06/26/2021
Writer Lev Golinkin answers President Joe Biden's question on potential American "foreign election interference" by outlining how the United States has done so -- for decades. “Denying this basic historical reality does us no favors with the rest of the world; indeed, it hampers our ability to continue to champion democracy and human rights.”
“Whatever election-interfering trick you can think of, we’ve done it," with the U.S. interfering "in at least several dozen elections over the past 7 or 8 decades."
“No one likes meddling, and over the years, America’s interference has had disastrous results.” From joining protests in Ukraine, to funding corrupt re-election campaigns in Russia, the U.S. has a long history of foreign intervention. Golinkin writes, "Pretending otherwise makes us look like we’re dissembling or, worse yet, utterly disconnected from reality."
After fleeing Soviet antisemitism to the U.S., Golinkin grew up admiring Reagan until learning of the U.S.-funded El Mozote massacre. "I realized that while for me, the American flag symbolized hope, for those Salvadorans, the American flag meant death."
Denying history "impairs our ability to promote democracy,” and “no nation can credibly address the topic while blatantly whitewashing its past... [and] callously dismisses the fates of the millions who’ve been maimed, starved, bombed & murdered as a result."
Golinkin writes, "Every country has a story it tells itself about itself [&] shapes how it sees the world... America, more than any other place, tells itself that it’s good — innately & universally,” and I’m a product of American foreign policy; the problem is, so are the dead people of El Mozote … and Iran, and Indonesia, and a whole lot of other places. Biden should acknowledge them and acknowledge our history. It’s what a good country should do.”
Acknowledging the truth of American foreign policy, however, is harder.
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Denying America's history of foreign intervention does us no favors with the rest of the world.
