“This Election Shows the Farce That Democracy is in the U.S.”

The three aspirants to the White House are clones. Whichever candidate is the winner of the U.S. presidential elections in November, things will not change much in foreign or domestic politics or the economy, Thomas Woods, expert in American politics and history, assures us. His opinions are provoking and categorical. For him, the invoked differences and disagreements between the Republican John McCain and the Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are nothing more than just appearances. The analysis can sound a little extreme and very polemic. However Woods – who declares himself conservative and a Republican voter – claims that the alternatives that U.S. citizens have, are not real options. The three candidates, who belong to the leading political class in general terms, do not want to make major changes in the economy, abortion, the taxation system, or military presence abroad.

Woods, author of various books on U.S. history, claims that Obama appears to be the anti-war candidate, even though he promises to take the troops out of Iraq– which is something he is not certain about either as he points out– he has no intentions to withdraw the contingents located in another 130 countries. Meanwhile, Hillary and McCain voted in favor of the invasion in Iraq, in spite of the weak intelligence that was presented in Congress about the supposed and non-existent weapons of mass destruction of the former dictator Saddam Hussein.

“Where is the voter’s decision in this election? Supposedly the United States is the great democracy of the world, but the candidates are clones of each other. There is no true possibility of choice,” Woods told El Mercurio in an interview during his visit to Chile to give lectures at Gabriela Mistral University.

“This election shows the type of farce, of fraud that U.S. democracy is. And that this administration dares to presume and give lessons to the rest of the world on how their countries must be managed is the icing on the cake,” added Woods, faculty member of the Ludwig von Mises Institute, in Alabama. Meanwhile, the lack of a debate about the so called “moral issues,” such as abortion and gay rights, is attributed to the disenchantment of a part of society that believes nothing can change.

The religious right, which defends these topics and had a decisive role in the elections of 2000 and 2004 supporting George W. Bush, seems to be falling back. According to Woods, this sector was seen weakened because of his support towards the war. “It seems strange that the religious right is so worried about stem cells and abortion, but when it is about war, it is never enough. You never hear the religious right say it is a moral issue. (…) Unfortunately in the United States there is a view that if you support the war, you are a Conservative, and if you oppose it, you are a Liberal. That is not true. A traditional conservative distrusts war because the war is something unpredictable. Conservatives want stability, war brings instability. Also, it was a moral issue; the conservatives were the ones against dropping the atomic bomb against the Japanese. Because morally you cannot attack kids and women in that way,” he denounced.

The Church in a Secondary Role

Thomas Woods is also a well known author on Catholicism and assures us that in the United States the faithful are disoriented after the priests’ pedophilia scandal. According to Woods, Pope Benedict XVI needs to pick up the pieces of a Church that has not been governed for more than a quarter of a century and must put pressure on his priests and followers.

Author of the book “How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization”, Woods added that the Church used to contribute more to civilization than what it does nowadays. “Catholics have been told to not be arrogant or focus on being the only Church, the light of truth in the world. Instead we are told that we should not try to preach to them, we should have our own role and let other people have their own role too, that is lack of trust. The Church has alienated itself, by its own choice,” he stated.

BOOKS

“The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History”, 2004

“How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization”, 2005

“33 Questions About American History You’re Not Supposed to Ask”, 2007