Federalism for Iraq

If I could vote in Iraq, I know what my party would be: The Iraqi Pro-Democracy Party. I first read about the founders when I found their blog out of the blue earlier this year. I was hooked from the start. Since then, they keep showing up in the news because they have started their own party. Apparently they are a trio of brothers.

So what kind of policies do they support? Are they naïve and ignorant about what democracy needs to really work? Do they think that pure democracy is the answer? I finally went back to the party website and read up on their policies. There was one policy heading which caught my eye more than any other: FEDERALISM!!!!

Talk about chills running down my spine. Sure enough, they support a unified federalist government. If you don’t know what that means let me just point you to the federalist papers written so many years ago by Madison and Hamilton! This is the stuff the United States was made of, and these Iraqis know US history. They seem to be able to put it into the real context of what Iraq is today as well. Here’s their excerpt on federalism:

Federalism

The governorates of Iraq have suffered a lot of oppression and neglect at the hands of the successive central governments which lead to the loss of trust between Iraqis living in the governorates and any central government, and also led to a mass immigration from different governorates to Baghdad. Thus we see that federalism is the best solution to Iraq and that this should be based on geographical basis. A united federal Iraq will serve both the governorates as well as Baghdad and will strengthen Iraq's unity instead of weakening it.

You know, it’s been said that the US Democratic Party (the losers…just thought I’d remind everyone) has finally rediscovered the beauty of federalism. In fact, that’s probably the reason they have not all moved to Canada. Each state is sovereign—each governs as it sees fit under (hopefully) minimal national guidelines (ok, laws) like the US Constitution and Bill of Rights.

Federalism... How many people over here even know what that means anymore?