From an interview Secretary Rice gave to the editorial board of the WashPost (HAT-TIP the INVALUABLE BETSY'S PAGE):
"Extremism... is rooted in the absence of other channels for political activity,"
Condi "GETS IT." Repression causes extremism, poverty and ignorance; freedom alleviates all three: free people create more ideas, goods and services; exchange more; consume more; and have more fun than repressed people.
SO: democracy and free markets and increased connectivity to the First World - i.e. more globalism - are THE ANTIDOTES TO EXTREMISM.
Those who are fearful that extremists can ascend to power democratically (in places where they do not presently hold power) miss the point: having to hold onto popularly secured power and satisfy a divergent nation will moderate the extremists as it necessarily marginalizes them: after all - they are called extremists because their positions are EXTREME, meaning that a minority hold them; in adition, extremists do NOT have solutions to reab basic problems - the kinds of things a government must contend with daily. THEREFORE, the majority of people will necessarily tire of a tyranny of the few.
OKAY: it can sometimes be very hard to throw off tyrnanny; it will be harder in North Korea than in Kyrgystan, and harder in Syria than in Bahrain. And hard in China. THAT'S WHY WE MUST DO WHATEVER WE CAN TO HELP DEMOCRACY MOVEMENTS AND DEMAND FEE FAIR AND OPEN ELECTIONS EVERYWHERE.
No tyrant can survive a free, fair and open election. That's why Assad and the Mullahs and the Chicoms, and the North Koreans, and Chavez, and Castro, and Mugabe AVOID truly free elections. And this is why we - and the entire free and properous world - should make trade CONDTIONAL on free elections.
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