US should quiet down about democracy – Moscow
The US political system has seriously deteriorated, as evidenced by the highly contentious nature of the presidential election, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.
The campaign was marked by the total replacement of normal debate on policy proposals with incendiary rhetoric, she claimed.
“This is just one unending quarrel, a squabble, one continuous process of inflaming passions in people, which has been lasting [in the US] for many years,” she said in an interview on Radio Sputnik.
During the campaign, both Donald Trump and his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, accused each other of being a threat to the future of the country.
The US electoral system itself is “archaic,” and new technologies are being used to “gloss over the gaping wounds of American democracy,” rather than to reform and improve things, Zakharova added. Most countries in the world are working to make their political systems better, yet the US has the gall to lecture them, she said.
“The US, with all its political commentators, civilian activists, specialists in democracy should quiet down for years to come and refrain from judging the quality of democracy [in other nations]... until they solve their own acute problems,” Zakharova stated.
The root issue is the American elites, which Zakharova believes have lost their moral compass. The country is ruled by “clans that have no other guiding philosophy except money. For money, regardless of their quality, smell and color, they are ready for anything,” she claimed.
“Those clans have taken over the levers of power in the US and sidelined the partisan superstructure,” she said. “They do not let people discuss facts, have replaced debates with a quasi-scientific agenda, and have invented a new ethical system.”
The result is that the American people are confused, while the plutocrats are doing as they please, Zakharova believes.
Moscow has long argued that Washington’s claim to global leadership is misguided and detrimental for the world.
