In current events, Manuel Zelaya, the democratically elected president of Honduras, was exiled by his country’s military in the dead of night. Extracted from his home and flown to neighboring Costa Rica, the president was said to be in violation of constitutional law. Both the national congress and judiciary are said to have supported the move. To many, this was justification for the actions of the Honduran military. The quick condemnation by Western leaders, including Obama, is seen as duplicitous by many right wing pundits.

The point here is… The Rule of Law did not prevail. If Zelaya broke the law, as the Honduran congress and courts say he did, the chief legal authority should have him arrested. Or the congress should impeach him. He should stand trial for his crimes in a court of law and the public provided with evidence of his crimes – and he with a vigorous defense.

Rather than arrest or impeachment, he was deposed and exiled… this is not a democratic process.

It is not a matter of guilt; nor if he is a good administrator or not; or if he is “right wing” or “left wing” politically. It is a question of due process – of which he was denied. That is the issue.

In a broader sense, Obama, and many other democratic governments are indeed obliged to object on these grounds alone. Left unchallenged, this type of behavior returns us to the hypocritical and deceitful practices of Viet Nam, Iran, the Cold War and Iraq. Wherein the overthrow or disposition of any leader that did not suit our national interests was seen as acceptable – without regard to form of government – democratic or otherwise.

We must, as global libertarians, begin to acknowledge that not all democratic processes will deliver the kind of government – or the type of leaders – the Western democracies embrace. But if we truly wish to influence the world’s indigenous populations to seek democratic governance, we must accept their will at the ballot box. Human nature is as human nature does.

Bad leaders will ALWAYS emerge. The totalitarians will emerge quickly. Like Chavez, Zeleya, Castro and the like, they will move to change the constitution or empower “president for life” manifestos. From there the ‘management’ of free elections to the will of the governing elite is always next. Even the most democratic and freest of nations can have bad leaders.

We must have faith that the process of democracy will eventually prevail.