Governmental instability is rising tremendously in both democracies and dictatorships – which of these two forms of government is more unstable? Which will collapse first?
Before we approach these questions, we must first try to understand the sources of instability.
With regard to democracies, the United States and the United Kingdom, in particular, have become unstable because the gap between Right and Left has grown too wide. America's government-run educational system has been taken over by the intolerant and socialistic Left, which has turned learning institutions into indoctrination chambers.
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Most of our students in secondary schools and colleges are able to graduate without understanding the US Constitution or Bill of Rights, basic civics or history. If you doubt this, see America at the Precipice, a major research report by Save the West editor Jon Sutz, that contains some of the shocking metrics. A sampling:
- 82% of American adults cannot identify two rights stated in the Declaration of Independence.
- Less than 50% of American adults understand the basic purpose of the Constitution or can identify even one of their rights under it.
- Only 26% of Americans can identify all three branches of the government – a sharp decline from 2011, when 38% could do so.
Further, America's children are being infused in our schools with a belief that socialism and communism are ideal political-economic systems. Surveys conducted in 2019 reveal that 70% of millennials say that they would vote for a socialist for elective office, and 36% "approve of communism" (up from 28% in 2018). The climax of this indoctrination is an overt, explicit desire to overthrow the US government and install communist totalitarianism.
Deprived of knowledge and appreciation of our governmental system, and indoctrinated in notorious, oppressive ideologies, our children emerge from our schools unprepared to become functional, patriotic American citizens, yet we allow them to vote when they reach 18 years of age. Similarly, new (legal) immigrants are under-educated but are allowed to vote once they become citizens.
In Israeli democracy, the ideological gap between the two leading parties is not as wide as in the United States, but the population is confused and split, more due to the personalities of the two leaders, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White leader Benny Gantz, and only secondarily due to the issues. In general, though, the challengers in both countries are leftists who would seek to implement some elements of socialism, which can sound good even though it has bankrupted almost every country that embraced it during its 150 years of existence.
In contrast, the key dictatorships have become increasingly unstable primarily because of the rise of the internet and social media, which has fueled the spread of knowledge and the desire for the freedom the citizens of these dictatorships observe in democracies. For example:
- Iran: An incredibly mismanaged dictatorship that has nevertheless been successful in creating the single largest Islamist terrorist organization in the world: Hezbollah. Iran operates a worldwide network of terrorist organizations in 30 countries in the Middle East, Africa, Europe and Latin America, with a collective force of over 400,000 terrorists. Yet when the messianic rulers of the Islamic Republic suddenly raised the price of gasoline from a highly subsidized $0.35 to a more realistic $1.00, protests erupted spontaneously in 100 cities, leading to the deaths of nearly 150 protesters, and according to other reports, many more.
- Iraq: Protesters have grown weary of Iranian infiltration of their government and society. The Iranian consulate in Najaf was burned down, and Iraqi authorities, acting under Iranian orders, have killed over 350 protesters since the protests began in October.
So which are more unstable, democracies or dictatorships?
And what are the ramifications for US national security interests?
Over time, dictatorships should prove less stable, as their populations increasingly demand rule of law, human rights, and growing economies. Democratic instability is more transitory, as new parties and personalities run for office, and mold their messages better to the majority of voters.
One unfortunate result of this worldwide political turmoil, however, is that the dictatorships might seek to attack their adversaries to build up domestic support for their inherently corrupt governments. The democracies must become far more alert to the dictatorships' propensity for both external subversion and war, as their internal threats rise.
Watch out for unpredictable wars and/or skirmishes in 2020, particularly from Iran, the No. 1 enemy of America.
Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.
