Steve Clemons: US Democracy Amuses & Edifies World

Steve Clemons left the Note and now resides in Arianna's gigolo pit, but he still has an interesting take on the Dem primary rumpus.

The world is seeing Americans struggle about who U.S. citizens want in the White House. There is no stacked deck, no automatic succession, no heir apparent -- and this political experience of dramatic uncertainty and the pairing of an elder pro-Iraq War POW torture-victim turned leading Senator vs. either the first African-American or female candidate has the feel of a presidential election of a life-time -- the kind that won't be forgotten for a century.

Despite the Dem panjundrums fear of mutual assured destruction, the rock-em, sock-em style of American politics is a wonderful antidote to the formalized and frequently fraudulent "democratic" elections abroad, where entitlement elites play elaborate formal gesture games while the basic outcome of an election usually [but not always] is decided beforehand.

I'm reading several books at the moment about the Founders and their amazing prescience. They would not be amused by some of the silly showmanship of American politics, but all-in-all the American process does demonstrate transparency compared to the opaque manipulations in other so-called advanced "democracies."