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America is in deep trouble and I say that not out of hatred but out of love. James Baldwin once explained that he loved America "more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually."

With little fanfare, last Monday was World Freedom Day. President Biden offered an obligatory public statement, including the somewhat dubious claim that since the fall of the Berlin Wall 32 years ago, "we have seen great progress to advance human rights and fundamental freedoms as well as to build and consolidate democratic institutions across the formerly communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe and around the world." But democracy, the president admitted, "remains under threat" in many parts of the world where "we see aspiring autocrats trample the rule of law, attack freedom of the press, and undermine an independent judiciary."

Biden's proclamation continues:

Today, we reaffirm our commitment to the ideal that democracy a Government of the people, by the people, and for the people is how we best safeguard the rights, freedoms, and dignity that belong to every person.Together with other free nations, the United States remains committed to the vital work of strengthening our democratic institutions, defending civil society, advancing human rights, and holding those who commit abuses and foster corruption accountable.

It isa statement of what the United States wishes it were, not whatit actually is, especiallyin this era of democracy crisis and ascendant neofascism.In total, there is something apprehensive and sad in this overly hopeful tribute, not to mention a hefty dose of denial. Biden's proclamationalmost sounds like the words of a president who knows his country is losing a war, yet tells the public:"Victory is imminent! Do not despair!"

Many Americans can sense the country's inner turmoil and understand that something is very broken.

RELATED:Republicans would "rather end democracy" than turn away from Trump, says Harvard professor

That despair and feeling of wrongness reflect a deep intuition, even if ourlanguage is often insufficient to capture it,that this American interregnum will resolve itself in a period of chaotic transformationand perhaps thedefeat of multiracial democracy. But many millions of people remain indenial about America's escalating democracy crisis or support the emerging fascist movement, mistakingit for "patriotism."

The democracy advocacy organization Freedom House reports that the"democracy score"of the United Stateshas decreased by 11 points since 2010, placing it in a groupof countries with the largest such declines by that measure. As Freedom House reported in March, the Trump administration worsened that trend significantly:

The final weeks of the Trump presidency featured unprecedented attacks on one of the world's most visible and influential democracies. After four years of condoning and indeed pardoning official malfeasance, ducking accountability for his own transgressions, and encouraging racist and right-wing extremists, the outgoing president openly strove to illegally overturn his loss at the polls, culminating in his incitement of an armed mob to disrupt Congress's certification of the results. ... Only a serious and sustained reform effort can repair the damage done during the Trump era to the perception and reality of basic rights and freedoms in the United States.

Groundbreaking research by the V-Dem institute at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden has foundthat the Republican Party has becomeso extremethat it more closely resembles openly right-wing authoritarian and fascist political parties in Europe and elsewherethan it does mainstream center-right partieslike the Conservatives in Britain or the Christian Democratic Union in Germany.

As legal scholar Robert Kagan wrote in the Washington Post in September, "The United States is heading into its greatest political and constitutional crisis since the Civil War, with a reasonable chance over the next three to four years of incidents of mass violence, a breakdown of federal authority, and the division of the country into warring red and blue enclaves." He concluded:

We are already in a constitutional crisis. The destruction of democracy might not come until November 2024, but critical steps in that direction are happening now. In a little more than a year, it may become impossible to pass legislation to protect the electoral process in 2024. Now it is impossible only because anti-Trump Republicans, and even some Democrats, refuse to tinker with the filibuster. It is impossible because, despite all that has happened, some people still wish to be good Republicans even as they oppose Trump. These decisions will not wear well as the nation tumbles into full-blown crisis.

Social scientists, investigative journalistsand other experts have shown that even before American neofascism's risethat the country's status as a "democracy" was alreadyimperiled bythe power of therichest Americans and corporate oligarchs to set the political agenda whilethe concerns of the average American are all but ignored by elected officials and other elites.

The meaning and spirit of Biden's World Freedom Day proclamation is further complicated by how much the world's self-described "greatest democracy"now resemblesthe failed oraspiring democracies who supposedly look to it for inspiration.

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There are too many examples to list in full, beginning of course with the coup attempt and violent assault on the U.S. Capitol last January. That coup attempt was not decisively defeated.Republican fascists and their propaganda machine are using the Big Lie, claiming thatthe 2020 election was stolenand Biden's presidency is illegitimateto further discredit and undermine American democracy.

