By Ben Barber
Special to McClatchy Newspapers
The crowds screaming for the downfall of dictators in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, etc. all shout out the same magical mantra: We want Democracy.
And the United States has been pushing — since the time of John F. Kennedy and before — to support similar aspirations for democracy — in Western Europe and Japan after World War II; in the failed but well-intentioned efforts to block communism from South Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos; in foreign aid to the former Socialist bloc after the collapse of communism; and in scores of Third World (Developing) countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Some of our democracy aid has worked well but some has failed.
In the Ukraine after 2000, U.S. aid programs brought Ukrainian journalists, judges, and young civil society leaders to visit America’s imperfect but still growing democracy or receive training at home. Then, when the old communist rulers tried to steal an election, independent pollsters named the real winner. TV journalists reported on the fraud, the Supreme Court declared the election invalid and thousands came to shiver in democracy protests in the Orange Revolution.
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