Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Democracy - Wrong Goal
I've been blog-absent for a while now, partly because I do have to pay a mortgage, and partly out of frustration with the failure of the world to quickly adopt my opinion. So - for you 7 regular readers out there - my humble apologies. Back to the fight:
In Afghanistan - our success story in the GWOT - we have a man on trial for his life for converting from Islam to Christianity. Michelle Malkin's blog is covering the story in detail. The democracy we have created there is incompatible with civilization as we know it. This is Article 3 of the Afghan constitution:
In Afghanistan, no law can be contrary to the beliefs and provisions of the sacred religion of Islam.
It is simple - the constitution is secondary - and Imam's decide what is and is not contrary to the provisions of Islam. We have succeeded in scrapping the Taliban as the ruling body. We have not succeeded in standing-up a government compatible with respect for individual liberty.
According to CNN, Tony Blair's imminent speech on the war of ideas with the terrorists will include this:
"This is not a clash between civilizations, it is a clash about civilization," Blair will say in a speech this afternoon, according to extracts released by his official spokesman.
"'We' is not the West. 'We' are as much Muslim as Christian or Jew or Hindu. 'We' are those who believe in religious tolerance, openness to others, to democracy, liberty and human rights administered by secular courts," he will say.
That is fine by me - and I have immense respect for Mr. Blair - but by this standard we have lost in Afghanistan - we enabled the Afghan vote, we helped stand up a government, they have a constitution, and they explicitly reject this view.
At the end of the day what's fundamental about Western civilization is not that we use voting to change governments, but that we agree there are fundamental rights of the individual that are non-negotiable, independent of the government's interests. It's the Bill of Rights that counts. It's not so much about how one changes governments as it is about what governments cannot do.
The principle that the sovereignty of the individual is inviolate can be upheld by a monarch as well as, or even better than, a democracy. Hitler was democratically elected, individual sovereignty declined. Hamas was democratically elected, individual sovereignty declined. Jimmy Carter claims AhWantMyJihad was democratically elected, individual sovereignty has declined.
The greatest force for the spread of the principle of supremacy of individual liberty was the British empire. The British brought along due process and common law, not mandates from the Church of England. There are not a few countries in the Caribbean and Africa where you can find a lot of the citizens willing to tell you in private that things were better before the British left. What happened? They got independence - and democracy - and individual sovereignty declined.
We have a principle that comes ahead of democracy - namely limited government. That is what we need to export first in the war of ideas. A monarch that protects free speech, freedom of religion, and a free press, is far more a natural ally to Western civilization than a freely-elected Islamic state executing apostates. We have the cart in front of the horse.
In Afghanistan - our success story in the GWOT - we have a man on trial for his life for converting from Islam to Christianity. Michelle Malkin's blog is covering the story in detail. The democracy we have created there is incompatible with civilization as we know it. This is Article 3 of the Afghan constitution:
In Afghanistan, no law can be contrary to the beliefs and provisions of the sacred religion of Islam.
It is simple - the constitution is secondary - and Imam's decide what is and is not contrary to the provisions of Islam. We have succeeded in scrapping the Taliban as the ruling body. We have not succeeded in standing-up a government compatible with respect for individual liberty.
According to CNN, Tony Blair's imminent speech on the war of ideas with the terrorists will include this:
"This is not a clash between civilizations, it is a clash about civilization," Blair will say in a speech this afternoon, according to extracts released by his official spokesman.
"'We' is not the West. 'We' are as much Muslim as Christian or Jew or Hindu. 'We' are those who believe in religious tolerance, openness to others, to democracy, liberty and human rights administered by secular courts," he will say.
That is fine by me - and I have immense respect for Mr. Blair - but by this standard we have lost in Afghanistan - we enabled the Afghan vote, we helped stand up a government, they have a constitution, and they explicitly reject this view.
At the end of the day what's fundamental about Western civilization is not that we use voting to change governments, but that we agree there are fundamental rights of the individual that are non-negotiable, independent of the government's interests. It's the Bill of Rights that counts. It's not so much about how one changes governments as it is about what governments cannot do.
The principle that the sovereignty of the individual is inviolate can be upheld by a monarch as well as, or even better than, a democracy. Hitler was democratically elected, individual sovereignty declined. Hamas was democratically elected, individual sovereignty declined. Jimmy Carter claims AhWantMyJihad was democratically elected, individual sovereignty has declined.
The greatest force for the spread of the principle of supremacy of individual liberty was the British empire. The British brought along due process and common law, not mandates from the Church of England. There are not a few countries in the Caribbean and Africa where you can find a lot of the citizens willing to tell you in private that things were better before the British left. What happened? They got independence - and democracy - and individual sovereignty declined.
We have a principle that comes ahead of democracy - namely limited government. That is what we need to export first in the war of ideas. A monarch that protects free speech, freedom of religion, and a free press, is far more a natural ally to Western civilization than a freely-elected Islamic state executing apostates. We have the cart in front of the horse.
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