{"id":360000,"date":"2018-05-06T18:42:47","date_gmt":"2018-05-06T17:42:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=360000"},"modified":"2018-05-20T20:33:20","modified_gmt":"2018-05-20T19:33:20","slug":"russias-v-americas-records-democracy-whistleblowers-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/editorials\/russias-v-americas-records-democracy-whistleblowers-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia’s v. America’s Records on Democracy, and on Whistleblowers’ Safety"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eric Zuesse<\/span><\/p>\n

There are multiple quantitative measures for a given nation\u2019s degree of democracy, in comparison with that of other nations, but perhaps the best is the job-approval that the nation\u2019s citizens give of the head-of-state. On that measure, Russia is far more of a democracy than is the U.S., and is second only to China worldwide.<\/span><\/a> <\/span>On 6 March 2016, the Washington Post<\/i> bannered, \u201cHow to understand Putin\u2019s jaw-droppingly high approval ratings\u201d<\/span><\/a>, and opened, \u201cRussian President Vladimir Putin has an 83 percent approval rating.\u201d It found a way to blame Russian culture for this, because they couldn\u2019t find a way to deny that Putin is extremely favorably viewed by the Russian people, and the WP<\/i> is rabidly against Russia\u2019s Government; so, blaming Russia\u2019s culture (essentially, blaming Russians) for the findings was the best they were able to do. Could Russia be a more democratic nation than America is?<\/span> Could China be the world\u2019s most democratic nation? An ordinary American with a closed mind would simply ignore these data, not even be puzzled by these persistent findings; but the answer is clearly yes \u2014 those countries might<\/i> be more democratic than is America. A person who isn\u2019t willing to consider that possibility would be merely time-wasting to read any further here.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another reasonable way to measure democracy is by how low a percentage of the nation\u2019s citizens are in prison.<\/span> The nation with the world\u2019s highest percentage of its population in prison is the United States. Only tiny Seychelles, whose total population is under 100,000 and which holds other countries\u2019 convicts in its prisons, is technically the worst.<\/span><\/a> U.S. has 693 prisoners per 100,000 population, whereas Seychelles has 799 per 100,000. Second-highest after U.S. was St. Kitts & Nevis, at 607. Third-highest is Turkmenistan, at 583. Fourth-highest, U.S. Virgin Islands, at 542. Fifth-highest, El Salvador, at 541. Sixth-highest, Cuba, 510. Seventh-highest, Guam, 469. Eighth-highest, Russia, 450. None of these countries would, on this measure, be a \u201cdemocracy,\u201d but (other than Seychelles) the U.S. would be the most dictatorial \u2014 a police-state, on this measure, it\u2019s the very worst nation except perhaps Seychelles.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another reasonable way of measuring whether a nation is a democracy is the degree of trust that its citizens have in their government. The 2018 Edelman Trust Barometer showed<\/span><\/a> that 44% of Russians trust their government, and 33% of Americans trust ours. The highest was the 84% of Chinese who trust theirs. 28 nations were ranked: China was #1, Russia #13, U.S. #21. But could China be the world\u2019s most democratic nation? Of course, it could \u2014 not by the same means as some of \u2018the democratic\u2019 nations use, but more authentically democratic than they \u2014 that\u2019s certainly possible. And, as we now see, important data indicate that it is also true.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another reasonable way to measure democracy is by the population\u2019s happiness (and another common phrase for the population\u2019s happiness is \u201cthe general welfare\u201d of the people). <\/span>In Gallup\u2019s World Happiness Report 2018<\/span><\/a>, the U.S. ranked #18, Russia #59, and China #86, out of the 156 countries surveyed. The top 5 nations in order were: Finland, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, and Switzerland. On the happiness measure, those five, at least, certainly are democracies. Are those five the world\u2019s most democratic nations? And, even if they might not<\/i> be, the residents in those countries still could be the most fortunate<\/i> on the planet, because happiness is a goal<\/i> everywhere. By contrast, democracy is usually viewed as being mainly instrumental<\/i> toward achieving the public\u2019s happiness. As the sovereignty clause \u2014 the opening, the Preamble \u2014 in America\u2019s Constitution, says: \u201cWe the People\u00a0of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic\u00a0Tranquility, provide for the common\u00a0defence, promote the general\u00a0Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our\u00a0Posterity, do\u00a0ordain\u00a0and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.\u201d It \u2014 the statement of the Constitution\u2019s goals<\/i> \u2014 says nothing about \u201cdemocracy,\u201d but does mention, as a goal, to \u201cpromote the general Welfare,\u201d and that\u2019s just another way of saying, to promote happiness. The sovereignty clause also mentions \u201cLiberty,\u201d \u201cthe common defence,\u201d and other things, but nowhere does it even so much as mention \u201cdemocracy.\u201d But what the sovereignty clause does say that\u2019s the most important thing of all, is its opening seven words, which name what is the sovereign in this country; and, unlike in just about every other legal system, which identifies some god, or some king, as the sovereign, this Constitution was the world\u2019s first which identifies, instead, \u201cWe the People of the United States\u201d \u2014 the residents<\/i> here \u2014 as being<\/i> the sovereign here. And, in line with that sovereignty, the only happiness that it is at all concerned about is \u201cthe general Welfare\u201d and \u201cour Posterity.\u201d Repudiation of any aristocracy is thus implicit even in our Constitution\u2019s opening. Perhaps America\u2019s Founders equated disempowerment of the aristocracy as constituting what we today commonly think of as being<\/i> \u201cdemocracy.\u201d But if that is what they thought, then this is no longer their country, and this Constitution is no longer America\u2019s Constitution, and that\u2019s just an empirical fact<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Some people would say that a democracy is a nation that trusts its news-media. Trust in Media<\/span><\/a><\/span> is the highest, #1, in China, 71%; and is 42% in #15 U.S.; and is 35% in #20 Russia. (A July 2017 Marist poll<\/span><\/a> however found that only 30% of Americans trust the media. That\u2019s a stunning 12% lower than the Edelman survey found.) In other words: Chinese people experience that what they encounter in their news-media becomes borne-out in retrospect as having been true, but only half of that percentage of Russians experience this; and U.S. scores nearer to Russia than to China on this matter.<\/span> Simply based on the facts, Americans shouldn\u2019t trust the nation’s media at all; the trust-level is unrealistically high in America, but the \u2019news\u2019 media deceive the public to believe otherwise<\/span><\/a> (that Americans trust the media too little,<\/i> instead of too much). (And, then, to top it off, the major media, which had deceived Americans into invading Iraq in 2003, and invading Libya in 2011, etc., allege that the only media which pump fake \u2018news\u2019 are small or \u2018alternative\u2019 ones, and that the major \u2018news\u2019 media \u2014 which clearly did it, when it counted the most and so produced those evil horrendous invasions \u2014 don\u2019t do it, at all. That\u2019s the biggest lie, of all<\/i>, incredibly counter-factual: the lie that the major media aren\u2019t the real and most viciously dangerous problem of fake \u2018news\u2019 in America.)<\/span><\/p>\n

