On Fear and Democracy

Watch the inauguration carefully tonight. And remember, while W. is spending millions on security, there are Iraqi political candidates just hoping to survive until inauguration day, win or lose. Meanwhile in the news, everyone who looks to Iraq sees only chaos and fear...

from India
from the Middle East
from the UK
from CNN

The question is not whether democracy can thrive in such an environment. We should ask what kind of of democracy we will be seeing. The Iraqi people are undoubtedly scared to vote and scared not to vote. In such an environment, every choice will be determined by a fear of the alternative. Bush must be crazy to push ahead with the election, right? Does he realize what he is doing?

The cynic in me says yes. GWB won his re-election by way of creating fear of the alternative. How many times did you hear people say "If Kerry wins, the terrorists will attack more"? Hot-button issues also created anxiety over abortion, same-sex marriage, etc. The Democrats tried to defeat him by making us fear the alternative. "What will this madman do if re-elected?" Kerry never really ran a campaign. He just played on the fears of the other side.

If this is what America calls democracy, then Iraq may be more than ready.