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Editor, Townsman:

Our democracy is founded on many ideals such as popular sovereignty or the will of the people, applying scientific reasoning to politics, religious tolerance, freedom of speech, equality, freedom of press, and defending human rights against tyranny.

For democracy to function, its citizens must be entrusted to use reason, critical thinking, the capacity to discern fact from fiction, and accept the authority of truth especially as it concerns the function of government and the understanding of law and history. These democratic values form a right to rule established as a contract with the people which is threatened when rulers become oppressive.

We bore witness to egregious attacks on our democracy during the 2020 election that threatened to usher in an era of outright authoritarian rule. The incumbent president pressured state officials to alter election results, propagated lies and alternate realities claiming he was the rightful winner, schemed to have the vice president declare the election void, allowed his former national security advisor to propose implementing martial law to overturn the election while federal lawmakers sued state governments to invalidate a free and fair election. All these actions were designed to give unlimited power and authority to a single person and one political party, to remove legal restraints, and to solidify his demand for loyalty and subservience.

Our democracy is in dire peril because reason and truth have been abandoned by many citizens and lawmakers alike. Unless truth is returned to its rightful jurisdiction, we hover on the brink of tyranny.

William Kolbe

Andover

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Letter: Democracy in peril | Letters To The Editor | andovertownsman.com - Andover Townsman

Romana: I dont think we should interfere.

The Doctor: Interfere? Of course we should interfere. Always do what youre best at, thats what I say.

Doctor Who, Nightmare of Eden, 1979

For years, Republicans have mischaracterized Barack Obamas Affordable Care Act as a federal takeover of health care in the United States.

All those doctors, nurses, orderlies, cooks, insurance clerks and stockholders in for-profit hospitals would be shocked to hear that the federal government has seized their practices and properties. Because, of course, it did no such thing.

What Obamacare did was put some guardrails around how health care was paid for. As a result, health care in the United States stinks a little less, even though it is still the worst in the developed world, and is accessible to many more people in this, the only First World nation where medical bankruptcy is even a thing.

Now Utah Sen. Mitt Romney is among Republicans accusing Joe Biden and other Democrats of plotting a federal takeover of the American system of elections. A system, Romney says, that is and always has been run by state and local officials with no federal meddling.

Senator, Ulysses S. Grant would like a word.

Proposed voting rights legislation would not take the operation of elections away from the states. It would, like the ACA, set up some minimal standards and guards. The fact is that federal oversight interference, if you will has never made elections worse in any state or county. It has only made them better. And it is baked into the system.

In Article I of the Constitution of the United States: The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations.

Article IV: The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government.(The capitalization of the word Republican in this case does not denote the Republican Party, which did not then exist, but is an example of the habit of the time, perhaps borrowed from German, to capitalize lots of important words.)

The 14th Amendment: No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States ... nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. ... The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

The 15th Amendment: The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. ... The Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

President Grant called the 15th Amendment, a measure of grander importance than any other one act of the kind from the foundation of our free Government to the present day.

The John Lewis Voting Rights Act, as well as many previous, and bipartisan, voting rights laws over the years have been, in the words of the Constitution, appropriate legislation passed to keep the promise of equal access to the polls.

Until now. Without doubt, states North and South are moving to limit the right and ability to vote in ways that, even if they dont use the words, are intended to make it more difficult for people of color, poor people, working people, students, to vote. Not, necessarily, more difficult than it was 100 years ago. But more difficult than it was two years ago, something Congress has the right and the duty to stop.

Romney tries to minimize the impact of proposed changes by arguing that, even as states such as Georgia roll back such provisions as early voting or ballot drop boxes, those states laws are in some cases still more generous than the practices in blue states such as New York. Fine. Pass the new law, and everyone will be on the same page. Like the post-Civil War amendments intended.

Romneys arguments about election laws do make a couple of good points. One is that the voting provisions that have passed the House and run aground in the Senate dont face some of the most nefarious aspects of Donald Trumps plot to steal the 2020 election. The parts involving fake slates of electors and such. More legislation is needed to handle that.

The other is that the nuts and bolts of elections are traditionally run on the ground by states and counties, with guidelines set by Congress and enforced by the Department of Justice and the courts. The proposed laws wont change that, and they shouldnt.

Elections run as a fully federal enterprise would be easier to steal, allowing someone to hack into a single data system. Decentralizing the actual voting and vote-counting process was and is a good thing that should continue, if only to make it harder for anyone to cook the books.

Of course, to really protect elections, we must eliminate the Electoral College. With the current system, someone could fake or steal just a few thousand votes in a swing state or two and tilt the whole result. Whereas electing a president by popular nationwide vote with the votes counted in each of 3,142 counties would be a much more accurate measure of the national will even as it would be much more difficult to hack.

