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Bush's incessant banter about the need to reclaim our American values and Cheney's affirmation in Tuesday night's vice-presidential debate that "freedom for all" does in fact mean freedom for all seems hypocritical. The ability and right to participate in the democratic process, I would think, is one such important American value. Freedom for all stipulates that those guaranteed the right to vote are free to do so without fear or intimidation. Still, minority voters greatly fear, and rightly so, that their voices may be stifled come November. No one needs Michael Moore's film to remind them that this was indeed the case in 2000. So, in a time when it seems as if the administration will change the meaning of anything (i.e. Osama Bin Laden becomes Saddam Hussein) to keep itself in power, the Bush brand of democracy may supplant the true democracy Americans expect during the electoral process.For that matter, what is democracy to the Bush administration? Is it the same brand of democracy that it seeks to bring to Iraq? Last week's Time Magazine had an article about a secret plan involving a proposed C.I.A. operation to help elect Bush-favored candidates in Iraq. Once again, the real concept of democracy seems to have evaded Bush and his administration, but then again, if you already have a distorted idea of what American democracy should look like, it only holds true that this would be exported elsewhere. [more

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