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In the fall, when University of Virginia Provost Elizabeth Magill put out a call for special, signature January term courses, media studies professor Siva Vaidhyanathan and history professor Will Hitchcock knew instantly what they needed to do.

The professors had already been recording a new podcast called Democracy in Danger, and believed a J-Term course would be the perfect complement.

We realized that the subject matter, coming right after the most wrenching U.S. election since 1876, would make a great course, Vaidhyanathan said.

Fast-forward a couple months, and their idea has become reality. The professors course, also called Democracy in Danger, has more than 300 students.

Ive never taught this many students in a January term course, Vaidhyanathan said. I usually take 20 students to New York City to visit CNN and Stephen Colbert at this time of year.

A part of UVAs Democracy Initiative, the course and podcast are products of a partnership between the Governing America in a Global Era program that Hitchcock runs (and is sponsored by the College of Arts & Sciences) and the Deliberative Media Lab that Vaidhyanathan heads up.

We hope this helps them become better citizens, and helps them go forth and strengthen American democracy in the coming years.

- Siva Vaidhyanathan

We want students to develop a theory of democracy, Vaidhyanathan said. What are the criteria for a healthy democracy? What sort of laws, structures, institutions, norms and media systems support democracy? What sorts undermine democracy?

We want our students to push us on how we have done the podcast, how we have presented these issues to the world. Are we missing any issues or questions? Are we blinded by our age, class and political ideologies? We want the students to consider themselves co-producers of the second season of Democracy in Danger.

We think Democracy in Danger, the course, is a distillation of the mission of the University of Virginia. Its a high-level academic engagement with difficult issues. Its designed to empower students to think for themselves. Its publicly engaged. And it invites long-term curiosity and thinking.

Last Friday, UVA President Jim Ryan made a guest appearance on the hourlong podcast, as part of a discussion about educations role in democracy.

During the show, Ryan was asked if he could recommend any strategies that could address the fact that many college students may be hesitant to fully express their opinions on issues during these tumultuous political times. He shared a technique from his days as a member of the UVA School of Law faculty, when he assigned students to defend a side of a constitutional law decision they didnt personally agree with.

I think that, as faculty, we need to do our best to create a sense of community in our classrooms thats based on trust, and based on trust in the good faith of those who are part of the community, Ryan said. I think we need to encourage people who are empathetic when they speak. And we also need to encourage generous listening so that were not just going to say, Well, thats a bad person.

Ryan spent about 15 minutes of the hourlong class answering questions from students.

You can stream the podcast from the Democracy in Danger website via Soundcloud. Follow @DinDpodcast on Twitter for all the latest information. The podcast episode featuring Ryan will be available in February on major podcasting platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Stitcher.

Vaidhyanathan and Hitchcock are hopeful their students will carry the ideas and questions raised on the podcast and in the J-Term course into the rest of their coursework at UVA and beyond.

There is only so much one can accomplish in a two-week, intensive course, Vaidhyanathan said, but we hope this helps them become better citizens, and helps them go forth and strengthen American democracy in the coming years.

Read more:
J-Term Course on Democracy Attracts More Than 300 Students and President Ryan - UVA Today

From Beijing to Caracas to Moscow, governments, state-controlled media and online commentators reacted with schadenfreude, accusing Washington of hypocrisy and double standards.

The images of mobs attacking sacred institutions of government or coup attempts are familiar to people living in states ruled by dictators and autocrats. But overseas television viewers are certainly not accustomed to seeing such images beamed live from the capital of the world's chief guarantor of democracy, good governance and human rights.

So, after four years of Trump, the US stands weakened on every front, undoubtedly to the delight of all its adversaries and to the dismay of all its allies. Last Wednesday's violence added an exclamation point to the Trump era's message to the world: The US no longer lives by the values it has preached for decades.

Turning the page

In his final days in office, there is no telling what Trump might do, as his legal protections are about to be lifted and legal jeopardy could arrive at his doorstep.

But as for US foreign policy, once in office President-elect Joe Biden can move quickly down the list and cancel out the damaging foreign policies Trump has instituted, reversing the "America first" -- or, in some cases, "Trump first" -- attitude the current President has taken toward a host of global issues and hotspots.

An early test of Biden's foreign policy savviness -- as well as his ability to turn the page from Trump's agenda -- could be in a country he handled as the point man for President Obama: Ukraine.

