Mediaboss Marketing

These days, we often hear that democracy is on the ballot. And theres a truth to that: Winning elections is critical, especially as liberal and progressive forces try to fend off radical right-wing movements. But the democratic crisis that our society faces will not be solved by voting alone. We need to do more than defeat Donald Trump and his allies we need to make cultivating solidarity a national priority.

For years, solidaritys strongest associations have been with the left and the labor movement a term invoked at protests and on picket lines. But its roots are much deeper, and its potential implications far more profound, than we typically assume. Though we rarely speak about it as such, solidarity is a concept as fundamental to democracy as its better-known cousins: equality, freedom and justice. Solidarity is simultaneously a bond that holds society together and a force that propels it forward. After all, when people feel connected, they are more willing to work together, to share resources and to have one anothers backs. Solidarity weaves us into a larger and more resilient we through the precious and powerful sense that even though we are different, our lives and our fates are connected.

We have both spent years working as organizers and activists. If our experience has taught us anything, it is that a sense of connection and mutualism is rarely spontaneous. It must be nurtured and sustained. Without robust and effective organizations and institutions to cultivate and maintain solidarity, it weakens and democracy falters. We become more atomized and isolated, suspicious and susceptible to misinformation, more disengaged and cynical, and easily pitted against one another.

Democracys opponents know this. Thats why they invest huge amounts of energy and resources to sabotage transformative, democratic solidarity and to nurture exclusionary and reactionary forms of group identity. Enraged at a decade of social movements and the long-overdue revival of organized labor, right-wing strategists and their corporate backers have redoubled their efforts to divide and conquer the American public, inflaming group resentments in order to restore traditional social hierarchies and ensure that plutocrats maintain their hold on wealth and power. In white papers, stump speeches and podcasts, conservative ideologues have laid out their vision for capturing the state and using it as a tool to remake our country in their image.

If we do not prioritize solidarity, this dangerous and anti-democratic project will succeed. Far more than just a slogan or hashtag, solidarity can orient us toward a future worth fighting for, providing the basis of a credible and galvanizing plan for democratic renewal. Instead of the 20th-century ideal of a welfare state, we should try to imagine a solidarity state.

We urgently need a countervision of what government can and should be, and how public resources and infrastructure can be deployed to foster social connection and repair the social fabric so that democracy can have a chance not just to limp along, but to flourish. Solidarity, here, is both a goal worth reaching toward and the method of building the power to achieve it. It is both means and ends, the forging of social bonds so that we can become strong enough to shift policy together.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit andlog intoyour Times account, orsubscribefor all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?Log in.

Want all of The Times?Subscribe.

Read the original:
Opinion | The One Idea That Could Save American Democracy - The New York Times

In Senegal, the president tried to cancel an election. In Niger, a military coup dtat toppled an elected president, who eight months later is still imprisoned in the presidential palace. In Chad, the leading opposition politician was killed in a shootout with security forces. And in Tunisia, once the only democratic success story of the Arab Spring rebellions, the president is steering the state toward increasing autocracy.

Democracy is in trouble in former French colonies in Africa. And the two ways it is being subverted by the elected officials entrusted with upholding it, or by coup plotters overthrowing governments are manifestations of the same malaise, according to some experts.

After they won independence from France in the 1960s, nascent states modeled their constitutions on Frances, concentrating power in presidents hands. And France maintained a web of business and political ties with its former colonies a system known as Franafrique often propping up corrupt governments. These are among the reasons analysts cite for the democratic crisis in these countries.

While a majority of Africans polled still say they prefer democracy to other forms of government, support for it is declining in Africa, while approval of military rule is on the rise it has doubled since 2000. That shift is happening much faster in former French colonies than in former British ones, according to Boniface Dulani, the director of surveys for Afrobarometer, a nonpartisan research organization.

People have been disillusioned with democracy, he said.

