Having recently abandoned Afghanistan to an Islamist autocracy and famine.....President Joe Biden thought it would be a fine idea to hold a two-day virtual gathering on democracy, where some of its worst offenders could pose as responsible upholders of freedom and dispense homilies on how to save the world from those like themselves.
Seriously. You cant make this up
Some of the omissions from the participant list are as puzzling as the inclusions. It’s not clear, for example, why strongmen like India’s Modi, the Philippines’ Duterte and Brazil’s Bolsonaro made the cut, but Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan didn’t, when all of them have been wrecking democratic institutions in their respective countries with equal vigor. There is no logic as to why an invitation was extended to Pakistan (which spared the Biden administration any further embarrassment by declining it). It is one of the most dangerous countries in the world, with a military-backed government that came to power through a heavily rigged election, and is notorious for rights violations. Nor does it make sense that an invitation was denied to Singapore, which may be a de facto one-party state, but it holds clean elections and offers a quality of life and security to its people that many invitees at the summit would kill for. (That is why public trust in politicians in Singapore is far higher than in the countries participating in the summit—higher, even, than in the host country itself.)
When are these silly writers going to really understand the Dem party? This wasn't about stopping autocracies. President Mush probably wanted some ideas on how these countries get their populace in line. This was just more political theater.
Seriously. You cant make this up
Some of the omissions from the participant list are as puzzling as the inclusions. It’s not clear, for example, why strongmen like India’s Modi, the Philippines’ Duterte and Brazil’s Bolsonaro made the cut, but Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan didn’t, when all of them have been wrecking democratic institutions in their respective countries with equal vigor. There is no logic as to why an invitation was extended to Pakistan (which spared the Biden administration any further embarrassment by declining it). It is one of the most dangerous countries in the world, with a military-backed government that came to power through a heavily rigged election, and is notorious for rights violations. Nor does it make sense that an invitation was denied to Singapore, which may be a de facto one-party state, but it holds clean elections and offers a quality of life and security to its people that many invitees at the summit would kill for. (That is why public trust in politicians in Singapore is far higher than in the countries participating in the summit—higher, even, than in the host country itself.)
When are these silly writers going to really understand the Dem party? This wasn't about stopping autocracies. President Mush probably wanted some ideas on how these countries get their populace in line. This was just more political theater.
