Foreign Observers Invited to US Elections

The US State Department has invited observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to keep an eye on this year's presidential election. Rarely does the State Department do what is right and what is legally required. Judging from the reaction of punditland (wailing and gnashing of teeth), it has little incentive do so in future. However, this invitation casts no aspersions on American democracy, and it is a tiny step toward reconciliation with the rest of the world. And by the way, the OSCE already observed the 2002 mid-term elections.

The Democrats are elated in thinking that having the 55-member OSCE (formerly known as the "Helsinki Process" that forced elections on the Warsaw Pact in exchange for recognizing eastern Europe's boundaries back in the 1970s) will somehow help them keep the GOP from stealing another election. They will be sadly disappointed if that is their hope -- of course, Al Gore couldn't carry his home state of Tennessee, so there were other problems in 2000.

The Republicans in Congress, who believe that American exceptionalism excuses the US from things like international law, good manners and playing nicely with others, passed an amendment in the House of Representatives that would prevent federal funds from being used to invite UN observers. They feared that such a mission would make the US look like a primitive, Third World country where people don't know how to count ballots -- instead of an advanced, First World country where the man who got the most votes last time is not president.

Both sides miss the point. American democracy, the peaceful shifts in power that have taken place over the last two centuries (one Civil War notwithstanding), is a model for other nations, one of many. This is a chance for OSCE observers to get a lesson in what works, in how things are done correctly. It is positive training for them and will give them a reference point when judging the next vote in Zambia, Guatemala or Cambodia.

And what if there is a mistake? What if the US system isn't perfect? What if foreigners see the country's flaws? Whether the OSCE is in the US or not, the mistakes will be carried live all over the world by CNN, MSNBC and perhaps even Fox News. American democracy and American political traditions are strong enough to handle a little constructive criticism.


© Copyright 2004 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.


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