The ground has been primed for military takeovers. Eight of the nine successful coups in Africa since 2020 have been in former French colonies the only exception is Sudan, a former British colony. Former French colonies have been champions of coups as well as champions of a hollow pretense at constitutional order and democracy, said Ndongo Samba Sylla, coauthor of a new book on France and its former African colonies.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit andlog intoyour Times account, orsubscribefor all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?Log in.

Want all of The Times?Subscribe.

See more here:
Democracy Teetering in African Countries Once Ruled by France - The New York Times

In 2019, Hong Kong erupted into the most stunning expression of public anger with Beijing in decades. Protesters broke into the legislature and vandalized it. They bought full-page advertisements in international newspapers, criticizing the government. Lawmakers hurled unsavory objects in meetings to protest unpopular bills.

In the years since then, China has waged an expansive crackdown on Hong Kong to crush the opposition. Beijing directly imposed a national security law on the city in 2020 that gave the authorities a powerful tool to round up critics, including a prominent pro-democracy media tycoon.

So when Hong Kongs pro-Beijing lawmakers passed a new security law on Tuesday that expanded the authorities power even more, the vote was virtually unopposed. The most vocal pro-democracy activists and lawmakers are now either in prison or self-imposed exile.

Chow Hang Tung was a human rights lawyer representing other activists on trial for national security offenses, until she herself was arrested in 2021.

Now, she says, she had no other option but to become a columnist, writing open letters from jail, which are then posted online by her friends. She has also filed several legal appeals, writing statements to the court by hand because she had no access to a computer or the internet.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit andlog intoyour Times account, orsubscribefor all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?Log in.

Want all of The Times?Subscribe.

Visit link:
Where Are Hong Kong's Leading Pro-Democracy Figures Now? - The New York Times

Given certain events in recent years, Jim Bohland is worried about the fate of American democracy.

The professor emeritus at Virginia Tech founding director of its School of Public and International Affairs is focused on Novembers election and the unprecedented upheaval that followed the disputed presidential contest of 2020.

Hes gravely concerned the Jan. 6 insurrection and all the political scheming that preceded it were merely a warm-up for the mayhem that could occur after a Joe Biden-Donald Trump electoral rematch later this year.

Virginia Tech Professor Emeritus James R. Bohland is organizing a covocation on defending democracy Thursday afternoon at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Blacksburg.

We werent prepared then, Bohland told me in a Zoom interview with some others Thursday. I think we waited too long in 2020.

Bohland contacted me last week after the second of two columns about a little book by Yale history Professor Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century.

Bohland suggested some additional reads. (A shortened list is attached to this column.)

He also dropped news about an event Thursday in Blacksburg. It hews to many concerns Snyder outlines in On Tyranny. The focus is preparing now to support democracy, whatever happens at the end of this year.

Bohland, who began at Tech in 1980 and is now retired, is still teaching courses through the universitys Lifelong Learning Institute. He recently wrapped up a four-week seminar that garnered about 50 students. The title was: Threats to Democracy Populism and Authoritarianism.

The event Thursday at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Blacksburg is kind of a next step. Its title is Defending Democracy: Convocation & Empowering Grassroots Action.

Its open to the public and begins at 1 p.m. at the church, 1301 Gladewood Drive in Blacksburg. Bohland and his co-organizers are hoping for a big turnout, with people from other churches, civic organizations, institutions, governments and any interested individuals.

Three books about defending democracy recommended by Virginia Tech Professor James R. Bohland. Through the university's Lifelong Learning Institute, he recently taught a four-week course:Threats to Democracy - Populism and Authoritarianism.

The assault on democracy in the United States by a political faction embracing authoritarianism necessitates urgent action to safeguard democratic principles, the invitation-flyer states.

We are inviting all concerned organizations and individuals to collaborate in devising strategies to fortify and extend our democratic ideals.

Co-organizer Bob Stimson, a retired public schoolteacher and principal, said Thursdays meeting is a logical follow-up to the Lifelong Learning Institute course Bohland just concluded.

My view is, a lot of people dont understand that democracy is threatened, and a lot of other people dont care that democracy is being threatened, Stimson said. The people that dont understand dont necessarily support the undermining of democracy. They just need to be educated on what the future might be.

