Got Democracy?

I just finished Paul Farmer's book on Haiti. He points out that we have consistently not wanted Haiti to be democratic, just as we have not wanted most third world countries in our sphere of influence to be democratic. Other people's democracies are inconvenient. Other countries have different national interests than our national interest. Assuming that democracies express the will of the people and the national interest, it is much more convenient to have a benevolent or not so benevolent dictator.

It is also very convenient to have third world countries. They make cheap things. They allow capitalists in developed countries to accumulate more capital. In a world of might makes right, it is nice to have a few countries who are 98 pound weakling. It wouldn't be so much fun to be a bully if you could get a black eye yourself.

I read an editorial in the Economist recently where the author came down on the anti-interventionist arguments of the American left. The author pointed out that the idea that you shouldn't get involved abroad because the United States messes up other countries (historically--very true) is unlikely to be sympathetic to Am-ur-I-can patriots at home.

And that's true. It seems that the people who wave the flag are not the same people who work to make the flag something to be proud of. They don't want to do the hard work. So, why should the left have to try to appeal to this cheap and easy patriotism anyways?