By PEDRO MIGUEL CARDOSO*
The essence of US policies is not the defense of democracy and freedom, but the defense of the interests of its ruling classes and its imperialism at a global level.
Has the United States of America (USA) defended freedom and democracy throughout its history? This text does not have space to analyze the many examples of this country's domestic and foreign policies, but it does have space to argue that the proclaimed ideas of defending freedom and democracy have always been lies or mystifications subordinated to the material interests and power of its ruling classes.
We could begin by symbolically recalling that the military commander and political protagonist of the revolt for independence: George Washington, the main author of the declaration of independence in 1776: Thomas Jefferson, and the acclaimed “Father” of the Federal Constitution of 1787: James Madison, were the three owners of enslaved people and remained so throughout their lives.
The point is that slavery was not something that persisted despite independence and the liberal revolution, it experienced its maximum development after them. From 1783 at the end of the American Revolution, until 1861, the number of enslaved people in the US multiplied several times and this expansion transformed the southern states into a dominant force in the global cotton market.
In a lifetime, the American South grew from coastal plantation areas to a continent-sized area. Slave entrepreneurs forcibly moved more than a million enslaved people into vast territories that were also forcibly appropriated from the native inhabitants.
The expansion of slavery shaped every aspect of the new nation's economy and politics, not only increasing its power and territory, but also differentiating regional identities and interests. The defense of freedom, the justification of slavery, and the destruction of indigenous peoples were closely linked. It was always freedom for some at the expense of others.
After the Civil War and the formal abolition of slavery, new mechanisms of discrimination and oppression were implemented. Racial segregation and forced labor were a long-lasting reality, and racially biased violence continued and continues. Today, the United States has the largest prison population in the world in absolute terms, with a high percentage of historically discriminated and oppressed populations.
In relation to democracy, we could address the historical exclusions of significant social sectors, as in other countries that are references to liberalism. African-Americans, indigenous populations and women were for a long time excluded from political participation.
Furthermore, the political system with the electoral college, made up of representatives of the states, for the election of the US president has established distortions from the beginning that continue to this day. There are also mechanisms of manipulation, such as the “gerrymandering"which is a method of defining the electoral districts of a territory to obtain advantages in the number of elected political representatives, used to favor or harm a certain social or political group.
But above all, it is important to highlight how big capital is represented in Wall Street and financial donors completely dominate the economic, political, media and electoral processes in the US and all state structures. Candidates for Congress, the Senate and the US presidency are usually wealthy citizens who are richly financed by private interests. For this reason, there are scholars who consider the term plutocracy (government by the rich for the rich) more appropriate to describe the system in force in the country.
On the external front, even more evident are the policies against democracy and freedom: coups d'état to remove democratically elected presidents and governments, wars and invasions to secure control over natural resources in other countries, the fight against socialism and communism and the promotion of terrorism worldwide.
In short, if we look beyond the propaganda and ideology promoted, the essence of US policies has not been the defense of democracy and freedom, but rather the defense of the interests of its ruling classes and its imperialism at a global level.
* Pedro Miguel Cardoso is a researcher in political and ecological economy.
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