Knowledge Key to Democracy

The Bush administration maintains with its original fervor that the best strategy to uproot the insurgency in Iraq is to establish a firm democratic government. Somehow, through his repetitive and insipid rhetoric, President George W. Bush has raised a rather interesting question concerning the very nature of the insurgency's offensive and, inversely, democracy's role in Iraq's future. Despite the intrigue, the president has resolved himself to the pursuit of an impossibility.

Analysts have criticized Bush's approach as being simplistic and lacking the foresight to understand the true complexities of the issue, though one would have to adopt a doctrine of utter pessimism in order to believe the war in Iraq could possibly get more complex. As far as the democracy-insurgency dichotomy goes, one need only understand the circumstances of the recent referendum concerning the Iraqi Constitution. Insofar as this, the president has chosen to pursue the goals of Iraq's future in a faulty order.

It seems far-fetched - to say the least - that democracy in Iraq will end the insurgency. Rather, ending the insurgency is a necessary step to procuring a democratic government. The Iraqi Constitution referendum went well only in that it was uneventful. The dilemma presented to Iraqis was whether or not they approved of the drafted constitution. Their ballots consisted of two possible answers, "yes" or "no." A prerequisite for casting a meaningful ballot, one would imagine, would be having read the constitution - something only half of the Iraqi voters actually did, according to Jonathan Morrow, a constitutional advisor for the U.S. Institute for Peace.

There seems to be something of a general consensus that democracy is a positive step for Iraq, yet nothing good will come by implementing it haphazardly. The notion that democratic elections will end violent conflict in Iraq is a delusion the Bush administration has cast upon the nation time and time again.

There is, however, another reason for concern regarding the referendum. A central precept of democracy is that the voting body must have a thorough understanding of who or what it is voting for. An ignorant body politic in search of democracy defeats itself. Voters without a substantive body of knowledge become susceptible to manipulation. Elections are then subsequently won, not by those who represent the voters' interests, but by those with the power and willingness to manipulate. In his book "What's The Matter With Kansas?," Thomas Frank points out that the poor are often fooled into voting for candidates whose policy is disproportionately advantageous to the wealthy. This is hardly the extent of it. Prior to the 2004 presidential election, a GOP propaganda campaign distributed leaflets in mailboxes claiming the liberal agenda included banning bibles. Unfortunately, the poor who work several jobs to make ends meet usually don't find time to read the op-eds.

It seems absurd to think a nation that has dedicated itself to spreading democracy throughout the world has an internal democratic system that functions primarily through deception and misinformation. Yet the very crown of democratic dishevelment comes when the legitimate government that has propped itself up on political power - hoisted and counterbalanced by the misinformation of the masses - begins to implode under the weight of scandal.

Karl Rove and I. Lewis Libby have propagated a legacy as governmental strong-arms overturning the traditional mode of debate and replacing it with threats aimed at dissenters. While the investigation is still in progress, the culprits responsible for endangering Valerie Plame are coming more and more into focus. A recently issued indictment of Tom DeLay will hopefully put an end to his sub rosa business practices. The Citizens for Responsible Ethics in Washington (CREW) have launched an inquiry into the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) seeking information concerning "lobbying fees" paid to Jack Abramoff and his associates including DeLay and former Administration Procurement Chief David Safavian. Conservatives managed to keep their noses clean for the November 2004 elections, but sometime since, political news became court TV.

Thomas Jefferson once observed, "Information is the currency of democracy." This is a reminder that without information and awareness, America will inevitably be conquered - not by invaders, but by over-zealous patriots and corporate behemoths seeking to institutionalize an apparent democratic rule harboring an underlying ideological control. The right to vote is a mandate for political self-awareness. Those who allow themselves to reside in perpetual ignorance are taken advantage of. The underlying rationale for democracy is that rulers adhere to the needs of the highest number of people possible. In this sense, a democratic election is nothing more than the body politic identifying their own interests and attaching their vote to the appropriate candidate. Once misinformation is introduced into the system it becomes corrupt and democracy ceases to function. While the guise of democratic rule is upheld by elections, the democratic process itself has stalled, allowing corruption to filter through to the highest levels of democracy.

With approval ratings hovering between 38 percent and 40 percent, primarily because of waning support for the Iraq war, Bush needs to construct milestones that testify to his empty promises of progress in the War on Terror. If America were to believe Bush's assertion that the democratic process will weed out the Iraqi insurgency, then one might be willing to accept that the Iraqi Constitution referendum represents a substantive step toward peace in Iraq. However, anyone gullible enough to believe such a presumption probably believes military action in Iraq has been over since May 2003.

Though the Iraq referendum was uneventful, it was as devoid of meaning as it was of violence. For Iraq to hold democratic processes before it can establish conditions to properly educate its citizens would be to subject itself to the same practice that has degraded American democracy into a gilded autocracy and allowed its leaders to exploit its citizens and those of foreign nations.