"Americans cannot teach democracy to the world until they restore their own"
About this Quote
Greider wrote for an era when “democracy promotion” was a bipartisan brand, often sold alongside military intervention, IMF conditionality, and corporate globalization. His point isn’t anti-democratic; it’s anti-hypocrisy and anti-marketing. The subtext is that America’s global confidence has functioned as a distraction from domestic deficits: money’s gravity in elections, the shrinking power of labor, voter suppression by design, media consolidation, an economy that treats citizens like consumers, and institutions that feel answerable upward rather than outward.
The sentence also flips a familiar Cold War narrative. The U.S. liked to frame itself as democracy’s teacher, a moral exporter. Greider insists legitimacy is reciprocal: you can’t credibly evangelize self-government while your own version looks increasingly pay-to-play or structurally exclusionary. “Teach” implies authority; “restore” demands humility.
What makes it work is its strategic narrowing. It doesn’t argue about Iraq or coups or NGOs. It sets a simple precondition that’s hard to dodge: if you want the world to believe your ideals, your country has to look like it believes them too.
Quote Details
| Topic | Justice |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Greider, William. (2026, January 17). Americans cannot teach democracy to the world until they restore their own. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/americans-cannot-teach-democracy-to-the-world-66424/
Chicago Style
Greider, William. "Americans cannot teach democracy to the world until they restore their own." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/americans-cannot-teach-democracy-to-the-world-66424/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Americans cannot teach democracy to the world until they restore their own." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/americans-cannot-teach-democracy-to-the-world-66424/. Accessed 10 Feb. 2026.





