RNA - The United States was never a full democracy and a land of free, and the Economist Intelligence Unit, which compiles a Democracy Index that “provides a snapshot of the state of democracy worldwide for 165 independent states” is way off the line to say the US has become a “flawed democracy” now.
This has been a long-term trend and one that preceded the election of Donald Trump as US president in November 2016 - and his shameful executive order to ban Muslims from traveling to the United States. The only difference is that the new president is a bad player. “He disrespects and disregards democratic values, encourages distrust of democratic infrastructure, and expresses disdain for the essential source of information in a democracy: a free and skeptical and questioning press that is willing to speak truth to power.” So even before Trump entered the presidential race, America was a flawed democracy, anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant.
That says why millions have taken to the streets to protest his divisive and shameful Muslim ban. The nationwide protests suggest very few people in the United States trust or like their new president, and even far fewer have confidence in his fascist domestic and foreign policies. The majority of them continue to criticize and disapprove of his administration, whose circus of Muslim ban and establishment of safe zones in Syria (together with Saudi Arabia) is destined to produce more terrorism, division, carnage, misery, conflicts, and economic-financial crises across the globe.
On top, living in the United States for many people, mainly immigrants, refugees and Muslims, is no longer Arcadian dream. It's a nightmare. Whistle-blowers, dual nationalities, democracy and human-rights activists, anti-racism, anti-war and anti-Muslim ban protesters are being detained, imprisoned and otherwise repressed for daring to demand something better than what the disgraced new president and his racist cabinet members have to offer.
Nor is that all. Trump’s ban currently affects seven countries: Syria, Iraq, Iran, Somalia, Sudan, Libya, and Yemen. Since 1975, not one fatal terrorist attack inside the United States has been committed by a national from these countries. In fact, with the exception of Iran, the United States has bombed and destroyed every one of these countries. This executive order does not improve the safety of Americans. Quite the contrary, it endangers Americans, because it serves as a recruiting tool for terrorists. “It’s a gift to terrorists.”
As reminder to the Economist Intelligence Unit that the United States is a laboratory example of what can happen to democracies and what has eventually happened to Western democracies throughout all histories. People are vary of the bogus war on terror (war on Islam), domestic spying, discrimination, racism, marginalization, mass incarceration and Muslim ban. They are asking for a real change in course. They never want their government to shut down the entire refugee program. They welcome refugees.
As the latest surveys show, ordinary citizens, Muslim immigrants, people of color and minorities, cultural and academic centers and activists are launching their own set of anti-Trump, anti-racism campaigns, acting as a valuable source of news and commentary on the ongoing crises in the United States (political, social and economic), the real situation in the West (domestic spying, racism, poverty and mass incarceration) and the Middle East (occupation and terrorism).
To be clear, the goal of Trump’s administration is to overwhelm the United States and the world with so many punitive orders, racist policies, outright fabrications, regime-change wars and silly crises that they lose the spirit to fight. If Trump can do all this and face no opposition, he will do more. Silence will not protect the American people. If they think what is happening to Muslims will never happen to them, they are mistaken. He has already started going after the Mexican people and their families in the US by building an Apartheid wall along the Mexican border. Whose turn is it tomorrow?
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