Historian John Hope Franklin, one of two recipients of the 2006 John W. Kluge Prize for the Study of Humanity, suggested in a March 6 lecture at the Library that America should practice the democratic principles it preaches before attempting to impose democracy on other nations.
"Surely, if we undertake to spread democracy throughout the world, we should make certain that our own institutions are democratic," he told the audience, who packed the room or stood outside the door to listen to his talk titled "Where Do We Go From Here?"
Alluding to the 2000 presidential election in which the matter of ballot validity was settled by the courts, Franklin said, "Many among us would be upset if any sovereign nation would dare suggest that the presidential elections in the U.S. are not fair or democratic and should be monitored to make certain that every citizen [has] the opportunity to cast a direct ballot for the nation's chief executive.
"We have placed ourselves in the peculiar position of monitoring elections in other parts of the world while we are not certain how much democracy we have in our part of the world," he continued.
Franklin argued that the Electoral College was established because the people could not be trusted to choose their own commander in chief.
Defining democracy as "a government where power is directly exercised by the people—all of whom enjoy social, economic and political equality," he pointed out the irony of using a military force he believes is undemocratic to enforce democracy abroad.
"It can be argued that the United States is attempting to spread democracy throughout the world through the use of a 'poor man's Army' taken from a class that has virtually no voice in policy-making in general and surely no voice in making or executing military policy," he said. With the minimum wage at $5.15 an hour, enticements such as enlistment bonuses lure the young and the poor to sign up for military duty, he said.
Franklin walked the crowd through a military history lesson, showing how democratic principles have been applied unevenly along race and class lines.
Although the 1863 Conscription Law made all male citizens, ages 20 to 45, eligible to enlist during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln sent home black volunteers who were anxious to fight for freedom. "Only after he issued the Emancipation Proclamation and recognized that the free blacks and former slaves could be an asset in the struggle against the Confederacy did he take steps to democratize the army," said Franklin.
When America entered World War I in 1917 to "save the world for democracy," segregation alienated people of color, and raids by Attorney Gen. Alexander Mitchell Palmer against suspected communists stripped the accused of their basic civil liberties, Franklin said.
Although the military accepted blacks during World War I, not a single one received the Medal of Honor. "Perhaps that's because the American forces didn't want to have anything to do with them, and really didn't have anything to do with them, for the black forces in the United States were assigned to the French Army," Franklin said. "The French in turn treated African-Americans so well that white Americans—civilians as well as members of the armed forces—did not welcome them upon their return to the U.S. after the armistice was signed in 1918."
According to Franklin, democracy for all might have come sooner if the United States had joined the League of Nations after World War I. "By the end of the war, many people in the world believed the only hope to maintain peace was by establishing an international organization with the authority to enforce international commitments. But the conservative element in the U.S. steadfastly refused to have anything to do with the League of Nations or with any other international organization."
Racial and social discrimination continued during World War II. "There were those in the U.S. who competed with Hitler in the search for racial purity," said Franklin.
He cited his own experience when he volunteered for the Navy. "After viewing my qualifications, the recruiting officer indicated I had all the necessary qualifications except color," he recalled.
Franklin noted that women should not be overlooked in their fight to ensure their place in American democracy, including equality at the ballot box, before the law and in the workplace.
"Only in recent years have there been women in high places in the government and only more recently in the boardrooms of the great American corporations," he said.
Franklin said one way for the United States to fully realize its democratic ideals is to have a credible program in which political, economic and social goals are clearly defined.
"So many of our national elections are characterized by turmoil. Do we want to recommend our nasty, noisy and ludicrous arguments to the rest of the world as worthy of emulation? Do we really want to spread the practice of lobbying that is about as powerful as Congress itself?" he asked. "Some say that these practices are a part of our political culture and are as impossible to export as the Fourth of July to other countries."
What has made its way abroad, according to Franklin, is the perception that wealth and privilege are all-important in America. Reinforcing that view, he said, are official policies, such as withdrawing from UNESCO from 1984 to 2003, refusing to join in global agreements that provide some semblance of environmental protection or control over pollution, and advocating regime change in other parts of the world.
"I have an eerie feeling, even in discussing a regime change, as if it were a mere rooting operation of throwing out one leader for a so-called better one," said Franklin. "A country that prides itself in being democratic, or even striving towards democracy, should take the utmost caution in even thinking about changing the government in another country with a history and culture profoundly different from its own."
Franklin said America is still in the process of becoming democratic. "It has taken us more than 200 years to arrive at this infantile stage of democracy," he said.
"Where do we go from here?" he asked. "Our values have shifted considerably, and with that shift our goals have also changed," he said. "We give as much attention to where the Super Bowl will be played next year [as] to who will be in the Oval Office. We do everything possible to reorganize our society to make certain it reflects our values, even if our values are self-centered.
"If we would only pursue peace with the same vigor as war, perhaps we could stumble into a period of calm that would be so constructive that we would be persuaded that we have a prize—a prize of peace [of] which we could all be truly proud," Franklin concluded.
"I hope the U.S., having experienced or witnessed numerous holocausts in the past century, can get through the next century with a peace that surpasses all human understanding. I hope it can show the world that while there may be something great about winning a war, there is something much greater about learning to use the tools of peacemaking to build a better, democratic world—one great human family."