Thatpropaganda campaign has beenhighly effective: A large percentage if not majorityof Republican voters believe that Trump is somehow still the real president, that the 2020 election was fraudulent, andthe Democratic Party is an enemy of "real" Americans.Public opinion and other research has also shown that a large percentage of Republican voters and Trump supporters are willing to accept or condone political violence and other forms of terrorism in order to "protect" their "traditional way of life."

Across the country, Republicans and their anti-democracy operatives are enacting laws and other policies (such as partisan gerrymandering) aimed at preventingBlack and brown people and otherDemocratic Party's constituenciesfrom voting or otherwise receiving fair representation. Channeling the Jim Crowreign of terror, the Republicans are also using threats of violence and other forms of intimidation including potentially armed"poll watchers" and "election police" in an effort to suppress or restrict the votes of Black and brown people, among others.

In perhaps their greatest success, the Republican fascists, along withtheir propagandists and dream merchants, have also underminedthe very idea of truth and empirical reality itself. Tens of millions of people exist in a right-wing echo chamber structured by conspiracy theory, anti-intellectualism, irrationality, hatred, and where authoritarianismis worshipped as a civic religion and personal identity.

Too many liberals or "moderates" have deluded themselves into believing that rationaldialogueor factual evidence can somehow persuade the Republican fascists and other members of the right wing to abandon their alternate reality. But such appeals to logic and reason holdlittle power over the emotional pleasures to be found in fascism.

Democratic leaders,the Biden administration and the Department of Justice are not acting with the necessary urgency to investigate and punish Donald Trump and other collaborators forthe crimes of Jan. 6 and their ongoing coup attempt. Without the rule of law and justice, democracy will die.

America's democracy crisis, when viewed in the context ofthe many other crises facing the country and the world,has led to the anxious coping behavior known as "doom-scrolling,"in which each individual dreadful event is lost amid many others ina never-ending stream.

We might more accurately described howthe American people at least those who are paying attention and remaininvested in saving democracy are stuck ona "doom treadmill," which is creatinga sense of physical, emotional, spiritual and intellectualexhaustion. The only way to escape is torunfaster than the infernal machine forces those stuck on it but most Americans lack the strength and endurance to do so.

What can be done?

Pro-democracy Americans mustally with others locally to find mutual aid and support in what will likely be a long struggle against American fascism. It's not enough to supportDemocratic candidatesand other "mainstream"political figures or organizations. Normal politics, almost by definition, is insufficientto defeat fascism. Political pragmatism will be required to prevail in this struggle.

Collective actionwill also be necessary strikes, protestsand other forms of corporeal politics and direct action to confront and cause substantive consequences for those political leaders,businesses and organizations whosupportthe Republican fascists and their movement.

Americans who support democracy need to share information, knowledgeand other resources, in order to help create an alternative public sphere as a counterbalance to the Republican-fascist assault on truth and reality.As survivors of authoritarian regimes in othertimesand places have suggested, keeping a private journal is a valuable way todocument the changes insociety as neofascism gains power. When reality is under siege it becomes the responsibility of individuals andsmall groupsto maintain some formof documentary record.

Democracy is a noun and a verb. Doing the work necessary to defend and reinvigorate American democracy will not be easy and cannot be understood as a short-term endeavor. As we have seen in the U.S. and other countries, this is likely to be an intergenerational struggle.

In a recent essay,anti-racism educator and activist Tim Wise observed: "Maintaining democracy, a livable planet, or a functioning society is like any other job. If you don't work at it, it doesn't get done." Fascists, he noted, "are the only ones showing up and punching the clock. They don't "take a break from the news," and they don't "do nomadism, digital or otherwise. They show the fuck up."

Pro-democracy Americans mustinternalize the wisdom of others who have fought (and won) similar battles. That is certainly thebest way tocreatesolidarity and finding energy and inspiration for what will often bethankless or evendangerous political work.

The Italian philosopherand activist Antonio Gramsci famously spoke of the need for "pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will" in the battle againstauthoritarianism. That combination will surely be necessary but then the fundamental question becomes:Do the American people want a real democracy and are enough of them willing to work and sacrifice to reclaim that possibility as reality?