The large European country of 44.3 million was drawn into a bruising US domestic fight that, in some ways, came to epitomize the anti-democratic excesses of the Trump era. It remains an important country in an important region for the US, sitting as it does on the dangerous fault line between Putin's Russia and US-allied Europe.

Traditionally, the US has been a strong supporter of Ukraine, and now more than ever, Ukraine needs American assistance -- military, political, and cultural -- to prevent it from slipping back into the Russian embrace, or worse, from becoming a failed state.

Amid the world's myriad problems, the prospect of a failed Ukraine is a real danger to the US-led Western alliance. Giving up on Ukraine would almost certainly bring the frontline with Russia farther westward, and that is a scenario which should shake up Americans of all political stripes.

If Biden is to exorcise the demons of Trump's foreign policies and anti-democratic behavior, the culmination of which we all witnessed on January 6, Ukraine would be an appropriate place to start.

Serving Putin's agenda

Aside from boosting America's global credibility, there's another Trump-era trend that Biden should seek to reverse: American policies that benefit Putin.

And it has been alleged by some that Russia's boldest move to date against the US during the Trump years was a massive cyberattack in December, which some have suspected emanated from Russia; that alleged action passed without any serious rebuke from the White House.

What Trump did in a mere four years to advance Putin's objectives must have exceeded the Russian President's wildest dreams.

Now here is the task list

In some ways, rivalry with Russia has been the US foreign policy story of the last four years.

The relationship deteriorated into open enmity with Putin's 2014 incursion into Crimea, and it came to dominate American domestic politics after Russia's meddling in the 2016 US election and during the yearslong Mueller investigation, the infamous Trump-Zelensky phone call and the impeachment saga that followed.

If Biden wants to return to the source of all those ills, Ukraine is the place to start.

Here's what needs to be done.

First, an Oval Office meeting, long sought-after by Zelensky but blocked by Trump, should occur in Biden's first 100 days -- providing the Covid-19 situation allows it -- and only if Ukraine can show concrete progress on reintroducing reforms.

Aside from providing a "good housekeeping" seal, such a meeting would send an unambiguous signal to Putin that the US has Ukraine's back. After Trump gave Putin a free pass to do almost whatever he wants, Biden needs to send a clear signal to the Kremlin that further adventurism and meddling will not be tolerated.

Seeking a pro-democracy revival

The November election was anything but a mass repudiation of Trumpism and his America-first policies- - in a way, it is most notable that so many Americans chose Trumpism again after four years of it -- but I find it difficult to believe that the majority of Americans are prepared to see the US exit from the world stage.

Biden needs to act quickly to salvage America's reputation overseas, lest the void be filled by other world leaders less interested in the promotion of values we hold so dear.

Care to wager a guess as to which foreign leaders might want to seize on that vacuum?

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Can America still promote democracy? Yes, and it should start with Ukraine - CNN

Wednesdays insurrection laid bare the fragility of democracy in the United States. It is unsurprising that many Americans feel their confidence in the countrys democratic ideals deeply shaken. The expressions ofconcernfrom American allies, and the schadenfreude fromautocrats,including Turkeys Recep Tayyip Erdoan, are sobering.

Writing inForeign Policy, Emma Ashford, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council,argued, Ambitious foreign-policy goals are completely out of step with the realities of the countrys domestic political and economic dysfunction How can the United States spread democracy or act as an example for others if it barely has a functioning democracy at home? InForeign Affairs, James Goldgeier, a professor at American University, and Bruce Jentleson, a professor at Duke University,calledon President-elect Joe Biden to abandon his proposed international summit for democracy and hold a domestic one instead. Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations,lamented on Twitter that it will be a long time before we can credibly advocate for the rule of law overseas.

However, it would be wrong to conclude that our current humiliation means that the United States has somehow lost its standing to speak up for democracy and human rights globally, or that these ideals are less pressing because of our domestic troubles. Quite the opposite. Our situation shows that the United States has a real stake in the struggle.

Repairing democracy at home is not incompatible with standing up for democracy abroad; they are mutually reinforcing. The threats to democracy are not unique to the United States. Trumpism is part of a global nationalist-populist movement that benefits from international networks of kleptocracy, disinformation, and corruption. As Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren noted during the Democratic presidential primary, taking down these networks is a necessary prerequisite for restoring democracy and the rule of law at home.