Romney says Biden was elected to, in effect, not be Donald Trump, and no more. But without federal enforcement of universal access to the polls, the chances that Trump and Trumpism will return could not be greater.

George Pyle, reading The New York Times at The Rose Establishment.

George Pyle, opinion editor of The Salt Lake Tribune, has been contemplating Ron Chernows 1,000-page biography of Ulysses S. Grant for about two years now. He is on page 18.

gpyle@sltrib.com

Twitter, @debatestate

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The Constitution expects that the federal government will set standards for democracy in every state. - Salt Lake Tribune

A political activist who grew up in a family of rebels and campaigned for democracy from behind the Iron Curtain has been inducted as an associate chaplain at the University of Edinburgh.

Rev Dr Urzula Glienecke, who first began studying to be a minister in the early 1990s in Latvia when it was dangerous to be a Christian under Soviet Union rule has been ordained into the Church of Scotland at Greyfriars Kirk.

As associate chaplain, she will help run a listening service, which also offers out-of-hours support, for people of all denominations and none across the campus.

As part of the role I can bring in the things that are most important to me, such as working for social justice: against racism; against poverty, promoting the environment; supporting LGBTQ+ people; and working with people of other faiths, she said.

Everybody is welcome to come if they want a listening ear which is non-judgemental.

There is a lot of pain and a lot of violence that I can remember my own family faced growing up in this oppressive system, especially being connected to the church

Rev Dr Urzula Glienecke

Dr Glieneckes path into ministry, however, was far from welcoming.

At the age of 14, she was required to attend an underground church group, which was literally underground in the cellar of a church, because of the dangers of exploring her faith under strict communist and atheist rule.

She described her relatives as a family of rebels, giving a particular mention to her grandmother who played the organ for more than 30 years for the Lutheran Church in Latvia when such an activity was considered highly dangerous.

Any dissidents caught, including Christians, were at risk of deportation to camps in Siberia she said.

Then, while studying for her theology degree, the Latvian Lutheran Church changed dramatically and excluded women from ordination.

I lost my church home so I moved away to Norway, to Germany where I met my husband then to Ireland and to Spain, Dr Glienecke said.

There is a lot of pain and a lot of violence that I can remember my own family faced growing up in this oppressive system, especially being connected to the church.

Dr Urzula Glienecke as a teenager with other fellow activists holding the Latvian flag, which was banned under communist rule (Church of Scotland/PA)

Latvia fell to the east side of the Iron Curtain a political boundary dividing Europe into two separate areas from the end of the Second World War in 1945 until the end of the Cold War in 1991 an effort from the Soviet Union (USSR) to block itself and its satellite states from open contact with the West and its allied states.

Yet despite the dangers, the Latvian Christian community was committed to the pro-democracy movement from the late 80s.

Many of them took part in the Baltic Chain in 1989, otherwise known as the Baltic Way, a peaceful political demonstration that involved about two million people linking arms or holding hands and forming a 600km-long human chain through the Baltic countries, demonstrating their unity in their efforts towards freedom.

We knew it was very dangerous, but we wanted freedom to believe, we wanted to communicate with the world, she said.

I dont know a single Baltic family who didnt lose a family member either due to being deported to Siberia or having to escape to the West, especially in the early days of the Soviet occupation.

When her denomination stopped ordaining women, Dr Glienecke moved abroad and completed a PhD at the Jesuit-affiliated Milltown Institute in Dublin.

She then moved to Spain where she ended up learning about the Iona Community in Scotland a dispersed Christian ecumenical community working for peace, social justice and communities and eventually was able to move to the Isle of Iona and become a member of staff there.

I loved the open-mindedness, the inclusivity, the focus on peace-making and justice and the environment, she said.

She then completed her journey into ministry after spending time as a probationer at Greyfriars Kirk, where she will now take on her role as associate chaplain after being ordained on Tuesday evening.

Speaking about her latest role, Dr Glienecke said she feels very much at home and loves its democratic nature.

She described her next step in the church as the opportunity of a lifetime and says her ordination brought her joy.

She added: It felt very definitely right and I still cant quite believe it.

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Democracy activist who fought behind Iron Curtain ordained into Kirk - The Independent

In 2020, as the world shut down to insulate against COVID-19, a disturbing side effect of the pandemic began quietly taking root in some corners of the world: democratic backsliding and growing autocracies.

While the news worries freedom lovers everywhere, democracy could rebound once governments lift their health restrictions as soon as the pandemic ends. So says V-Dem, a Swedish nonprofit that tracks the health of democracies across a variety of indicators.

While some nations have seen a significant deterioration of freedoms during the past 18 months, the pandemics direct impact on the vitality of democracy itself has so far been limited, it says. But those who run Washingtons top global development organizations arent waiting to sound the alarm.