More from Salon on the Trump-era crisis of democracy:

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American democracy is on the treadmill of doom: How do we get off? - Salon

Cuban authorities have snuffed out protests planned by activists to call for nationwide demonstrations for democracy and more freedom of expression.

After being caught off guard by unprecedented protests in July, the government acted in advance to ban the demonstrations planned for Monday, ran a media campaign arguing it was a US attempt at regime change, and placed protest leaders under house arrest.

Edel Prez, 35, a television actor arrested in the July protests, was prevented from leaving his house by two plain-clothed state security agents. I feel impotent and angry, he said. They are violating my constitutional rights.

Cubans posted videos of arrests on Facebook, while activists who dared to go out were driven away in police cars, and others were bundled into vans. Acts of repudiation, in which government supporters shout revolutionary slogans at alleged counter-revolutionaries, were reported outside many protest organisers homes.

In Havana, where plain-clothed state security officers were out in force, a tense calm prevailed. Though schools finally reopened after a long lockdown, many parents opted to keep their children at home.

One 22-year-old university student, who did not give his name for fear of retaliation, trekked across the capital looking for a protest to join. Nothings happening, he said.

I feel satisfied for having done this, but Im also sad about how scared people are, he said.

Having avoided the spectacle of mass protests, the government will feel it won this round. The Biden administration, it hopes, will now conclude that Julys protests were a blip, that the regime is stable, and that sanctions ought now to be eased.

The Biden administration has so far left all the Trump-era sanctions in place. These powerful sanctions coupled with Covid have halved foreign currency inflows over the last two years, leading to shortages of basic goods and fomenting discontent.

But the desire of young Cubans for greater freedoms will not disappear. There will now be other attempts to march and more repression, the university student said.

Read more:
Cuba democracy protests thwarted after rallies banned and leaders arrested - The Guardian

By Peter Schurmann and Manuel Ortiz

Hondurans will cast their vote for the Central American nations next president on Nov. 28. The election comes amid violence and socioeconomic conditions that rank as among the lowest in the Western Hemisphere, alongside Haiti.

For many, Honduras warrants the status of a failed state. Yet, there are those here who believe the coming elections offer the best and perhaps last chance for change.

These elections are an opportunity to recover the democratic process and to confront the multiple crises impacting the country, said Gustavo Irias, executive director of the Center for Democracy Studies (CESPAD), a nonprofit that advocates on behalf of Honduras marginalized communities. This is a chance for Honduras to recover its sense as a nation.

That sense of nationhood was shattered in 2009, when the Honduran military ousted former president Manuel Zelaya. Since then, Honduras has remained under the control of the National Party, currently led by President Juan Orlando Hernndez, now finishing his second term under a cloud of suspicion, given his potentiallinks to drug traffickers.

The candidates seeking to replace him include National Party favorite and current Tegucigalpa Mayor Nasry Asfura, or Papi as he is known, and the Libre Partys Xiomara Castro, wife of ousted former president Zelaya. She has promised to curb the excesses of the free-market policies embraced by her opponent and is forging closer ties to China.

On Twitter, President Hernndez said when his administration began, there was no social justice, and those most in need were not helped. He claims he created something comprehensive and sustainable and that Honduras is no longer neglected.

Yet, violence, corruption and poverty are endemic here. As of 2019, 15 percent of Honduranslive on less than $2 per day, conditions likely worsened by COVID-19 and the impact of hurricanes Eta and Iota last year. Projections are more than half the country fell below the poverty line in 2020, according to the World Bank.

Such conditions are fueling an exodus of migrants from the country, with data from this year showing 168,546 separate reports of Hondurans detained by immigration officials in the United States and Mexico, according toa June report from the Migration Policy Institute. The report noted one-in-five Hondurans express a desire to leave the country, with reasons ranging from food insecurity to fear of assault and unemployment.

For some in the capital, the coming elections offer little hope for improvement.

Nothing is going to change, said Victor Manuel Mayorga, a public employee who says he has not been able to retire because the government stole the states pension funds. At 79, Mayorga is part of a tiny minority of senior citizens in a country where the median age is just 24. Many young people have died in the violence of the last four decades.

