The Sacred Cow of Democracy

On Friday, I went to a public lecture titled "A New American Empire?" It featured two really smart, interesting academics, speaking quite lucidly about the idea of American imperialism and the war in Iraq. On the whole, I like what they had to say quite a bit. But there is one thing I can't quite figure out. Why is it that so few people can take any distance from the word "democracy." It seems like anything can be justified, on either the right or the left, in the name of "democracy." It is somehow deployed rhetorically as an unquestioned good, as if everyone knows what is meant when the word is uttered. Bush uses it as a justification for the war (bringing democracy to the world, or to Iraq) and left activitist decry the assault on demoncracy in their critique of Bush. But no one really questions the rhetoric. I'm starting to think that until people can distinguish between the rhetoric of democracy and the practice of democracy, maybe we should have a moritorium on the word--on all sides of the political spectrum.