Our goal is to widen the circle, get a lot of people involved . . . to engage the community, politicians, people, and churches, in defending democracy, Stimson said.

We want to leave that meeting with a plan, he added. We want to be able to go out and do something, not just meet and say, Isnt this bad?

Also involved in organizing Defending Democracy are Sara Dalton, a retired social worker, and the Rev. Pam Philips, pastor of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Blacksburg.

Every mature democracy possesses anti-democratic elements, Bohland told me.

Basically, a little under roughly 30% of the populace has authoritarian tendencies, Bohland said, citing The Authoritarian Dynamic, by political scientist Karen Stenner. Democracies always have that kind of latent tendency.

President Joe Biden says the threat to democracy has to be defended. He says you can't bury the truth about January 6. He speaks during the State of the Union address.

Though current anti-democratic pressures originate from Trump and other so-called conservatives, authoritarianism can also spring from the left. Its mirror image is populism. As examples, Bohland cited American politicians Huey Long, a governor and senator from Louisiana, and William Jennings Bryan, a congressman from Nebraska.

Both led left-populist mass movements and waged and lost campaigns for the White House. (Long was assassinated; Jennings ran twice as a Democrat and once for the Populist Party and lost each time.)

The strategy employed by both sides is divide and conquer, Bohland said. On the left, populists tend to see the world as a struggle between the rich and poor. On the right, authoritarians often frame it as a battle to preserve national culture from unchecked immigration.

Either way is us against them, he said.

That tactic isnt new; it dates at least to the Russian Revolution and probably before. From either side, the object is division.

Both push an Im right youre wrong kind of argument, Bohland said. Weve taken a kind of flamethrower approach to this thing, and that hurts unity. The goal of each side is to exploit the masses and take down democracy.

Objectives of the convocation include collaborative networking; supporting and safeguarding voting rights; advocating for elected officials committed to democratic governance; and empowering citizens to articulate democratic values.

The Jan. 6 insurrection was a wake-up call, said Dalton, a team leader for voting rights and reproductive freedom at the Blacksburg Unitarian church.

Im hoping well find people in the community who are interested in defending democracy and come up with actions we can take, she said. Were not going in with a set idea, this is what people should do. Were more interested in finding out what people are thinking in the community, and what theyd like to do.

Philips, whos led the Unitarian congregation since 2017, told me shes heard from pastoring peers whove related theyre reluctant to sermonize about supporting democracy.

Some of them feel like they cant speak from the pulpit about their concerns, she said. Part of it is, its just too political. They get a lot of grief from people in the pews for speaking out.

Philips told me that recently, shes been looking back on history when people didnt say something when they could or should have. Some of the parallel to 20th century Europe are hard to ignore.

During the rise of Nazism in Germany, some of the churches that did speak out were shut down. There were churches that aided and abetted when they should have spoken out about what was happening, she said.

But: If we dont address whats going on in the world on Sunday morning, were kind of burying our heads in the sand, Philips added.

Many good reasons to attend Thursday afternoons convocation in Blacksburg, if you can.

Former D.C. police officer Michael Fanone, who was at the Capitol on January 6, is is interviewed by Times-Dispatch columnist Michael Paul Williams.

Get local news delivered to your inbox!

Visit link:
'The January 6 insurrection was a wake-up call' - Roanoke Times

Youre reading an excerpt from the Todays WorldView newsletter. Sign up to get the rest free, including news from around the globe and interesting ideas and opinions to know, sent to your inbox every weekday.

Three days of voting, staggered across 11 time zones and a vast stretch of the Earth, could only lead to one outcome: An emphatic reelection victory for Russian President Vladimir Putin. It was always clear that the Kremlin would exult in the landslide mandate accorded to Putin, who contested the vote against a handful of ciphers allowed to be presidential candidates. By Sunday evening, election officials announced a preliminary tally of that preordained result, reporting that Putin had won more than 87 percent of the vote, with three-fourths of the vote counted. State figures suggested a greater turnout than the previous presidential vote in 2018.

