Is the United States Headed towards Dictatorship?

Well, recently retired US Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor seems to think so. In a speech given at Georgetown University (Go Hoyas!) last week, Justice O’Connor warned against the possible long-term effect of Republican attacks on the judiciary in recent years. She noted that the renunciation of an independent judiciary is the first major step down the long road to authoritarianism. Justice O’Connor cites comments by former House of Representatives Majority Leader Tom Delay of Texas in regards to abortion, prayer and the Terri Schiavo case. Without naming the congressman, she warned that lashing out against the judiciary when the court doesn’t rule in one’s favor can lead to more concrete encroachments on judicial independence, which can come in the form of retaliatory budgetary restrictions by legislatures, unfounded calls of impeachments, and even death threats, which have been on the rise. All of these factors lead to a hostile environment for judges, and while there may be no de jure restrictions on judicial independence, this hostile environment can over time compromise their independence, which the Framers of the Constitution were so intent on preserving.

This brings up an interesting point: Could the United States – the ostensible champion of democracy around the world – find itself the subject of tyrannical rule? How do dictatorships begin? Could it be argued that Stalin, Hitler, Mussolini and even Chairman Mao would not have been able to seize such far-reaching authorities if the conditions in their home countries weren’t already ripe for dictatorial rule? Perhaps the dictators of the 20th century were merely products of their environment. If that’s the case, what were the original factors that contributed to that environment? According to Justice O’Connor, the lack of an independent judiciary certainly could have been one of them. But there has to be more to it than that, right? What other factors could be involved? Certainly in the case of Germany, economy played an important role in the rise of Hitler. There’s nothing that jump-starts an economy like gearing up for war. With the strongest, most dynamic economy in the history of the world, surely the United States will never find itself in such a dire economic situation that Germany found itself following World War I, right? Perhaps. Let’s take a look at our national debt and current account deficit, which are hovering around $8 trillion and $800 billion, respectively! I’m no economist, but I do know that for us to sustain such a high debt, we must be getting support from somewhere, and much of that support is coming from China. This potentially puts us in a difficult position. Currently, it’s in China's interest to snap up US Treasury securities which help fund our deficit, but what if that were to change? What if China decides that it no longer wants to continue funding our deficit? What if Beijing decides that it would rather sell its vast reserves of US currency and securites on the international market, thus causing the dollar to sink and sending our economy into turmoil? That is probably unlikely today, but maybe a little less unlikely if China decides it wants to invade Taiwan and threatens such economic actions if the US makes good on its promise to intercede militarily on Taiwan’s behalf. A sudden and precipitous drop in the greenback (which, incidentally, is no longer so green anymore), could cause enough turmoil – along with the coincidental coordination of other factors – to provide the opportunity for some form of authoritarian regime to seize power. Unlikely? Perhaps. Impossible? Definitely not.

Ok, so we no longer have an independent judiciary and our economy is in ruins, but the American democratic spirit is strong. We have the benefit of generations of free speech and transparent government and vibrant civil society to shield us from evils of tyrannical government, right? Maybe… maybe not. As we have witnessed all too often, government lies. Government lies to itself and government lies to its people. As I mentioned before, I’ve spent some time living in China. I was there during the SARS epidemic. Talking to ordinary Chinese citizens, I was astounded by the fact that they actually believed anything that their government tells them. Their government has blatantly lied directly to their faces and to the international community for decades. Why, after all of that, do they put any faith in government’s word? Upon further consideration, however, I found that Americans were really no different (and I suspect neither is any other nation for that matter). Who shot President Kennedy? Lee Harvey Oswald? Think again. Who shot Martin Luther King? James Earl Ray? Doubt it. Why did we spend decades fighting a war in Vietnam that we ended up losing anyway? To protect freedom and stop the spread of Communism? Maybe that’s how it started, but the reason it continued so long was probably to line the pockets of the guys in charge. In a more recent example, thanks to President Bush, your phone line is probably being tapped right this minute and there’s not a damn thing you or anyone else can do about it. Government lies. It’s a fact of life that, unfortunately, we have come to accept without question. A long history of misinformation, lies and cover-ups sound like a great environment for a nascent dictatorial regime to prosper, if you ask me.

All in all, perhaps Justice O’Connor speech exaggerates the potential long-term effects of recent Republican rebuke of the judiciary, but, nonetheless, no one doubts the merits of an independent judiciary. Although it is probably very unlikely that the US would begin to spiral towards anti-democratic, authoritarian rule, for us to remain the champion of democracy around the world, we really need to first get our own house in order.