When President George Bush left office with the lowest approval ratings ever recorded, it appeared that his "Freedom Agenda" would go down the tubes with him. Bush committed the United States, at least rhetorically, to the cause of global democracy promotion more explicitly than any of his predecessors. Whatever the faults of his administration's execution of these policies, it would be foolhardy to distance the United States from the cause of democracy, not only because doing so would be inimical to our values, but because totalitarianism overseas inevitably threatens our own security.
The new cynicism about American support for democracy promotion is taking a global toll. Freedom House concludes that the past four years represent "the longest continuous period of deterioration" in fundamental rights since the organization began tracking global freedom. All in all, freedom lost ground in 40 countries comprising 20% of the world's people last year; in over half of those nations the encroachments were significant enough to warrant a downgrade in the numerical ratings that the group bestows on states for political rights and civil liberties.
