Why Other Countries Will Not Save American Democracy
As Republicans continue their attack on our democracy, it is comforting to think that other democracies around the world will take action on their own to pressure the US government to reject authoritarianism. Unfortunately there is little evidence that this would happen, the US is simply too important to other countries from the standpoints of trade and defense.
The United States has a long history of committing atrocities which the rest of the world looks the other way on out of economic convenience. Currently China enjoys the same privilege, with too few countries willing to take an active stand against them for their ongoing human rights abuses due to how critical of a trade partner the country is.
However while the governments of democracies around the world are unlikely to be of much help initially, their populations will make excellent allies in our shared struggle against global authoritarian creep. It will be important to welcome those from around world interested in the American anti-authoritarian movement. Such individuals can be brought into communication channels and encouraged to actively participate through online work, donation, sharing tactics, and pressuring their own governments to take action.
Eventually, with enough time and significant pressure from their own populations, other democracies may reluctantly begin moving towards taking some action against the US, if for nothing else than the preservation of their own military protection and economic interests. This kind of action could be threatening to shift away from the dollar as a reserve currency unless American democracy is restored, or other methods of applying economic pressure.
While these actions may be helpful, potentially even vital, the bulk of power and momentum for American democracy must come from the country’s own population. The only thing which can safeguard the United States from the tyranny of Republican minority rule is a large scale nonviolent resistance movement. For information on what such a pro-democracy movement could look like in the US, read the article below.
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