Democracy is not the answer. Protecting human rights is.

 Why all this hype about democracy?  It is a profoundly flawed human invention.  There is still no agreed-upon definition.  Our ‘democratic’ republic was founded by creating a constitution with a majority vote that ignored the very ‘self-evident’ truth that brought those delegates together.   A great compromise that resulted in a civil war that killed more Americans than all the wars we’ve fought in since then combined.  Another majority vote landed us a Vietnam quagmire that should have never been started.  Then a four decades later a 20-year war in Afghanistan that could never be won.  And two years into that quagmire started a war in Iraq that should have never happened but lasted 8 years.

And now, we appear to be on the verge of another civil war.  Americans are increasingly angry, divided, and even lethally hostile.   No wonder.  Democratic elections over the last 250 years have not achieved a single goal stated in the Constitution’s preamble.   Our Union is less perfect each day.  Rioting is over a lack of justice was predictable.  Gun sales and threats of violence against teachers, school boards, election officials, and even political leaders are growing.   Most voters in both parties are increasingly worried about the future.  They can’t even agree on basic science or what our children should be taught in school regarding history our checkered history.   Democracy depends on educated voters.  But few actually do what their body needs to be healthy or what nature needs to be sustainable beyond the next election.   

Even if the United Nations were a democracy, it could not stop a US war with China if it invades Taiwan or a war with Russia if Putin invades Ukraine.   

Dozens of historical quotes by wise souls going back thousands of years insist that democracy doesn’t work.  A ‘Democracy Summit’ won’t change that.  One thing could.  But that would take all the world’s governments agreeing to make the protection of human rights and nature their highest priority.  Thomas Paine’s pamphlet “Common Sense” stated that the only legitimate reason for any government was protecting human freedom and security.   Instead.  Nearly every national government in the world protects its sovereignty.   And US elected officials swear to protect the Constitution falsely believing it can protect both our freedoms and our security.  That’s not possible with Covid variants, extreme weather conditions, cyber hacks, economic instability, and supply chain disruptions that cannot be stopped at our nation's borders.  National sovereignty is yet another profoundly flawed human invention that offers us no sustainable security.   And these inevitable threats will continue to challenge our desire for freedom.  Freedom cannot be maintained without responsibility of our actions individually and globally.    

Yesterday was the anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  It was created after the horrific global misery of a world war, a genocide, and the invention of a new weapon that could vaporize 100,000 people in a flash.   Its intention was to address the root causes of war. But our democracy has chosen to ignore it.    And now we are ignoring the next best thing that all nations have agreed on.  Achieving the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals by the year 2030.  This could be done with the trillions of dollars locked in offshore accounts by kleptocrats, oligarchs, crime cartels, violent extremists groups, and filthy rich capitalists avoiding taxes.  Offshore accounts hiding corruption allowed by democracies (including ours).  Corruption that has helped fuel distrust in democratic rule.

The primary reason democracies are losing favor in the world isn’t because non-democratic nations use social media to spreading misinformation.  It’s because democratic nations have failed in protecting their own citizens from the lethal and accelerating global forces of climate change, evolving pathogens, refugee flows, and unregulated global capitalism.  Populism fueled by legitimate fears favor the support of strong-handed leaders.   Democracies are slower to respond to these troubling changes.  And the US Constitution was designed to work slow...if it works at all.  And it has been our love of democracy that makes it virtually impossible to change.

The alternative is ‘the rule of law”.  Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy once offered its best working definition.  During a C-Span interview with an international audience in the late 1990s he was asked ‘What makes the “rule of law” most effective?’   He said he believed ‘it required “three essential” elements to work best’.  Today he might say sustainably.

“First” the “laws need to be made and enforced by a democratic process”.  People want to participate in the rules they live under.  But, he warned that this was “not enough!”  

“Second”, he said “the laws” must be “applied equally to everyone”.  The principle of justice is universal (as the Golden Rule).   But even that wouldn’t be enough if everyone was mistreated equally.  

Last, he said, “the laws must be protective of a certain set of inalienable rights”.  Rights that we have just because we’re born.  Not because of any characteristics we are born with (skin color, sex…) or into (ethnic group, economic group, nationality, religion…).

Humanities' simple choice isn’t between democracy or dictatorship.  It’s between the rule of law or the law of the jungle.  A jungle we now call national sovereignty where the law of force continues to reign supreme.