A recent poll of Americans showed that “74% think America is a dictatorship; only 21% think it\u2019s not.\u201d<\/span><\/a> Perhaps Americans are more realistic about the government than about the \u2018news\u2019 media.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although one can reasonably debate the degree to which any nation is a democracy, the United States certainly stands rather low on that factor, and stands well below China, and perhaps is lower than Russia, but none of these countries is among the world\u2019s worst \u2014 except, perhaps, the U.S., for its having the highest percentage of its people in prison. The percentage of the residents who are in prison is probably the best single commonly available measure of the extent to which a given nation isn\u2019t<\/i> a democracy. How could it even conceivably be \u2018the land of the free\u2019 if it\u2019s got the world\u2019s highest percentage of its people behind bars? The very idea that America is a democracy is, thus, simply ludicrous \u2014 on the basis of the data<\/i>. And, the U.S. is, furthermore, the only country in the entire world where the hypothesis that the nation is a democracy was scientifically investigated and analyzed \u2014 and it was found definitely to be false here<\/span><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

Consequently, whenever the U.S. Government condemns some other<\/i> country for its \u2018dictatorship\u2019 or for its mistreatment of journalists, a pot is calling a kettle black, the statement is pure propaganda, unless the U.S. Government simultaneously admits that it\u2019s a dictatorship \u2014 which the U.S. Government certainly is<\/span><\/a> (the only<\/i> nation that has been scientifically proven to be<\/i> a dictatorship<\/span><\/a>).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

