26 January 2006: “With great power comes great responsibility…”

by Laura Mansfield

Spiderman had it right: “With great power comes great responsibility…”

Democracy is great power, but those who advocate and accept the power of democracy must also recognize that it is a double edged sword for those unwilling or unable to handle the responsibility that comes along with it.

And as recent elections in Iran, Iraq, and Palestine have shown, although it makes for great sound bytes, the fact remains that free democratic elections are not always a good idea.

There is no “one size fits all” solution to all the world’s problems.

Democracy isn’t going to work for everyone.

Let’s take yesterday’s elections in Palestine.

Did anyone really think that HAMAS wasn’t going to win?

For two generations, the “Palestinian” people have been bombarded with propaganda teaching them that the destruction of Israel is the solution to all of their problems. While the children in neighboring Israel watch the crew from Sesame Street on Shalom Sesame, the Arabic-speaking children in the region have watched a Mickey Mouse imitation teach them to sing “when I grow up, I will march into Jerusalem as a suicide bomber”.

Democracy by definition allows the people to elect a government to represent their beliefs and interests.

Can we please take our heads out of the sand and recognize that by and large, an overwhelming majority of the people of Palestine believe in the platform of HAMAS. They cheer suicide bombings on a regular basis.

We’re talking about the “country” that has brought us two Intifadas. We’re talking about a people who rejoice when their sons and daughters strap bombs onto their bodies and go into night clubs, markets, and buses and kill themselves and as many others as they can.

We’ve got the same problem in Iraq. Since 1979, we’ve been in various degrees of conflict with a theocratic government in Iran. We depose Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, (Granted, Saddam was certainly a “bad guy” by any definition and he needed to be removed.) We spend 2 years setting the stage for free elections in Iraq. The people of Iraq brave suicide bombers and assassination squads to go to the polls.

Who do they elect? They choose a slate of Shi’ite theocrats that are sympathetic with Iran.

Look at Iran. They held elections last summer. They elected Mahmoud Ahmadezhad, a hawk who seems determined to produce nuclear weapons and start a regional war. This isn’t surprising. The media in Iran has since 1979 spoon fed the people a regular diet of hatred towards the US.

In our idealistic rush to spread democratic freedoms throughout the free world, we forgot something. The key to democratic reforms is EVOLUTION, not REVOLUTION. Slow gradual change usually has better results than sudden rapid change, especially when no replacement exists. Without a viable replacement government, you get a power vacuum.

There is an important and indisputable fact about vacuums. By definition, they suck. And they will suck in whatever happens to be around it until the vacuum is filled.

Democracy cannot be transplanted into a vacuum. Democracy must be planted as a seed, and nurtured by the people who wish to practice it. Only then will those who hold the power have developed the responsibility that must accompany the power in order to avert disaster. Otherwise, you can easily end up with a democratically elected tyrant, determined to wage war on freedoms and liberties.

We have two nations in the Middle East, with democratically elected governments who hate us. We are quickly enabling the creation of a third.

We have a serious problem. We have created a serious problem.