The United States against democracy — at home and abroad.

Until the advent of Donald Trump, the United States was revered as a model of domestic democracy: within its territory, freedom and the popular will reigned, despite the injustices inherent in capitalism. The left that opposed this notion was labeled dogmatic, aligned with the interests of the socialist bloc then led by the Soviet Union. There is truth to this, especially in the context of the Cold War, but that time is over.

The idea of ​​a model American democracy is undermined by the total inertia of its institutions in the face of the current president's authoritarianism. The nation lacks the much-vaunted checks and balances to curb Donald Trump's fascist impulses; in fact, it simply fails to curb them or does so clumsily. The president does as he pleases, and this constitutes a non-democratic country. Today, the United States, in the face of oppression and persecution of certain groups and ethnicities, as well as the siege of universities and non-aligned media outlets, is an example not to be followed, even by the capitalist West.

Internationally, the interpretation is easier. The United States has never conveyed a real message of appreciation for democracy to the world, contradicting its own discourse. In South America, they supported and financed all the military dictatorships of the 20th century. When they overthrew dictators in other parts of the globe, they did so motivated by blatant commercial interests.

The United States is a belligerent and belligerent country. Far more than entering wars as a decisive force, they have been aggressors, invading on their own initiative and plundering, as they do in Venezuela and promise to do in Greenland. This was also the case in the interventions they carried out from 1900 to 1934 in Nicaragua, Haiti, Honduras, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba, aiming for political control. 

In their eagerness to win a polarizing Cold War, the United States entered Vietnam, a conflict that lasted from 1955 to 1975 and which was an internal struggle until the Americans internationalized it. 

The country considered a model of democracy invaded the Bay of Pigs in Cuba in 1961 to overthrow Fidel Castro – and failed, as we know. It also invaded Grenada in 1983, allegedly to protect American medical students from communist influence.

The United States also entered Afghanistan uninvited in 2001 and Iraq in 2003. In the first case, it was a blind response to the September 11 attacks, and in the second, it was to capture non-existent weapons of mass destruction. 

In 2011, it was Libya's turn to be attacked by NATO, under American leadership, under the justification of overthrowing Muammar Gaddafi. The Libyan case exemplifies what the United States usually bequeaths to the populations of the countries it invades: Libya did not become a stable democracy, as the Americans, along with France and the United Kingdom, promised. The African country entered a prolonged process of state collapse, the consequences of which persist to this day.

In an unprecedented move, Donald Trump is attacking democracy on American soil. Externally, there's not much new to report.