Hammer time?

The news from Afghanistan is troubling at best.  At play are more than election results in a far away country.  In trouble is the very institution of democracy.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai declared himself victor in this past summer’s election.  He claimed victory based upon a 54% – 28% tally of the ballots.  His primary opponent Abdullah Abdullah challenged the August 20th count.  This resulted in even more violence in this already war torn land.

Let us not forget that Obama has made Afghanistan his war of choice.  American troops have been hunting down enemies of state for almost eight years.  Obama made it a priority.  Increasingly, however, our troops are seen more as occupiers than liberators. Worse, now American troops are seen as allied to the illegitimacy of the Karzai presidency.  General Stanley McChrystal has asked for 40,000 additional troops to suppress Taliban insurgents.  The political and military ramifications of the decisions ahead corner Obama.  Obama’s political future is now seemingly tied to the political future of Afghanistan.

The UN backed Electoral Complaints Commission in Afghanistan has verified ballot irregularities.  President Karzai, after highly publicized meetings and photo ops with a delegation of U.S. Senators, has agreed to a run off election against Abdullah.

The reputation of America and Afghanistan are at stake.  More importantly, the reputation of democracy is at stake.

As noted by John Keane in his magisterial new book The Life and Death of Democracy the survival of self-government has always been uncertain.  After democracy failed in ancient Athens a thousand years passed before it’s spirit was resurrected.  In the life of medieval Europe Keane writes, “Democracy became little more than a fribble.”  Today democracy looks no less foolish in Afghanistan.

It was not too long ago that Francis Fukuyama claimed the end of history occurred with the triumph of self-government at the close of the 20th century.  The authority and legitimacy of democracy seemed unquestionable with the close of the Cold War.  Now questions of democracy’s legitimacy span the globe.  Such doubts are not just in Afghanistan.  Even in the United States legitimacy became an issue in our 2000 election.  Chinese collectivism is seen as more stable.

Is it hammer time for democracy, again?

The outcome in Afghanistan may set the table for democracy’s future.  There democracy is on trial.  Will it be too legit to quit?

James Wilson, delegate to our Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, said it best: “No government could long subsist without the confidence of the people.”  History suggests that such confidence is difficult to build if your tools are an occupying foreign force that accepts anything less than fair and free elections.  What we need is some common sense.  Can’t touch that.