Brooks argued that this diminishment of America’s democratic faith means “the country grows strangely indifferent to democratic heroes. Decades ago, everyone knew about Sakharov. But how many raised a fuss over the systematic persecution of democratic activists and Christians across the Middle East?”
But of course, it was precisely America’s unleashing of modern and democratic forces in the Middle East that has intensified this persecution of Christians and liberal activists. When sovereignty is invested in “the people,” the people usually respond with dramatic purges, ethnic cleansing, and legal apartheid, determining precisely who shall compose this new sovereign. Even a close study of our own history would show that trend: an “expansion of democracy” under Andrew Jackson led swiftly to the policy of Indian Removal.
When the estimable James Poulos asked, “What are women for?” in a column on sexual politics and the culture war, he was bruised for his presumption. In a resultant panel discussion on MSNBC, host Chris Hayes responded to the question this way: “It seems, I think, an odd question to ask about human beings, who are presumably for whatever their own ends are for.”
Why not endow democratic governments with the same dignity of choosing their own ends?
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