More people are struggling for democratic rights and freedoms around the world than really ever since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, Daniel Twining, president of the International Republican Institute (IRI), told me in a recent episode of Democracy! The Podcast.

Twining argues that democracy doesnt work without full and effective citizen engagement, something he says has been badly compromised by malign influence and disinformationmostly from foreign regimes such as Russia and China. We see people stepping out all over the place. We also see repressive governments cracking down in, frankly, new and sophisticated, and dangerous ways.

Twining, along with Anthony Banbury, president and CEO of the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), and Ambassador Derek Mitchell, president of the National Democratic Institute, lead the Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening (CEPPS). Funded by the US Agency for International Development, CEPPSwhich uses V-Dem data to inform its programmingoversees USAIDs largest democracy assistance awards.

Besides helping advance democracy in more than 50 nations, the consortium has also thrown its support behind the Summit for Democracy. The Biden administration has invited more than 100 countries to attend, and will hold at least one follow-up summit in 2022.

The fact is, the autocrats are on the offensive, and they have a sense that democracy is fragile, and, the smaller d democrats around the world, feel like theyre on the defensive, and theyre playing a weak hand where theyre playing it with confidence, and theyre trying to gain an advantage, said Mitchell, who in 2012 was the first US ambassador to return to Burma after a 22-year break in diplomatic relations.

While some may wonder if advocates exaggerate the degree to which COVID-19 restrictions have eroded democracy, V-Dems report shows that even the smallest declines in freedom are troublesome, because most autocracies develop in a predictable mannerbeginning with restrictions on media, academic freedom and civil society. Then governments promote polarization among their own citizens with disinformation campaigns via social media before moving on to blatant disrespect and intolerance for opposing political views. And thats when more visible attacks on democracy become apparent, which makes less inconspicuous activities, like the governments attitude towards journalists, reliable indicators of democratic health.

Still, some experts find that lengthy lockdowns and other restrictive health measures have egregiously and unnecessarily accelerated democratic decay in places like Sri Lanka, Nepal and Paraguay. El Salvador, for instance, has seen widespread crackdowns on journalists as well as human rights violations in the past year. Observers say President Nayib Bukele is escalating his abuse of power through manipulating the judicial system with an eye toward his possible re-election in 2024.

Democracy in any country is always a work in progress, says Banbury, a 20-year veteran of the United Nations, including seven years as the UNs assistant secretary-general for field support. Even in the worst public health environments, democratic leaders need to respect constraints on emergency powers and pursue good-faith efforts to hold elections when it can be done safely.

Banbury, who designed and led the UNs first-ever emergency health mission in 2014, said at even at the height of Liberias Ebola crisis, IFES worked with the National Elections Commission and medical experts to integrate a range of practical health measures, such as social distancing and revised processing, which helps ensure a safe exchange of ballot papers, ID cards, and other voting materials in this type of climate.

Some countries, like Honduras, have weathered the restraints of the current pandemic well enough to deliver successful elections. Preliminary results from Honduran presidential elections in late November saw the largest voter turnout in 24 years. The victory of Xiomara Castros Freedom and Refoundation Party marks the first time a woman leads Honduras. While Castro who beat 11 other candidatespromises no abuse of power, her win ends the 12-year rule of the conservative National Party of Honduras.

Elections are critical to protecting democratic rights during a time like the COVID-19 pandemic when significant state power is often concentrated in the executive branch through powerful emergency measures, Banbury said. It is important that leaders reschedule elections as quickly as possible, if the public health environment is so dire that they genuinely need to be postponed.

Adds Mitchell: Democracy is not simply about a process or an election. Its a culture that has to be developed [and] re-energized by the citizens of every generation This is the challenge of our time. There are authoritarian opportunists who want to prey on those who are frustrated, or concerned about the course of democracy. And theyre willing to get out there and use our moments of weakness to gain advantage. We cant let that happen.

Original post:
V-Dem warns of democratic backsliding in covid's wake - The Washington Diplomat

As we turn the final pages on a tumultuous 2021, all this week The Fulcrum will share a year-end series of guest commentaries from a distinguished group of columnists on the current state of electoral reform and what we may expect in the upcoming year.

Penniman is the founder and CEO of Issue One, a crosspartisan political reform organization, and author of Nation on the Take: How Big Money Corrupts Our Democracy and What We Can Do About It.

Our democracy is under attack. The campaign to sow doubt in our elections and create distrust in our institutions is extremely motivated, and bad actors are gaining ground across the country.

This year alone, we saw 19 states enact new laws that will make it harder for Americans to vote, and several states placed election administration under greater partisan control. Barring federal action, we will see even more states in 2022 take steps to undermine the will of the people and set the stage for a constitutional crisis the likes of which we have never seen in our history.

