Anti-Democracy

by John Rachel / January 12th, 2026

Killing Democracy should at bare minimum be a university textbook, distributed to every institution of higher learning in America. Ideally, it would be required reading for every literate citizen of the U.S.  Qualitatively, it is on the same level as Howard Zinn’s monumental work, A People’s History of the United States. Like that landmark work, it exposes the realities of American political policy and behavior. Killing Democracy, however, more narrowly delves into America’s odious and destructive meddling in the affairs of other countries. It focuses on the horrible consequences of the U.S. standard practice of regime change, i.e. overthrowing other governments, then installing puppet rulers who faithfully serve U.S. interests. Oftentimes the key leadership figures illegally and cunningly removed from power are democratically elected, loyal to the citizenry, working for the people. Just as often the installed regime is despotic and ruthless, oppressive and tyrannical, erasing any semblance of basic political rights, justice, and personal freedom. The criminals now in charge go on killing sprees to eliminate opposition, take bribes, skim money from the public coffers. America’s goal of this sinister practice is to enhance its power and to accelerate the strip mining of the target nation’s resources, to benefit U.S. corporations.

Much attention is given in the book to the active participation of Western — especially American — media in the regime change agenda. And rightfully so. Without the manufactured consent of the American public, such criminal behavior would be difficult, if not impossible. Everyday citizens have to believe that the U.S. is a force of good in the world, that its wars are absolutely necessary, that its enemies are despicable and real threats to the values and way of life of their nation. To pull off the level of deceit required and thus serve the imperial masters of the U.S. war machine, the media outlets have to propagate entirely fictional narratives — call them what they are, LIES — on an epic scale. Mainstream media has become the Propaganda Department for the warmongers in government. There seems to be no limit on how much the most prize journalists are willing to ignore and distort the truth, to keep the wars and regime change operations in high gear. Bear in mind that any meddling by one nation in the affairs of another — especially regime change — violates international law, treaties, US law, and the US Constitution. Such activities are legally war crimes. Thus the willing, often enthusiastic participation by members of the media in such activities, makes them complicit in war crimes and themselves war criminals.

As the title suggests, the destructive impact of America’s meddling is not just limited to the target nations. It’s destroying democracy at home. It’s such an egregious violation of what most Americans believe their country represents, of how they think the rest of the world looks at us, it is also destroying the most essential ingredient in creating a worthy, united, functional society: faith in themselves as American citizens.

Lastly, I have to remark that the contributions by Jeremy Kuzmarov, Daniel Kovalik, KJ Noh and Ron Ridenour are excellent and important. But the major credit must go to Mr. Cunningham who wrote 85% of this masterpiece.

In a world of fake news, fake history, deep fakes, real fakes and fake fakes, it’s sometimes hard to sort things out and get in touch with what’s real. Killing Democracy is a powerful antidote to the lies regularly told by the U.S. government, with the eager participation of mainstream media, to perpetuate the illegal and extremely destructive agenda of the empire builders in the U.S. government.

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John Rachel has a B.A. in Philosophy, has traveled extensively, is a songwriter, music producer, neo-Marxist, and a bipolar humanist. He has written eight novels and three political non-fiction books. His most recent polemic is The Peace Dividend: The Most Controversial Proposal in the History of the World. His political articles have appeared at many alternative media outlets. He is now somewhat rooted in a small traditional farming village in Japan near Osaka, where he proudly tends his small but promising vegetable garden. Scribo ergo sum. Read other articles by John, or visit John's website.