America’s hypocrisy on democracy and human rights has a cost

meixixi

[color=var(--posttitletextcolor)]America’s hypocrisy on democracy and human rights has a cost

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American diplomats have long understood that hypocrisy has a cost, especially for a nation that seeks to champion the ideals of democracy and human rights as the cornerstone of global peace and security. As E.J. Dionne Jr. rightly pointed out in his June 10 Thursday Opinion column, “[color=var(--newCommunityTheme-linkText)]Our national security now depends on civil rights,” failing to shore up our democratic institutions and uphold human rights at home deepens the United States’ credibility deficit and weakens its effectiveness as a champion of these values abroad. And that has serious national security implications, because we know — from hard data and grim experience — that Americans are safer when democracies set the rules of a global order. But though it’s true that our adversaries will use this hypocrisy to discredit the United States in the global struggle of ideas, there’s a deeper and more direct security threat posed by our failure to live up to those ideals at home. Societal divisions that result from systemic racism and other human rights violations left to fester, combined with weak institutions seemingly incapable of addressing these challenges, make us not just a weaker champion but also a weaker nation, increasingly vulnerable to attacks of all kinds from those with a different vision of the world.