NED and the Empire's New Clothes

Since the first Reagan administration, the U.S. taxpayer has been enlisted in the export of “American-style democracy” through a hybrid organization called the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). The component parts of the NED-the two major political parties, big business, and big labor-represent the acceptable boundaries of American politics. The NED, in effect, represents the American system. And by giving it its missionary role, the U.S. government could not be sending a clearer message abroad: that this is how politics must be.

(via Instapaper)