Essay 5: Democracy vs Autocracy

I was born December 12, 1944, seven months before the end of World War 2 (WW2). Little did I know that for me and those who came after me, the world would change forever.

America and her allies cleared the table. They defeated Japan, which freed China from Japanese control; they defeated Germany, and implemented a policy of containment of The Soviet Union, in order to keep them from attempting world domination.

After which, they created the rules by which the world would operate. The Yalta Conference, in Crimea, was one of the agreements by which Europe would be governed. Brenton Woods Agreement, in New Hampshire, established the rules for the world financial order.

Because of this, you and I became heirs of: an economic system that granted a foundation of wealth never before witnessed before or since in world history; a healthier generation ( maybe the healthiest generation in history – in HISTORY); a more well traveled generation (because the world was made safer for

everyone in the world); a freer generation allowed to explore and test our creative independence, more so than any civilization in history; a more well prepared and educated generation than any other in the world history.

However, this post WW2 world feat is now being seriously challenged by the following three movements:

1. Communist China (CCP) has grown rich to the point of challenging America’s economic preeminence. CCP wants to change the rules established in Brenton Woods Agreement for maximum benefit to itself. Basically, China wants first to stabilize its nation under CCP and socialist authoritarianism; to reclaim Hong Kong and Taiwa; to do the same in the South China Sea; last, to do the same with the entire global community.
2. Russia wants to reclaim the territory it lost in 1989, when it was the center of power for the Soviet Union. It is now at war with what it contends is its greatest prize – Ukraine.
3. And millions of Americans, it seems, have grown weary of American style democracy, possibly caused, in the minds of some, the mediocrity that has set in by my own generation since WW2.

To the above, what is my response? What does the future hold? Where will we be 100 years from now? Here are my three responses.

1. China – the Chinese Communist Party has shown its hand. It is an autocracy. It is not an evolving democracy. The economy is not entrepreneurial, it is now a top down government controlled enterprise. Knowing that, I can now conclude the number of government inspired projects (e.g. infrastructure) are starting to thin out. Plus, its population has started thinning out as well. All this adds up to an economy which will be lucky to maintain its growth let alone increase it. Conversely, America is an ever growing capitalist market. I was once asked what city is the most powerful. Washington D. C. or New York City? Washington D.C. was my first response, because that’s the seat of power. But, on second thought, it’s New York City, because that’s where the money is – namely, the world’s most powerful stock market, and the world’s most powerful banks. Wa D. C. prints money, but New York creates economic value by investing in new businesses all over the world. What do you want – paper money or growing economic wealth? This is key to China vs America. America will be richer, and China will have a socialist central government. Always go with rich.
2. Russia- Vladimir Putin too has shown his hand. Russia is an autocracy, it is not an evolving democracy. It, like China, values power of a central government over the freedoms of capital markets. Its population is shrinking. Russia is at a terrible crossroads. It is not an empire, as it mistakenly believes. America remains the largest democracy in the world. Notwithstanding Russia’s nuclear capability, America is once again containing Russia’s desire to grow its autocratic rule over much of Eastern Europe. As for Putin, his fate is sealed: he is now a war criminal held responsible for crimes against humanity in Ukraine.
3. Discontented Americans. January 6, 2021 was evidence of the motive behind the attack on Congress. Would be insurrectionists responded to the call of a president who had lost an election. They wanted to overturn the election and continue to have the defeated president stay in office. This would have been the beginning of an autocracy. In the years to come the work before us is to keep our democracy, and to overthrow the powers behind the move toward autocracy. The aims of the movement toward autocracy have three themes: to dismantle the federal government’s power of taxation; to halt the “anti-Christian” secular federal government; to ensure that white America remains the center of power. These aims are not those of the vast majority of Americans. Slowly, but most assuredly, guilty parties are already in prison, about to go to prison, or will be going to prison in the very near future, which includes the president at the time of the insurrection.

Thus, for America the great global battle of the 2020’s is upon us from both sides of the ocean, and from the four corners of our own nation. From every where it is autocracy closing in on democracy. In the final analysis, the test once again is, how strong is our democracy at its very core? That is the test before America. When you have – democracy tied to the engine of capitalism with free and open markets; free and fair elections for all classes of people; a determination to hold the constitution as the central power for a nation governed by law, democracy stands a strong chance of remaining the guiding force for another century to come. If not, we return to the autocracy that caused the WW2 in the first place.