Sitting in the citys central plaza talking soccer with friends, he notes the lack of education and health care, and accuses officials of all political stripes of abandoning the country. I believe in democracy, but in Honduras it is broken. Its been broken since the coup.

However, not everyone despairs.

Csar Nahn Aquino, 44, is an auto mechanic from the town of Yoritos, about 125 miles north of Tegucigalpa. The town made headlines two years ago when residents successfully banded together to eject a mining company that had attempted to set up operations in the region.

A member of the Tolupn indigenous community, he ran a transportation company in San Pedro Sula before the COVID-19 pandemic, which he says eviscerated his business. Now he is back in his hometown, a largely agricultural region known for coffee, avocados and cattle ranching.

Were asking for the basics, to get rid of corrupt elections, transparency and reactivate the local economy, so it benefits people in the community, said Aquino, a supporter of local mayoral candidate Freddy Murio.

Murio is a formerly undocumented migrant who spent 12 years working construction in New York before returning to his hometown two years ago.

We have to start with our municipality before we can begin to change the country, Aquino said.

Back in the capital, officials acknowledge no single election will solve the challenges confronting Honduras. They say it is important to protect the integrity of the vote and secure the democratic process. Both are key to repairing the ongoing damage caused by the coup in 2009.

The only opportunity for the country to build a democratic foundation is through the coming elections, said Rixi Moncada, a lawyer and part of a three-person rotating chair with the newly created National Electoral Council, or CNE as its known by its Spanish acronym.

The CNE, responsible for delivering the final vote tally once the polls close, was created following widespread irregularities and violence that marked elections in 2017. Along with the National Registry of Persons and the Clean Politics Unit tasked with monitoring campaign finance in a nation where drug money and politics areinextricably intertwined these three institutions are responsible for ensuring election integrity.

Moncada, a former member of the Zelaya administration, admits it is no easy task.

No one is prepared for the criminality, she says, referring to the ongoing political violence she sees as an extension of the 2009 coup, including the recent murder ofNery Reyes, mayoral candidate and member of the opposition Libre Party, who was killed in October. No one has been arrested for the murder.

We are prepared for the process, she said.

The story Honduras Elections A Test for Democracy In a Failed State is published in collaboration with Ethnic Media Services.

Edited by Melanie Slone and Fern Siegel

The post Elections In Honduras Are A Test For Democracy In A Hard-Hit Nation appeared first on Zenger News.

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Elections In Honduras Are A Test For Democracy In A Hard-Hit Nation - Birmingham Times

Books by and about Chinese President Xi Jinping fill a display at the Museum of the Communist Party of China in Beijing on November 11, 2021.

Noel Celis | AFP | Getty Images

BEIJING A top Chinese official issued a rare criticism of the U.S. and Western democracy during a high-profile political press conference Friday.

The night before, Chinese President Xi Jinping joined the ranks of Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping and became the country's third leader to oversee the adoption of a "historical resolution" at the close of a widely-watched meeting of the Chinese Communist Party, the sixth plenum of the party's Central Committee.

Mao led China for decades after the founding of the Chinese Communist Party a century ago. Deng spearheaded sweeping economic reforms four decades ago that reduced the state's role in the economy and allowed foreign businesses into China.

Chinese officials at Friday's press conference emphasized how the country would now follow Xi and his vision for a strong CCP-dominated system.

And for more than five minutes, Jiang Jinquan, director of the policy research office of the party's central committee, criticized the U.S. and Western countries for trying to impose their idea of democracy on China.

The electoral democracy of Western countries are actually democracy ruled by the capital, and they are a game of the rich, not real democracy.

Jiang Jinquan

director, policy research office of the CCP's central committee

"Democracy is not an exclusive patent of Western countries and even less should it be defined or dictated by Western countries," Jiang said in Mandarin, according to an official translation.

"The electoral democracy of Western countries are actually democracy ruled by the capital, and they are a game of the rich, not real democracy," he said.

While China's foreign diplomats and propaganda arms have made similar criticisms in the past, Jiang's remarks stood out due to the high-profile political context of the press event, and their specific mention of the U.S.

The U.S. plan to hold a "Summit for Democracy" in December is "an attempt to revitalize Western democracy," Jiang said. "To convene such a summit against [a] backdrop of loads of problems in Western democracy, ... the intention is nothing but bashing other countries and dividing the world."