Many of the long-term threats to democracydisinformation and the lack of an objective truth, political interference by China and Russia, inequities in the global economy, and fears about interdependence and globalizationcan only be addressed collectively. And American allies still want the countrys help. Allied officials have told me in recent days that although they are worried about whats happening in the United States, they would regard it as a disaster if the U.S. abandoned its leadership role in strengthening liberal democracy globally.

This week, Twitter wasawashwithpeople arguing that the United States has no moral authority to lecture others about human rights given what happened in Washington. This sentiment was also prevalent over the summer, following the murder of George Floyd. Then, Tamara Cofman Wittes, a former Obama-administration official, wiselyobserved, in an article on the Brookings Institution website:

To insist that we must first get our house in order before speaking to others oppression, to be so ashamed by our own shortcomings that we refrain from calling out abuses abroad, and thus to withhold our solidarity from the abused, would itself be an act of moral abdication.

After four years of Donald Trump and rising authoritarianism around the world, we now live in what former U.K. Foreign Secretary David Miliband haslabeled the age of impunity, when governments believe that they can get away with anything, largely because they can. If the United States does not push back against this, it will only get worse.

In the days after the insurrection, the Chinese embassy in Washingtontweeted a horribly offensive statement about the forced sterilization of Uighur women in Xinjiang, China, that was later taken down by Twitter. The post could be interpreted as a deliberate provocation to show that, as the United States fell into crisis, China could push the boundaries of acceptable discourse. Earlier in the week, China arrested scores of prodemocracy activists in Hong Kong in its efforts to slowly strangle the last remnants of freedom in the city.

Perhaps denunciation of these actions and a renewed focus in Congress on how to respond would sound hollow because of Americas domestic problems, but that does not make them any less necessary. Beijing may argue that the United States lacks credibility, but its victims certainly would not.

Unlike the Trump administration, the Biden team has signaled that it is willing to get tough with American allies and other countries when they commit human-rights abuses or undermine democracyincluding the Saudi Arabian governments murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the imprisonment of women-rights activists. Many domestic critics of U.S. foreign policy have long argued for these actions. Because America electedand then rejecteda populist who incites violence, it would be a very unfortunate irony if his newly elected replacement would shy away from holding to account an absolute monarchy thatsends teams abroad to kidnap and sometimes murder its critics.

Moments of crisis and despair should force us to confront our own failings and reconcile them with our values and purpose. Sometimes, an individual can articulate that in a way that resonates and breaks through. This time, that eloquence came from a member of the U.S. Foreign Service, a group that has been attacked and undermined by the Trump administration. Two days after the invasion of the Capitol, Natalie Brown, the U.S. ambassador to Uganda, issued astatement that explained why the United States must still stand for freedom and the rule of law:

When we speak out against human rights abuses, we do so not because such abuses do not occur in America. When we speak out for press freedom, we do so not because American journalists are entirely free of harassment. When we call for judicial independence, we do so not because judges in America are free of external influence. On the contrary, we do so because we are mindful of the work still to be done in the American experiment with democracy and because our history has taught us that democracy must be defended if it is to endure.

The U.S. certainly has lessons to learn from the past few days, and years. For example, the Trump administrationused democracy and human rights purely instrumentally, as weapons with which to bludgeon its enemiesChina, Venezuela, Cubawhile giving its friends a pass and undermining these values at home. That approach is bankrupt and will fail if tried again.

Biden transition officials have admirably spoken out in support of human rights and seem likely to continue to do so. The president-elect likes to talk about the power of our example rather than the example of our power. He is right, of course, but the sad truth is that the power of our example will not be sufficient to fight authoritarianism worldwide. The urgency and gravity of the struggle is such that it requires concrete action as well as strong words. These could include legislation to prohibit U.S. companies from aiding and abetting authoritarian governments in their acts of repression. It should also mean imposing a cost on U.S. allies that undermine democracyfor instance, banning their leaders from visiting Washington, or even reducing cooperation with them.

Trump, more than any other president, has tried to empower autocrats and undermine liberal democracy. In this, he succeeded for four years. Now we are poised for a reversal. For the United States to lose confidence in its own ability to protect democracy abroad would be to hand Trump and Trumpism a victory when he is on the verge of defeat. It is precisely because American democracy is under pressure at home that the U.S. government ought to stand up for it overseas.

See the article here:
The US must now repair democracy at home and abroad - Brookings Institution

Editor,

It should be obvious now that Donald Trump, and his supporters and enablers, represent a clear and present danger to our democracy.

