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Spain will on Tuesday mark the 40th anniversary of an attempted right-wing coup which for hours left the country in a state of political chaos.

This is how the coup that threatened Spain's fragile democracy unfolded, less than six years after dictator general Francisco Franco died in 1975:

The assaultOn the evening of February 23, 1981 about 200 Civil Guard officers stormed the lower house of parliament, firing assault rifles in the air as MPs debated the investiture of a new centrist government.

The group was led by lieutenant-colonel Antonio Tejero, who ordered everyone to lie on the floor.

Only three people did not dive for cover, outgoing prime minister Adolfo Suarez, his deputy general Gutierrez Mellado and the leader of the newly legalised Communist party, Santiago Carrillo.

In Madrid, rebels took over the studios of Spain's public TV and radio for about 90 minutes before they were dispersed by riot police.

Inhabitants of the Spanish capital locked themselves at home and some packed their bags, preparing to flee.

King's counterstrikeKing Juan Carlos immediately sought to shut down the coup. From the Zarzuela Palace near Madrid he called generals across the country and ordered them to respect the new government.

In 1978, Spain had adopted a constitution that was overwhelmingly supported in a referendum and which established a parliamentary monarchy.

During the night that followed the coup attempt, the monarch took action against its political leader Alfonso Armada, a general who had been the king's military instructor and later his secretary.

Juan Carlos barred Armada from the Zarzuela Palace and rejected his proposal to form a new government.

Just after 1:00 am, the king went on television in his uniform as Captain General of the Armed Forces to say he had ordered all measures be taken to maintain the constitutional order.

"The Crown, ... will not tolerate, in any degree whatsoever, the actions or behaviour of anyone attempting, through use of force, to interrupt the democratic process of the Constitution," he said.

The rebels who stormed parliament surrendered at noon on February 24, less than a day after launching their attempted coup.

The contextThe coup attempt came amid widespread disenchantment with Suarez, who had been appointed prime minister by Juan Carlos in 1976.

By February 1981, the king had fallen out with Suarez, a centrist who faced fierce opposition from the Socialists and pressure from military officials angered by the Communist Party's legalisation.

The military was also upset by the government's failure to end the Basque separatist group ETA's long-running campaign of violence.

Suarez presented his surprise resignation on January 29, 1981 following a meeting with military leaders at the Zarzuela Palace.

Armada immediately tried to take advantage of his influence over the king to be appointed as Suarez's replacement.

When that failed, Armada pushed ahead with preparations for the coup with Tejero and Milans del Bosch.

A military court sentenced all three men to 30 years in jail.

Armada received a pardon in 1988 while Milans del Bosch was released in 1990 and Tejero in 1996.

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The attempted coup that put Spain's democracy on tenterhooks - Economic Times

Certainly, it was an irregular voting year. In some states, the pandemic prompted more Americans to vote by mail than the total number who voted at all in 2016. But election officials in every single state have said repeatedly that, despite the many challenges 2020 brought, they saw no evidence of fraud that could have altered the outcome of the election.

And after votes were cast, when Congress attempted to use its best tool of self-defense, they let Trump go unpunished for his attempted power grab.

Americans ought to remember the names of those Republicans who objected to the outcome of a free and fair election, the representatives who stuck by Trump in the impeachment vote, and the senators who acquitted him after his trial.

Cruz was the first senator to raise an objection during the joint session of Congress on January 6. He has repeatedly fueled Trumps lies about widespread irregularities and fraud in the election, telling Fox Newss Sean Hannity the night before the Capitol riot that if members of Congress voted to certify the election, what an awful lot of voters are going to hear from that is you dont think voter fraud is real. Cruz repeated Trumps baseless claims of fraud in the Senate, lending legitimacy to the lie that Joe Biden wasnt duly elected. He also objected to Pennsylvanias votes after the violence, and still maintains that he did the right thing.

Hawley was the first senator to publicly state that he would object to the election results, saying he wanted to highlight the failure of some states, including notably Pennsylvania, to follow their own election laws (he is notably not an elected official in Pennsylvania)and was pictured raising a fist in a seeming sign of solidarity with protesters before they breached the Capitol on January 6. He still objected to the count after Congress reconvened, but provided no evidence of fraud in either Arizona or Pennsylvania. Like Cruz, he says he has no regrets, insisting that his constituents concerns deserve to be heard.

Hyde-Smith twice objected to certifying the election results, blaming her constituents for her vote: The people I represent do not believe the presidential election was constitutional and cannot accept the Electoral College decision, she said. She then claimed to be alarmed with the erosion of integrity of the electoral processerosion she contributed to by perpetuating claims of fraud.

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Remember the Republicans Who Betrayed Democracy - The Atlantic

Since the AfD entered Parliament, it has frequently tested this defensive democracy, pushing and often crossing the boundaries of acceptable public discourse. Its politicians have suggested that migrants could be shot at the border or gassed. They have dabbled in conspiracy theories like the Great Replacement, which imagines a coordinated campaign to replace Europes white population with non-European people. They have even sought to downplay the horrors of the Nazi past: An AfD leader named Alexander Gauland notoriously described the Nazi era as a mere speck of bird poop in German history.

All this comes as political violence here is on the rise. In the past two years, right-wing extremists have murdered the politician Walter Lbcke (he had argued that Germans who did not support taking in refugees could leave the country themselves); killed two people after attempting to storm a synagogue on Yom Kippur in Halle; and shot and killed nine people in two hookah bars in Hanau. Although none of the perpetrators were directly linked to the AfD, its rhetoric has helped foster anti-refugee, anti-immigrant sentiments in Germany.

