Chris Matthews was the guest on Morning Joe (MSNBC) this
morning. It isn’t often one hears something new about politics but this morning
was different for me. After some banter about Joe Scarborough rudely interrupting
him, which he always does to guests, Chris prevailed, he held to the thought he
was addressing. It was that thought that I found so interesting. I have been unwavering
in my support of advancing democracy in the Arab world; that is what the objective
of Arab Spring. I have been quick to
compare what is happening in all those Arab countries to our own tumultuous beginning,
which was the creation of the concept of one-man one-vote. In the Arab world has a big looming divide
based on religious affiliation that dominates the entire scene: Sunni verses Shia
with some Christian involvement. Our founding fathers rejected the religious issue
with a simple concepts summarized in the phrase “separation of church and state”.
This was possible because our infant federation had so many other overriding issues
dividing the states, referenced mainly in the Constitution, followed by issues
dividing us as individuals referenced mainly in the Bill of Rights.
In the Arab nations we have allowed, and in a few case, demanded
military dictatorships and caliphates shift power to the people; one-man one-vote.
The eye-opening phrase used by Chris Matthews was “shift power of the
government to the street”. I had never considered one-man one-vote or “democracy”
in those terms. What these Arab countries do not have is a group of people we proudly
refer to as our founding fathers. It was something Arab nations apparently do
not have. This truly remarkable group of people provided leadership to counter many
other interests including religious leaders. Therefore, we are asking these
nations to become democracies, which they apparently want, but they have no organized
“in country leadership”—no influential group that can act as founding fathers. With
out such a group, we are asking the people “on the street” to form a government.
The people envy our freedoms and us; they envy us for our economic system of free
enterprise-socialism, but especially separation of church and state. The “people
on the street” envy our Constitution and
our Bill of Rights but have no idea how to reach their goal.
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