Is the current US system a democracy, - has it ever been one? ALSO: The false pretexts for war as we experience them today, are eerily similar to the first US imperial war against Spain and for possession of Cuba and the Philippines.
Part one/four THE MYTH OF THE FOUNDING FATHERS As the United States government claims to spread democracy around the world and is deeply involved in ghost writing constitutions for other countries, the spotlight falls back on this country. Is the current US system a democracy, - has it ever been one? In The Myth of the Founding Fathers Michael Parenti takes us back to the early days of the republic. Who were the founding fathers, what were their goals in writing the US constitution? Who did they exclude and who did they favor? What was their attitude towards slavery? How many of them actually wanted to create a monarchy? And who, in the end, ratified the constitution after it was written?
Part two/four THE SPANISH AMERICAN WAR AND THE RISE OF US IMPERIALISM US foreign policy of our time is clearly interventionist. From the 1950s to today, from Korea, Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan and countless smaller wars in between the country has moved away from the sentiment once expressed by George Washington: Beware of foreign entanglements.
When did all this begin? Michael Parenti uses the history of the Spanish American War to answer several very intriguing questions. Who first expressed the desire to annex the island of Cuba, and when? The early African American emancipation movement inside the US was critical of US plans to attack Cuba. Why, their leaders asked, was the US government concerned about Spanish repression of the rights of Cubans while the repression of African Americans within the US was ignored. Some said the Negro needs freedom just as much as the Cubans. Why did the US attack the Philippines when it was Cuba that they wanted to take over? Why did the US give verbal support to the Cuban liberation movements against Spain while selling weapons to Spain to fight the poplar movement?
The Spanish American War was an important turning point in the transition of the US to an imperial power and many of the forces at work are eerily contemporary.
Michael Parenti is among our leading progressive political analysts. He received his Ph.D. in political science from Yale University in 1962 and has taught at colleges in the US and abroad. The focus of his lectures is American democracy, US foreign policy, and the invented reality of the media.
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