Is America a democracy?

In war, they say, truth is always the first casualty. In the Israeli war against the children of Gaza, a lie has become the first casualty. The lie that America is a form of government by the people, for the people, and off the people.

There is an increasing number of the American people, especially the younger generation, which does not buy into the Israeli victimhood narrative and does not want their tax dollars to go into supporting Israel. They are also against the blind US support for this Jewish state, which never has to think about any consequences when it is busy killing people, including when it killed 34 US sailors in 1967 during the USS Liberty incident. That fact has been pushed down the Orwellian hole but some of us take pleasure in digging out exactly such things.

During my first few years in America, I remember having many discussions about the American political system with my American friends. Since I have always lived in the city of Houston, it is considered purple, meaning there is a heavy presence of both the Republican as well as the Democratic voters here. They differ on various issues but the one thing they are all unanimous over is what’s called lobbying. I remember being very inquisitive with these friends about the presence of lobbying in American democracy and how they work. I was always told that lobbies exist for various issues supported by various people, organisations, corporations and so forth. And their job is to push forward a certain agenda so as to compel the legislature and the executive to act on it.

My only line of questioning that to this day remains unanswered was this: If people vote for a certain politician based on what he promised then why would the people need lobbies to remind him? If lobbies push for an agenda that conflicts with what the people want then doesn’t that fact alone hurt American democracy? Why should private money push for an agenda through pressuring a public official?

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is arguably one of the strongest, if not the strongest, lobbies in America. It organises trips to Israel for various elected representatives so as to sway them toward the cause of supporting Israel. Who pays for these trips is still unknown and these bills run into many many millions of dollars. These propaganda trips have played a more than significant role in shaping the rhetoric of the American politicians. They may belong to different parties and may quarrel over issues such as abortion, entitlements, second amendment rights and so forth but over the issue of Israel, it is as though both are competing against each other over who would prove themselves to be a more ardent supporter of the state of Israel.

If you ask young Americans if their president should send billions of dollars to Israel which is using that money to finance the slaughter of children and to occupy more and more of the Palestinian land or if those billions should be spent in helping them get rid of their student loan debt, or used toward tackling the climate change or invest in mental health issues, or the housing crisis and so forth, an overwhelming majority of the American people would vote for all the latter issues.

George Carlin, my favourite, once said that the words ‘God Bless America’ made no sense because Americans firmly believe in the teachings of the Holy Bible. Now the Bible says that God is for all human beings. If that is the case then why would the politicians ask God to only bless America and change His masterplan for humanity. Either there is no God or the words ‘God Bless America’ are a contradiction with the Christian belief. Likewise, if AIPAC controls American politics and free speech against Israel, then either that is a contradiction to the US constitution and an anomaly in American politics or else there is no democracy in America.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 28^th, 2023.

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