Even then, exiled watchdog groups reported episodes of ballot-stuffing, voter intimidation at some polling stations and other attempts at manipulation, including the alleged busing of Putin supporters to vote multiple times at different locations. In areas of Ukraine occupied and illegally annexed by Russia, observers recounted how local authorities coerced people to participate in the election at gunpoint.

Election officials were walking around the occupied town of Novomykolaivka, a local official, who has since fled to other areas of Ukraine, told my colleagues, in a brigade accompanied by an armed soldier. He was carrying a weapon, so it was a threat, not verbal, but in fact it was a threat of violence.

Voters in Russia held Noon Against Putin protests outside polling stations on March 17, the final day of the presidential election. (Video: Naomi Schanen/The Washington Post)

Thousands of Russians in big cities attempted to make their displeasure known at both the nature of Putins regime and the ongoing war in Ukraine by going to vote at noon Sunday a symbolic act of solidarity with the late pro-democracy activist Alexei Navalny, who had long called for fairer and freer elections in Russia before dying in captivity. Many spoiled their ballots. Russian authorities clamped down on other forms of dissent and tried to encourage voters to go to the polls ahead of the designated protest time.

I came here today to express my position and do my part to show that there is still a political life in the country and that there are different opinions, a man named Nikolai told my colleagues. Its important to show that people are not alone and that there is still support for this kind of action.

That need to cling to hope is profound and meaningful for anybody struggling under an authoritarian regime. And, on a global scale, the need to locate such hope is becoming more necessary. As already outlined in Todays WorldView, the bumper year of elections worldwide in 2024 comes at a moment of democratic recession, with the health of democracies around the world in notable decline.

A new study this month from the V-Dem Institute, a leading center for the analysis of comparative politics at Swedens University of Gothenburg, laid out some of the worrying macro-indicators. The institutes annual Democracy Report measures a democracy using a multidimensional data set based on a number of factors, including the civil liberties and freedoms afforded to all citizens, and their ability to participate in fair elections.

This years report found 35 countries witnessing a decline in free and fair elections. In 2019, the number was only 16. An election in Putins Russia is a foregone conclusion a regime going through the motions of democracy without any of its actual convictions. But other more genuine democracies are trending in Putins direction: V-Dem found that governments in 24 countries are increasingly encroaching upon the autonomy of election management bodies, undermining integrity in elections and casting doubt over the independence of the commissions that conduct them.

The erosion of election quality is particularly alarming as elections can either reinforce or counteract the autocratization trend, the institute noted. Of over 60 countries holding national elections this year, 31 are worsening on their democracy levels, while only three are improving.

In V-Dems analysis, the greatest source of concern is India, where the ruling Hindu nationalists under Prime Minister Narendra Modi look set to tighten an already outsize grip on power in upcoming elections. Some 42 countries are autocratizing, according to V-Dem, and 71 percent of the worlds population now lives in autocracies up from 48 percent just a decade ago.

These findings dovetail with a gloomy Pew survey published last month. In polls put to respondents in a spread of 24 countries, researchers found that enthusiasm for representative democracy has slipped since 2017, when the organization conducted a similar survey. It found that a median 59 percent respondents were dissatisfied with how their democracy is functioning, and that close to three-quarters of those polled in countries as disparate as Argentina, Germany and Kenya felt that elected officials dont care what they think. More than 40 percent said no political party in their country adequately reflects their views.

The survey found growing interest in alternatives to rule by elected officials, including an embrace of technocracy or even an autocratic strongman. In 13 countries, a quarter or more of those surveyed think a system in which a strong leader can make decisions without interference from parliament or the courts is a good form of government, noted Pew. In four of the eight middle-income nations in the study, at least half of respondents express this view.

Dictatorship or military rule, though, is not popular. And in its open-ended questions to respondents in two dozen countries, Pew found that people want more responsive politicians in power, term limits and liberalizing government forms. Putins Russia is hardly anyones ideal.

Original post:
Democracy Report: Wave of democratic backsliding is a global threat - The Washington Post