Thats why Congress must act. Many common sense proposals which benefit from a long history of bipartisanship and are supported by overwhelming majorities of Americans have already been introduced. But Republicans in Congress have repeatedly filibustered these bills, going so far as to block debate on the very reforms needed to fix our broken political system.

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We cannot allow this inaction to continue into next year. If we want to save our democracy, we must act now. As the leading crosspartisan political reform group in Washington, D.C., heres what Issue One is focused on achieving in 2022.

Our election officials and frontline poll workers have been facing death threats on a daily basis since the 2020 presidential election. These have been fueled by baseless claims of fraud despite former President Donald Trumps own Department of Homeland Security, and attorney general, declaring the 2020 election safe and secure.

While the Department of Justice launched a task force earlier this year to investigate threats against election workers, there have been few arrests or criminal convictions, and many secretaries of state are frustrated that the task force hasnt been deployed aggressively enough.

Our election officials are the embodiment of democracy in action helping members of their communities register to vote, find their polling locations, cast their ballots and ensure that every vote is counted accurately. Many now live in fear, and states are bracing for mass retirements in the wake of these threats, which leaves positions open to extremists. As former Trump advisor Steve Bannon, a leader of the Stop the Steal movement, said last month, Were taking over all the elections.

In addition to the DOJ stepping up its game, members of Congress should seek to pass bipartisan legislation protecting election officials from intimidation and threats of violence.

Weve seen a growing number of states move to strip local election officials of their power and place election oversight into the hands of partisan politicians. Its difficult to interpret these laws as anything but election sabotage an attempt to do what failed in 2020 by making it legal for politicians to toss out legitimate votes if they dont like the outcome.

Principled Republicans, Democrats and independents must stand against this trend before it takes over not just purple states and red states but also blue states.

Even in the midst of a global pandemic, mail-in ballots, early voting and additional measures helped ensure that Americans were able to safely exercise their sacred freedom to vote.

What was the response in some states to this tremendous success? Making it harder to vote.

The massive disinformation campaign that Trump and many of his supporters continue to spread about the 2020 campaign has empowered lawmakers to roll back voting modalities they once championed like mail-in voting.

And for what gain? In Novembers gubernatorial election in Virginia, where steps have been taken in recent years to make voting more accessible, we saw how Republicans appear to have benefitted from some of the very proposals that have now stalled in Congress including early voting, no-excuse absentee voting and automatic voter registration.

Passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would at least empower the Department of Justice to take a closer look under the hoods of some of these laws and make sure they dont discriminate against certain groups of voters. Congress has previously reauthorized the VRA on five separate occasions by overwhelming majorities of Republicans and Democrats since its original passage in 1965, and they should once again affirm that bipartisanship.

Weve all seen the classic examples of gerrymandering zigzagging districts engineered down to partisan perfection. Its a tried and true weapon that both political parties have mastered, long ago coming to the realization that the best way to win elections and hold onto power is to prevent races from becoming competitive in the first place.

Its had a profound effect on the makeup of Congress: of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives, only 10 percent are considered up for grabs in next years midterm elections. Which means that 90 percent of House members need to worry mainly about getting through their primaries, either by raising so much money they prophylactically scare off competitors or by being so extreme that they cultivate the affinity of base voters.

When we talk about the dysfunctionality on Capitol Hill, we have to realize that its in large part the result of structural problems, and that many of those problems are fixable. Voters should pick their politicians, not the other way around. We must fix this undemocratic problem.

Our ability to elect a president and vice president fairly and peacefully every four years is

a hallmark of our democratic system. For over a century, the Electoral Count Act has governed this process and Congress role. But the 19th century law is outdated and rife with arcane language and ambiguities, opening the door to misinterpretations and exploitation.

Its time for Congress to modernize this law, clarify the role of the vice president, rein in the objection process and prevent one party from attempting to overturn the will of the people.

We cannot leave this to chance. Both parties should work together to get this done and restore Americans trust in our democratic process.

Disinformation permeates every corner of our society. It fueled an attack on our nations Capitol and continues to run rampant across all forms of media, perpetuating lies about the election and other falsehoods.

Until we confront the harm disinformation is causing, it will be extremely difficult to accomplish any of the important reforms outlined above. We cannot hand the future of our country over to algorithms that distort the truth and allow lies to spread faster than real journalism.

Congress cannot let these platforms off the hook. Members from both parties have already expressed interest in bipartisan solutions following disturbing reports about the dangers facing young people. It is crucial that legislation also addresses the destructive power of disinformation.

Our broken political system fueled by big money has created an environment in which the vast majority of ordinary citizens today no longer have a seat at the table. 2022 must be the year we change course and fix this. The American people must have confidence in our democracy.

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Six things we must do to save our democracy and protect our elections in 2022 - The Fulcrum