He also pointed to public opinion polls showing widespread worries in the U.S. about American democracy, compared with overwhelming Chinese confidence in their own government.

A Pew Research study released Nov. 1 found that 72% of Americans say U.S. democracy used to be a good example for others to follow, but has not been recently. A study led by York University professor Cary Wu found local satisfaction with how the Chinese government handled the coronavirus pandemic.

"The Chinese constantly attack democracies as being not truly representative of the people but rather a cover for elites to keep control," said Scott Kennedy is senior advisor and Trustee Chair in Chinese Business and Economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"Certainly there are a lot of Americans disenchanted with our political system," Kennedy said, without referring to a specific poll. "The irony is that Americans are free to criticize their government. In China, expressing such an opinion could make you a dissident and get you locked up."

While criticizing Western political systems, Chinese officials on Friday promoted their country's own agenda and emphasized new models under Xi.

"Xi is using the past to serve the present and claim the future, by constructing a historical narrative that justifies his personal leadership and policy preferences as he looks to secure a norm-defying third term as leader at the 20th Party Congress next fall," Neil Thomas, analyst for China and Northeast Asia at Eurasia Group, wrote in a note.

Since Xi rose to the top of central government power in 2012, he has promoted his own state-centric political ideology, commonly known as "Xi Thought."

The official report on this week's "historical resolution" cemented Xi's political leadership by calling him the "principal founder of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era."

Economic development has been "front and center" for the CCP, said Han Wenxiu, executive vice minister at the finance and economic affairs office of the party's central committee. He referred to a meeting held in 1978, just as Deng was beginning to allow foreign businesses into China.

"As socialism with Chinese characteristics enters a new era, development has been given new meanings," Han said.

"We should cast aside the old development path," he said, noting that high-quality development is now more important like recognizing that "green and lush mountains are invaluable assets." Han maintained that Beijing would still like to "open up" and remain part of the global economy.

Many foreign investors and businesses have been caught off-guard this year by Beijing's crackdown on internet technology companies, after-school tutoring businesses and real estate developers.

Tech giants have subsequently tried to show they are in line with Beijing's effort to pursue "common prosperity," and focus on moderate wealth for all, rather than for just a few. That means addressing social problems such as high living costs and an impending labor shortage from a rapidly aging population.

Xi's view is that "ideological challenges are threats to national security," the Economist Intelligence Unit said in a statement. That will "indicate more assertive efforts to shape 'ideological education' across the country, in ways that may adopt an anti-Western tone. Economic reform, however, was barely mentioned, suggesting that the current tilt toward [regulatory] intervention will continue."

Chinese officials on Friday did not directly respond to questions on how policy goals might be affected by slowing economic growth.

Han from the economic affairs office said "entrepreneurs have multiple ways and means to contribute to common prosperity, the most basic of which is to operate lawfully and honestly." Han said stealing from the rich to help the poor in a "Robinhood" approach of forcing donations "would run counter to the original notion of common prosperity."

He also said that the "right way to contribute to common prosperity" includes paying taxes, performing "social responsibilities," and treating employees and customers well.

Correction: This story has been updated with the correct spelling for the name of Jiang Jinquan, the director at the policy research office of the CCP's Central Committee.

Read more here:
China slams U.S. democracy as a 'game of the rich,' at an event promoting Xi's growing power - CNBC

(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) Over 100 people spoke in opposition to the Utah Legislatures Redistricting Committee's only public hearing for the map proposals, Capitol's House Building, Room 30, Nov. 8, 2021.

By Kael Weston | Special to The Tribune

| Nov. 15, 2021, 6:10 p.m.

It is the smell of Fallujah where the biggest battle of the Iraq War happened in 2004 that has stayed with me most after all these years.

The decay of human flesh under bombed-out buildings filled the air, almost everywhere, that cold winter half a world away. I was the U.S. State Department representative charged with rebuilding the political process in Iraqs war-ravaged city of mosques. Mine was a job of epic proportions. Marine tanks were parked under damaged minarets and numerous platoons of Marine infantry teenagers, really patrolled dangerous streets as I sought out Iraqi local leaders to work with us, the American Occupiers, one long day at a time.

