by Firy

Created on: September 23, 2008   Last Updated: June 19, 2010

American Democracy in the Fast Lane

The South African Thabo Mbeki's resignation as South African president demonstrates what it is not to be a dictator. What will make Mbeki a great figure in social reform is that he represents what democracy is, he presents to the world wide media the side of Africa that most choose to ignore - the entire continent is not ruled by dictators.

The South African president deflects what masses do not want to hear about Robert Mugabe's regime where the majority opinion does not count. Africa has numerous of such examples as Mugabe's democracies.

In America, it may be difficult to make a general statement about democracy or dictatorship because each state is like a different country. So, really it does not come as a surprise that America has different perceptions for its role as a people's voice. The case of Anthony Troy Davis who is to be executed on September 23 with the Federal Appeal on September 27 is a perfect example of this issue. Some US States have appealed to the State of Georgia to grant Davis clemency or commute his sentence. People from all over the world have call up the State of Georgia on Davis' account. American citizens and residents have joined voices for a bigger chorus to the state but the decision remains.

Even without understanding the facts of the case, an issue such as Davis' eminent execution that has summoned worldwide attention does not beg for political opinions of the minority. It demands the State to revisit the issue just as the masses have pleaded!

It has become over the years that democracy comes at a cost and that it is therefore a practice among those who can afford it. You and I who have nothing buried in the stock market could never afford to purchase democracy. In the interim those with large stocks will continue to design the democracy for the masses. They will continue to build custom-fit gallows that they know will never accommodate them. Yet these are the people whom Rawls' Theory of Justice warns you they will not expect to be squashed into the gallows should some natural disaster befall them!

For as long as those in power continue to think that they cannot make mistakes, the masses’ tears will continue with the Nile. When leaders fight the people's opinion, they lose sight of who put them there in the first place...the very people they are fighting. It is amazing how many of our leaders not just here in America dart in and out of courtrooms and after hour meetings to secure political status. May Thabo Mbeki, the South African president, who resigned at the plea of the masses be an emblem of what it is not to be a dictator?

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