For decades, the United States has pushed dictatorships to change. We have encouraged nations to accept a democratic form of government—our form, the best kind, we say.

Read a recent U.S. foreign policy statement concerning the country of Belarus. The people there are demonstrating against a dictator who has ruled the country for 26 years. Declares Mike Pompeo, the U.S. Secretary of State, in an official statement (August 10, 2020): “The United States is deeply concerned about the conduct of the August 9 presidential election in Belarus, which was not free and fair. . . . the Government of Belarus must prove through action its commitment to democratic processes and respect for human rights.”

Yet Pompeo used a U.S. government sponsored trip to Israel as the backdrop for a political speech for Donald Trump at the Republican nominating convention. This action was in direct violation of the Hatch Act, which forbids politically appointed government employees from engaging in political activity while on duty.

But, one official said, with surprising honesty: “No one cares about that.”

In times of deep political divisions, temptations to forgo democracy increase. Write Suzanne Mettler and Robert C. Lieberman: “. . . those who favor a return to earlier boundaries of civic membership and status may be convinced that they must pursue their goals even if democracy is curtailed in the process.” (“The Fragile Republic,” Foreign Affairs, September/October 2020)

Of course, such fraying of democratic institutions leads those with power to seek to retain that power. Write Mettler and Lieberman: “When government responds primarily to the rich, it transforms itself into an oligarchy, which better protects the interests of the wealthy few.”

That’s a good description of what Belarus and Russia and other countries, momentarily freed from the old Soviet Union, have become.

To have democracy, you have to play by the rules of democracy, even when the temptation is to do otherwise. Even in the United States.