Now back home in Utah years later, if the rot of democracy had a smell, it would have filled the Utah Capitols House Building Room #30 Monday night across six hours. Along with hundreds of other Utahns, I attended the Utah Legislative Redistricting Committees only public meeting on their proposed political maps that will frame our state politics for the next ten years.

What I witnessed was democratic decay at its worst and happening in real time. Utahn after Utahn stood up, spoke out, in person and online, about the need to respect the will of the people when it comes to political mapmaking. There were teachers in the room. Activists. Environmentalists. A lot of Democrats but also quite a few Republicans. Old. Young. People of color and plenty of middle-aged white guys.

The theme was common: Listen to us, listen to the people. Respect the will of Utahns. And, sure as hell, do not gerrymander Utahs congressional map by politically cracking Salt Lake County into four pieces as their map did. Utahs largest county has been chopped three ways for the last decade. I know firsthand because I was the Democratic Party nominee in Utahs 2nd Congressional District in 2020, a vast area that covered 14 counties, almost half the state, from Farmington to Big Water (pop. 562), Tooele to Torrey, and St. George to the Avenues.

Redrock. Alfalfa. And, yes, skyscrapers much of the gerrymandered base, in other words, of Utahs disenfranchised and often demoralized Democrats.

In 2018, over a half a million Utahns, a majority, passed Proposition 4, which prioritized transparency, fairness and keeping communities of interest together in the redistricting process. Despite being politically neutered later on by the Legislature, Utahs Independent Electoral Commission and staff, and the nonpartisan group Better Boundaries, worked hard this past year, out in the open. The end product was good maps. Good choices for legislators.

None of this work was taken into account. Supermajority Republican legislators instead did their own thing. The entire evening smelled to high heaven, or rather all the way to electoral hell if youre a Democrat or member of a minority community in the most urban and diverse parts of the state.

I had done my democratic due diligence before this week. Across the last two months, I attended six legislative redistricting committee hearings, putting in over 500 miles in my old truck, joining legislators for their hearings in Rose Park, Richfield, Moab, Price, Summit County and in Clearfield.

In Rose Park, community leaders showed how cohesive their area was and should be a working class post-WWII suburb of Salt Lake (where my sister lived for several years in the 90s) with compact streets named after different varieties of rose bushes. At Richfield High, several rural county commissioners said the Legislatures job was, and this is a verbatim quote, to protect Chris Stewart. In Moab, a Monticello resident conveyed an outright us vs. them mentality toward Moabites. She urged visiting legislators to basically put a big red stockade wall between her self-described idyllic rural community and the loud and un-Utah, in her view at least, booming tourist mecca up the road.

In Price, a teacher described how Utah remains a tale of two states, with poverty and educational challenges unique to the post-coal area. In Summit, the volume was at its highest as residents described their own three-way political split, when their community of interest pointed most toward Salt Lake City not in the direction of Duchesne. In Clearfield, the subdued meeting was followed by a Mexican meal in town where a big Ford truck was parked out front with two Trump 2024 flags affixed behind the cab with tinted windows.

I left Mondays meeting not only deeply disappointed but even more deeply concerned about the future of our Beehive State and country. This redistricting process seems only to have further divided Utahn from Utahn, neighbor from neighbor, American from American. More incivility. More apathy (my vote does not matter logic and truth?). And likely more political violence, whether in months or years the next decade is a long time for political insults to go from simmer back to boil. January 6th as preview, not rear view.

The small politics on display in House Rm. 30 was a disservice to our state and our people. The dying of a democracy is not preordained, but it sure has a velocity of its own and in one downward spiral direction unless those of us who care enough refuse to concede.

So, what is to be done?

The next time we will get our say in a big way will be on the ballots in 2022, 2024 and beyond. Lets make our lists and check them twice. The deep rot of our democracy is painful to see, but we cannot look away, especially now.

We must not give up on our country or on our Utah neighbors, whatever their politics, and whichever part of the newest gerrymandered congressional district we will soon share.

Kael Weston, author, teacher, former State Department official and Rotarian, was the Democratic Party nominee in 2020 in Utahs 2nd Congressional District.

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Kael Weston: Legislature leaves the stench of rotting democracy in the air - Salt Lake Tribune