That does not mean that using constitutional tools to push back against an extremist political party is easy. More than five million Germans voted for the AfD in 2017, and while its support has dropped during the pandemic, it remains a significant force in the German Parliament. Whenever government agencies or other parties penalize the AfD, its leaders claim that the party is being persecuted which only bolsters the conviction among its supporters that more mainstream political parties are indifferent to their concerns.

In addition, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution has sometimes contributed to the problem it now seeks to solve. It has been rightly criticized, for instance, for having a historical blind spot when it comes to the far right. One of its chiefs, Hans-Georg Maassen, lost his job in 2018 after downplaying far-right violence in Chemnitz.

Still, Germany has an arsenal of constitutional tools to protect against extremist forces, even if using them generates controversy and accusations of persecution. Defensive democracy is working, at least in the sense that the domestic intelligence service has recognized a threat and is taking steps to eliminate it. At a time when disinformation, political polarization and far-right forces are combining to endanger democracies across the West, other countries should take note.

Emily Schultheis is a freelance journalist and a fellow with the Institute of Current World Affairs.

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Opinion | Germany Is Treating a Major Party as a Threat to Its Democracy - The New York Times

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Letter to the editor: Democracy dwindling as GOP rewards Trump - TribLIVE

By 21 years old, Frederick Douglass declared himself free, sailed to New Bedford, Massechuttsets, paid the $1.50 poll tax and voted for the first time. He voted again the following year, 1841. Douglass served in Abraham Lincolns cabinet and joined with women suffragettes demanding the right to vote.

Like so many born into slavery, Douglass did not know his birthday. He chose Feb. 14 as his birthday. Over 100 years after his birthday, the League of Women Voters became a national organization. The right to vote drove both.

The right to vote wasnt a right for all. From 1865 to 1868, Reconstruction allowed Black men to work, vote, run for office and enjoy the rights of white men. The white supremacy groups arose. Thousands were killed or intimated for trying to vote in spite of the 15th Amendment (1870), which nationalized Black mens right to vote. States used many creative, even violent methods to restrict access to the polls. Poll taxes, literacy tests and grandfather clauses shut Black men out. In 1868, Louisiana white Democrats killed over a 1,000 Black men and white Republicans. 1874, white people drove away a thousand Black Alabama men trying to vote. The white residents of Barbour County circulated rumors of an invasion, according to the Encyclopedia of Alabama. They rioted, killing seven men, injuring 70, and were just one of many groups in multiple states who scared off Black voters.

Meanwhile in some states, a few women could vote. They had to pass mental competency, age and residency tests. The 19th Amendment, ratified in 1920, came with its own troubled existence. Sojourner Truth separated herself from the women suffragettes when Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony denounced the right of Black men to vote before women had the right. When Southern Senator Ellison Smith resisted the 19th Amendment because it would give the other half of the Negro race the right to vote, suffragette Carrie Chapman Catt pointed out that white supremacy could be restored. She argued tragically that white women were under Black men at the moment, and the right to vote would make them equals.

When the 19th Amendment passed in 1920, the right to vote remained barred for many. Black women in Savannah, Georgia were turned away en masse that year because the state said they had to register a full six months before election. In 1924, many Native American should have been able to vote, having been recognized as citizens finally. Many states prevented their votes by labeling them wards of the state. Because of the Alien Exclusion Act of 1900, Asian-Americans could not naturalize. Finally in 1943, they were legally able to vote.

Until 1965, localities limited voting with every creative tactic they could muster. In 1961, Junius Edward published Liars Dont Qualify to show how good ol boys frustrated Black veterans. Four years later the Voting Rights Act outlawed sneaky tactics. They obstructed Black World War II veterans, such as Maceo Snipes and Medgar Evers. Snipes was lynched in Taylor County, Georgia, in 1946. Evers was murdered in his home in 1963.

From 1965 to the present, the ability to vote freely remains fickle. Its fragility returned in 2013 when Congress and the Supreme Court invalidated key portions. A process that began in Indiana in 2006 has begun to steamroll the ability to vote freely and fairly.

For this reason, the League of Women Voters, among others, supports the For the People Act (HR 1, S.1) which passed in 2019 in the House by a significant bipartisan margin. Its one of the most transformative laws to be on the docket this year.

The For the People Act reduces barriers to voting, controls gerrymandering and changes campaign financing. It allows for automatic voter registration when citizens obtain a drivers license, expands early voting, allows for voting by mail for any reason, improves paper balloting and other election security. It normalizes provisional ballot requirements across the nation. In other words, it improves registration and voting access for everyone. It requires independent commissions in all 50 states for redistricting. Currently only 13 states rely on such commissions exclusively for redistricting. 8 other states use them for help in the process. Finally, H.R. 1/S.1 multiples the power of small donors so that big money is not the loudest voice clamoring for political attention.

A great way to honor the birthdays of Douglass and the League is to let our Congress people know we want them to pass the For the People Act into law.

The League of Women Voters, a non-partisan, multi-issue organization encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase public understanding of major policy issues and influences public policy through education and advocacy. All men and women are invited to join the LWV where hands-on work to safeguard democracy leads to civic improvement. For information, visit the website http://www.lwvmontcoin.org or the League of Women Voters of Montgomery County, IN Facebook page.

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For the love of democracy - Journal Review