Dangerous Erosion of Democracy

I've written a lot about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the past few weeks. There are a thousand reasons why it's worthy of interest, study and thought, but my reasons are very specific.

Looking at both Israeli and American politics, I see a real potential for the erosion of democracy and individual liberties. Indeed, it has already begun. For sure, there are many countries across the globe that are much worse. They are ruled by dictators and oppress their people. This is indeed horrible. I choose to focus on Israel and America because both countries are backward-sliding democracies. In a previous post today, I mentioned that a poll done in Israel showed that almost half of respondents thought that Israeli Arabs should be denied voting rights. In America, we don't have to look beyond the USA PATRIOT act to see individual liberties and constitutionally guaranteed freedoms being diminished.

Suggesting that we as a species have learned anything from the Nazi Holocaust is a Pandora's box. To suggest that we learned something important almost seems to justify the fact that it occurred -- and to be honest, we didn't need it to know not to kill people. That rule has been on the books for quite some time. To suggest that we didn't learn anything means that millions died in vain.

I think we did learn something. It's less obvious but far more important than "don't kill people." The catastrophe of the Holocaust was the destruction of German democracy. Everything that followed depended on that (see America's Mortal Danger for more). Everything that Hitler did was legal under German law. He didn't get there overnight, however, but over a period of 6 and a half years as citizens were legally separated into groups and the rights gradually taken away from some of them.

The kicker is that Germany was an enlightened, educated, modern democratic state -- just as America and Israel are today. Every time a new power was given to Hitler, he claimed it was necessary for "national security" and that he would be extremely judicious in the use of power -- words that should sound eerily familiar in that they're coming out of both Israel and America today.

I think it's quite reasonable to say that America and Israel are on what could become a very dangerous path. It's not any particular laws that are being passed, but the accumulation of unchecked power by an elite few government administrators. Whenever this happens, it should immediately ring alarm bells. We cannot tolerate the kind of power that makes it legal for U.S. citizens to be detained without the approval of a judge and without chargees being filed. I don't care whether it's been used or not, the fact that this power exists is a step on the road to catastrophe.

I can't predict what will happen, but I know what is right. The spreading of information is the key. The public is complacent and won't see the danger until it's too late. The German people of the 1930's and 1940's weren't stupid or racist, but everything that occurred happened so gradually that they never got energized to stop it before it was too late.

In the 21st century we need to do better. We need to know not to take our freedoms for granted, and to demand our rights -- all of them, terrorism or no terrorism. In the 21st century, there will be no excuses.