Some people say that Russia cannot possibly be more democratic than is the U.S., because in Russia, investigative journalists and whistleblowers are suppressed if not killed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Gary Webb was a great American investigative journalist who was shot dead and the \u2018news\u2019media slammed and basically smeared him. He had exposed a CIA drug-running operation. His murderer was never identified. The \u2018news\u2019media do not honor him.<\/span><\/p>\n

Phillip Marshal was a great American investigative journalist whose entire family (including himself) was shot dead, and this killing stopped his ongoing deep investigation into the people behind the 9\/11 attacks. His murderer(s) was\/were never identified. The \u2018news\u2019media do not honor him.<\/span><\/p>\n

The greatest whistleblowers and investigative journalists are treated by the U.S. Government as mega-criminals: prominent examples of this are Julian Assange, Edward Snowden, and Chelsea Manning. The U.S. Government has now caused Assange to be not only in solitary confinement but held entirely incommunicado, blocked from being able to communicate with the public in any way; his Wikileaks is now incapacitated except as its pre-existing online archive. If that\u2019s not a regime which aspires to spread its dictatorship throughout all countries, then what is? How appropriate, then, is it, that this same Government places the world\u2019s highest percentage of its own citizens into prison? And how appropriate is it that this Government furthermore proclaims itself to be the world\u2019s model of \u2018democracy\u2019<\/span><\/a>?<\/span><\/p>\n

JFK (John Fitzgerald Kennedy) was a U.S. President who started turning against the military-industrial complex and was shot dead in a conspiracy in which Lee Harvey Oswald \u2014 someone who might have been a trigger-man in the assassination \u2014 got framed for the entire operation, as a \u2018lone gunman\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

MLK (Martin Luther King) was America\u2019s greatest orator and ethical leader, and was hated by the bigoted FBI Director, so got shot dead, and the FBI said that a lone gunman James Earl Ray did it, but MLK\u2019s family and supporters believed that the FBI itself did it, perhaps with other government enforcers being involved. <\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, there have been similar mysteries in Russia. Anna Politkovskaya was a great investigative journalist in Russia, who got murdered, but after many trials, no one has been convicted for it. And there are other instances (just as there are in America).<\/span><\/p>\n

Unlike in America, no Russian head-of-state has been assassinated since Tzar Nicholas in 1917, when the communists took over Russia. And unlike JFK, who had the legitimacy of being elected to his post, the Tzar did not. Today\u2019s Russian heads-of-state do have to explain themselves to the public and compete in elections, and none has yet been murdered, such as in the United States. <\/span><\/p>\n

No scientific study has ever been published regarding whether or not Russia is authentically a democracy, nor of whether China is, but there has been one \u2014 and only one \u2014 scientific study of whether the U.S. is a democracy; and it established that, definitely, the U.S. is not<\/i> a democracy. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter once even had the courage and honesty to say as much<\/span><\/a>, but the myth goes on because the \u2018news\u2019 and \u2018history\u2019 about the matter continue to lie, so as to spread the myth \u2014 instead of to spread the news and the history \u2014 regarding this question, about the American Government, and about its stenographic \u2018news\u2019 media. For the U.S. Government to pontificate to the world about \u2018democracy\u2019 is an atrocity, because the U.S. itself definitely isn\u2019t<\/i> one. Americans have simply been deceived. And wherever the public have been deceived, democracy is impossible; only \u2018democracy\u2019 can result.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of\u00a0 They\u2019re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010<\/i><\/span><\/a>,<\/i> and of<\/span> \u00a0<\/i>CHRIST\u2019S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity<\/i><\/span><\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eric Zuesse There are multiple quantitative measures for a given nation\u2019s degree of democracy, in comparison with that of other nations, but perhaps the best is the job-approval that the nation\u2019s citizens give of the head-of-state. On that measure, Russia is far more of a democracy than is the U.S., and is second only to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1254,"featured_media":360001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461,519],"tags":[30,32,96,974,36835,529,541,59,543,524,754,523,49,76,1024],"class_list":{"0":"post-360000","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-editorials","8":"category-newswire","9":"tag-big-brother","10":"tag-cia","11":"tag-cover-up","12":"tag-democracy","13":"tag-dictatorship","14":"tag-fascism","15":"tag-media","16":"tag-military","17":"tag-putin","18":"tag-russia","19":"tag-syria","20":"tag-ukraine","21":"tag-usa-news","22":"tag-warfare","23":"tag-ww3"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1254"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=360000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/360000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/360001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=360000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=360000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=360000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}