In Defense of Democracy Against Bloomberg's Apologetics

Let’s face it. Most of the Islamic world is not interested in democracy. The Muslims interested in colonizing Ground Zero with an extravagant mosque are apparently interested in the kind of “useful” democracy that gets them what they think their money can buy.

At least they are not interested in the kind of democracy I and Jefferson are interested in.

To follow up on the Bloombergian assault on authentic, organic, peoples’ democracy, we must respond to this billionaire plutocrats’ recent ass-kissing event at the annual Ramadan Iftar dinner at the Gracie Mansion residence.

Bloomberg pontificated, as reported by Huffington Post:
“But if we say that a mosque and community center should not be built near the perimeter of the World Trade Center site, we would compromise our commitment to fighting terror with freedom.

We would undercut the values and principles that so many heroes died protecting. We would feed the false impressions that some Americans have about Muslims. We would send a signal around the world that Muslim Americans may be equal in the eyes of the law, but separate in the eyes of their countrymen. And we would hand a valuable propaganda tool to terrorist recruiters, who spread the fallacy that America is at war with Islam.

Islam did not attack the World Trade Center -- Al-Qaeda did. To implicate all of Islam for the actions of a few who twisted a great religion is unfair and un-American. Today we are not at war with Islam -- we are at war with Al-Qaeda and other extremists who hate freedom.”

Bloomberg is so out of touch with reality he seems to have forgotten that our knee-jerk response was not to “fight terror with freedom” but with the US Marines invading Iraq. Oddly, now it seems all those soldiers who died in Iraq were fighting for religious freedom. It’s not now convenient to continue to claim they died fighting for democracy.

Now Bloomberg directly attacks his “countrymen.” Bloomberg ‘worries’ about whether terrorists think America is at war with Islam. He ought to be worrying how the American political class is at war with America. The billionaire crowd doesn’t have to worry about terrorists. They have to worry about both the middle class and the growing class of unemployed, demoralized and disenfranchised Americans.

Bloomberg and his ilk would worry about the the ‘third-worldization’ of America except that they really don’t care. Their interest is in destroying the working class, unions and any semblance of a people’s democracy. They want cheap labor, obsessive consumers and easily accessible cannon fodder for their wars of empire. Otherwise they just want you and me to shut up and get in line at the unemployment office. Or, see your local recruiter. I’m sure we will need more cannon fodder soon in Afghanistan.

Bloomberg fails to see that terrorists already do believe America is at war with Islam. We could turn the Whitehouse over to the Cordoba crowd and the terrorists would still believe we are at war with Islam.

The soldiers fallen in Iraq and now Afghanistan presumably were there primarily fighting for democracy. They weren’t fighting for religious freedom in those countries. As far as the Iraqi and Afghani peoples were concerned they had religious freedom. In fact they, for the most part, believe our kind of “democracy,” Liberal Democratic empire building “democracy,” is a threat to their religious-cultural practices. Except for the wealthy Muslims in America who are a part of the international New Political Class, American culture in general is considered a threat to Islamic culture.

Bloomberg seems to be accusing his fellow countrymen of hating freedom. He forgets that the democracy that these anti-Mosque protesters are practicing and defending is the basis for religious freedom.

Bloomberg continues:
"I know that many in this room are disturbed and dispirited by the debate. But it is worth keeping some perspective on the matter. The first colonial settlers came to these shores seeking religious liberty and the founding fathers wrote a constitution that guaranteed it. They made sure that in this country the government would not be permitted to choose between religions or favor one over another."

Why, pray tell,should the people “in this room [be] disturbed and dispirited by the debate.” I’ll tell you why? Because they, including Bloomberg, don’t get and don’t respect the virtual sacredness of democracy. That’s why democratic debate disturbs and dispirits them.

And by the way, the settlers that Bloomberg refers to ran from monarchy first of all. If they had had a democracy they could have practiced their religion. The founding fathers in a democratic process wrote the Constitution that “guarantees” religious freedom. But religious freedom doesn’t mean legal and political license to do whatever the hell you want to do and you think your wealth gives you the right to do.

I wonder if it’s true that as wealth and power increase, IQ and human empathy, not to mention compassion, decrease. Bloomberg is evidence for the thesis.