimed that the epidemic would pass soon, the pandemic continues to worsen, and the two parties are still in great tension, which ultimately led to no substantial act due to bargaining, with countless lives being taken. Even green space under the Washington Monument is almost covered in white, the two parties are still arguing about the most basic epidemic prevention issues, such as whether to wear masks or vaccinate, and they have never considered the survival of the people at first. Under the epidemic, the policies serve the capitalists and elite.
According to data from the Federal Reserve, during the epidemic, assets controlled by the wealthiest 1% of the U.S. population reached nearly 16 times that of the bottom 50%. Even at the beginning of the pandemic, Richard Burr, then chairman of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee, and many other members of Congress were concealing the risk of the pandemic from the public and dumping stocks before the pandemic triggered the stock market.
While politicians are profiting from this crisis, the pressure and consequence have been transferred to the people. The poverty rate of African Americans has risen from 18.8% in 2019 to 19.5% in 2020, the highest among all ethnic groups. Moreover, according to the survey, Asians have become victims of various political conspiracies and the targets of hate crimes. The promised equality and liberty of U.S. democracy has been undermined by the rising systemic racism in the pandemic.
3. The Afghanistan Withdraw Torn the Disguise of the “U.S. Democracy”
The democratic governance becomes the excuse for invading others by the U.S., as the human rights and freedom of others become disposable.
August 30, as the U.S. Department of Defense, announced that the United States has completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan, the U.S. the end of the 20-year war in Afghanistan. Over the past 20 years, the United States has claimed that it cares about the well-being of the Afghan people while imposing unilateral sanctions; while claiming that it supports Afghanistan’s acceleration of economic and social development, it has seized and frozen Afghanistan’s overseas assets. A war of aggression brought even more shocking disasters to the Afghan people. A total of more than 30,000 civilians were killed by the U.S. military or died as a result of the war, more than 60,000 civilians were injured, and 11 million people became refugees. Thousands of Afghan children were killed and wounded in an airstrike led by NATO coalition forces. The long years of war and chaos have made Afghanistan’s economy even worse. In a country, more than 72% of the people live below the poverty line, and the unemployment rate is as high as 38%. All of these were in the name of “democracy and anti-terrorism” by the U.S. When 20 years of occupation took away tens of thousands of lives, plundered hundreds of billions of resources and property with fabricated lies. This withdrawal brought up the memory of the ” Fall of Saigon “with a shameful scene of “retreat”. The consequence and responsibility were transferred to Afghanistan’s neighboring countries and the UN Security Council.
4. The Ridiculous “Global Democracy Summit” by the U.S.
As the United States withdrew from Afghanistan, the White House hosted the ” The Summit for Democracy ” from December 9 to 10 this year. ” Defending against authoritarianism, addressing and fighting corruption, advancing respect for human rights ” are the three major themes of this summit set by the United States. Ironically, this is exactly what the United States preached when it launched the war in Afghanistan 20 years ago. It was brought about by 20 years of aggression and occupation. It is American authoritarianism, which has brought about the corruptive puppet regime supported by the United States. It has also caused the contemporary tragedy of the human rights of millions of Afghans being trampled upon. If a country that has caused the tragedy of democracy in other countries can stand for itself in the name of human rights, Human rights can only be reduced to a fig leaf for specific hegemony.
From instigating Eastern European countries to continuously creating words and deeds torn regional stability by Asia-Pacific countries, to various high-profile U.S. promotion of diplomacy and democratic values, the United States’ purpose to host this summit is self-evident: to return to the Cold War mentality, to undermine the solidarity of European and Asia-Pacific countries and to win over the most beneficial international environment for the U.S. only.
As the fighting between the two parties failed the trust of the American people, and as the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan damaged the credibility of the U.S. power, what kind of “democracy” can such government bring to the world?