His supporters represent a class of Americans who live in an alternate reality fed by fear and fantasy. Their appearance on the political scene was anticipated. These poor folks embrace falsehoods and absurd conspiracy theories.

The fact is that, though Vlad was sad, the entire rational world breathed a sigh of relief to see Trump defeated.

For four long disturbing, destructive years we watched this enemy of democracy, lover of dictators and white supremacists, pseudo-Christian, enabler of grifters, torturer of children and families, abuser of women, defiler of the rules of decorum and decency, denier of science and reality, extortionist and betrayer of allies and pardoner of liars, thieves and war criminals wreck havoc.

This narcissistic wannabe dictator, worked tirelessly to shred the fabric of our democracy and almost succeeded. He had powerful allies in boardrooms and in Congress as well as the Fox propaganda machine.

Studies have pointed out Fox News biases. The Business Insider reported that media outlets such as Fox News and MSNBC have a negative impact on peoples current events knowledge, while NPR and Sunday morning political talk shows are the most informative sources of news.

According to the Pew Research Center, The Fox News audience skews more ideological than that of its two main competitors.

Their methods are studied in high schools and universities as examples of bad journalism.

While senators Ted Cruz and JoshHawley maneuver to inherit the irrational, well be praying for their return to sanity and invite them to join us on Jan. 20 to celebrate our democracy which, though ravaged, survived this terrible period.

Gary Piazzon

Coupeville

Read more here:
Letter: Democracy, though ravaged, survived this terrible period - Whidbey News-Times

The inauguration of Joe Biden as US president on 20 January has become a touchstone moment in the history of American democracy. Following the outrage of last weeks storming of Congress by Donald Trump supporters, at least 10,000 members of the national guard will be deployed in Washington by this weekend. Reports have detailed FBI warnings of possible armed protests in the capital and across the United States in the days ahead. The area around the Washington Monument, close to where Mr Trump urged supporters to fight for his right to stay in office, has been closed to the public. The mood is fearful, febrile and somewhat surreal. In the words of one newspaper headline: Is this America?

Since the foundation of the federal republic, the peaceful transition of power has been fundamental to Americas understanding of itself. In US democracys choreography, the presidential inauguration is designed as a moment of civic celebration that transcends partisan differences. That Mr Trump chose to mobilise an insurgency against the handover gives the measure of his narcissism, hubris and deranged will to power. Last weeks riot was not a one-off piece of performance theatre that got out of hand. The pitch for an assault on democracy had been rolled for months. In the autumn, speaking more like a mobster than a president, Mr Trump told the neo-fascist Proud Boys movement to stand by, and warned that the Democratic party would try to steal the election. Last weeks violent mayhem, which led to five deaths, was the culmination of a strategy to intimidate and discredit the democratic institutions of the country he leads.

Democrat members of the House of Representatives are therefore right to launch impeachment proceedings for a second time against a rogue president. As the charge sheet states, Mr Trump incited violence against the government of the United States. Assuming Wednesdays vote to impeach is passed in the Democrat-controlled House, the next stage will take place in the Senate, currently in recess until after Mr Bidens inauguration. A two-thirds supermajority would be required to convict, but it seems improbable that a sufficient number of Republicans will do the right thing. Another shaming moment looms for a party that has abased itself at Mr Trumps feet in the pursuit of power and lost its soul in the process.

But even if legal process were to deliver Mr Trump his just deserts, the crisis of Americas growing polarisation of which the president is a symptom as well as a cause would remain. Tribalism has become a disabling virus in the US body politic, cracking the public square in two. Social media, belatedly under new scrutiny, is used by citizens to sustain alternate, conflicting realities: three in four Republican voters continue to believe that there was widespread voter fraud in November, despite the rulings of close to 100 judges to the contrary. As faith in the neutrality of public institutions declines, studies have shown a disturbing rise in the number of Americans on both left and right who believe that political violence is sometimes justified.

Against this dismal backdrop, the theme of Mr Bidens inauguration speech will be America united. It seems likely that it will be delivered in the shadow of impeachment proceedings against his predecessor, and a mass military presence. This is a script that should belong to a bingeworthy drama on Netflix during lockdown. Instead, it is Americas dystopian reality. The new presidents healing message will be the right one. Making it heard will be the defining challenge of his long political career.

Read more from the original source:
The Guardian view on democracy in America: the threat is real - The Guardian