The first is France's compromising of democracy in the appointment of a new prime minister; the second is Turkey's application for membership in BRICS.

In August, President Nicolás Maduro declared that he had won re-election in Venezuela by a vote of 51.95% to 43.18%. The United States was quick to ride in as the champion of democracy. White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby told a press conference that "we have serious concerns that the result as announced does not reflect the will and the votes of the Venezuelan people." Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared that "the announcement of results by the Maduro-controlled National Electoral Council (CNE) were deeply flawed, yielding an announced outcome that does not represent the will of the Venezuelan people."

The American insistence that democratic elections represent the will of the people fits admirably with the narrative of the United States as the global defender of democracy. Its silence when France's elections fail to do so fits less admirably. And the difference between the vociferous response to a rival's election and the silence in the face of an ally's reveals the double standard. And the double standard reveals that the strategy is less about the defense of democracy than about the defense of the U.S. alliance.

After the party of French President Emmanuel Macron was dealt a shocking and crushing defeat by the far-right National Rally Party of Marine Le Pen in the European Parliamentary elections in June, Macron called elections in France. Those elections were won by the left wing New Popular Front (NPF) with 180 seats. Macron's party, who forged a front with the left against the party of Le Pen, came second with 159 seats. National Rally came third with 142 seats, and Michel Barnier's center-right Les Republicains came last with a mere 39 seats.