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Italian elementary schoolchildren assemble for a propagandistic photo praising fascist leader Benito Mussolini. Translation: Leader, We Love You.

Courtesy of Diana Garvin

On the Saturday before Election Day this year, a coalition of scholars who study authoritarianism issued an open letter of warning titled, How to Keep the Lights on in Democracies. It began: Regardless of the outcome of the United States election, democracy as we know it is already imperiled. However, it is not too late to turn the tide.

It continues, While democracy appeared to be flourishing everywhere in the years following the end of the Cold War, today it seems to be withering or in full-scale collapse globally.

The letter points out that many of the societal conditions that allowed fascism and authoritarianism to flourish in history are evident in modern society. And it issues a call to safeguard critical thinking based on evidence.

Since then, much has happened in American history. One week after the letter was issued, former Vice President Joe Biden won the U.S. presidential election. Outgoing President Donald Trump, as of this writing, has refused to concede the race.

Related: Trump election lawsuits have mostly failed. Here's what they tried.

Still, the scholars write, We believe that unless we take immediate action, democracy as we know it will continue in its frightening regression, irrespective of who wins the American presidency.

The project behind the letter, The New Fascism Syllabus, came together around the time of the Unite the Right white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. Historians with expertise in 20th Century fascism, authoritarianism and right-wing populism were becoming concerned with how some of what they saw in the United States seemed to echo conditions they recognized from their fields of study. The projects editorial board of 18 international scholars curates and crowdsources syllabi and scholarly writings to provide insight into how past societies experienced and resisted fascism.

Professor Diana Garvin is an assistant professor of Italian Studies at the University of Oregon. She studies the history of fascism in Italy and its former colonies in East Africa.

Courtesy of Diana Garvin

The creation of the open letter was a group effort by that board, spearheaded by Jennifer Evans of Carleton University and Brian J. Griffith of UCLA. Another member of the editorial board, and one of the more than 200 scholars who signed the letter, is professor Diana Garvin. Garvin is an assistant professor of Italian Studies at the University of Oregon and studies the history of fascism in Italy and its former colonies in East Africa. Shes also the author of the forthcoming book, Feeding Fascism: The Politics of Womens Food Work."

Garvin spoke recently with OPBs Jenn Chvez regarding what we can learn about modern democracy from the history of Italian fascism, as Americans move past a historic election. Here are some highlights from their conversation:

So, heres what Italian politics looked like about 100 years ago. Giovanni Giolitti, an old hand at Italian politics, has just been reelected prime minister of the Liberal Union. So thats a centrist liberal government, and its trying to modernize, its going global. Italy is going to help found the League of Nations that year. But not everything is rosy.

"Leftist protests are raging across the urban north. And yet, the Liberal Union tries to ignore the noise. It keeps supporting factory owners. Plus, theyve got a tendency to leave poor, rural voters behind.

An Italian menu from the fascist period with a propagandistic illustration promoting domestic food production. Translation: Italians, resist! Buy national [Italian] products.

Courtesy of Diana Garvin

"And that group was the first to sign up for the Fasci di Combattimento. To these voters, it seemed like the Giolitti government didnt care about them at all. It was catering to foreigners, to urban elites. And worse still was the governments style, which they considered to be feminized. It was too conciliatory, too subtle. It was not sufficiently invested, they thought, in questions of national pride and the military.

"Many were veterans, and they felt that they had done a great service to the country in World War I. But then they came home to diminished prospects and massive unemployment. This made them prime recruits for the nascent Fascist Party. They were sad, they were angry and they were very familiar with guns.

Over the past four years, weve seen the creation of a model for anti-democratic approaches to American politics. In 2016, we talked a lot about outrage fatigue, but we dont say that anymore. Its now commonplace to hear vanguard newspapers dismissed as fake news, to hear climate change described as a belief, to see caravans of armed drivers in the United States. In other words, the past four years have already shattered our limits of acceptable behavior. And its not just for leaders, its also for American citizens.

"So even with the Biden/Harris win, far-right groups are part of the new political landscape. We might reject white supremacist groups like the Proud Boys and the Three Percenters and Patriot Prayer, but were covering them regularly on mainstream stations. That is new. These formerly fringe groups are now relevant to American citizens, and it makes me think of a historical lesson from interwar Italy, which is: Fascism wreaks havoc not through hyperbole, but through normalization.

Members of the Proud Boys and other far-right demonstrators rally on Saturday, Sept. 26, 2020, in Portland, Ore.

John Locher / AP

"At present, Democrats have got to resist the temptation to throw a party and then take a four-year nap. Were still at high risk for violence and paramilitarism. Militia numbers and activity are on the rise, and that is the result of four years of repeated and deliberate galvanization of radical right groups. It was in whispers to the Proud Boys to stand back and stand by. But it goes back to Charlottesville, to some very fine people on both sides. Its that kind of rhetoric.

Members of the Giovane Italiane (Young Italians) fascist youth group on the march in Rome, circa 1935

Courtesy of Diana Garvin

"To understand the psychology of these groups, the history of fascism offers some helpful insights. Under democracy, the use of force is usually the province of state: so the military, or the police. But fascism deputizes its followers to use violence. So, patriots can use force against enemies, so long as its on the states behalf.

"The Blackshirts those were the followers of fascism nursed a rigid sense of victimhood. And that remained true even when they held power in a single-party state. What fascism did was it made the Blackshirts feel big. It gave them license to physically dominate and to bully, and it told them that they were part of a movement that was going to put them on top of society, over effeminate elites, intellectuals, where they so rightfully belonged. Oregons political geography puts it on the front lines of a similar cultural battleground.

Since the Biden/Harris win, theres been an escalation of far-right rhetoric about Democrats being too dangerous to rule. Historically, its that kind of chatter that precedes exceptional government actions. The risk now is not a Trump campaign in 2024. He might aspire to authoritarianism, but he lacks the commitment and the skill to carry it off. The real threat would be a far-right figure who could match the populist bluster, while also saying just enough of the right things to gain institutional support. A patient autocrat would be much more dangerous.

Fascism as a phenomenon was born in Europe at the start of the 20th Century. And historically, fascism doesnt rise alone. Instead, it gained ground through an uneasy but very effective collaboration with traditional elites.

"Contrary to popular belief, Mussolini did not take power in a coup. Against a backdrop of economic depression, labor crisis, Italian politicians in the 1920s were aimless and divided. So those were the background conditions. With a lethargic parliament and the threat of violence in the air, the King of Italy offered Mussolini the chance to form a coalition government. The political establishment had considered Mussolini to be kind of ridiculous. He was a brawler, a yeller, he didnt seem very bright. But his brash, vulgar style was popular and they thought they could use him to energize the party.

I always tell my students to think about how to make speaking up feel easier. Find something that youre already good at, and then tweak it toward doing good. That way, you make activism sustainable.

"So first, you could learn how to persuade. Logic alone rarely works, but emotion does. People have to want to do something. You can paint vivid pictures for your listeners. Use the future tense. When I teach courses on fascism and neo-fascism, we prepare talking points in advance. Then you can talk directly with people who you dont agree with. Maybe theyll come around, maybe they wont, but you start seeing yourself as someone who speaks up. Thats the first step.

People, many carrying signs bearing messages opposing white supremacist groups, attend the Portland Solidarity with Charlottesville vigil at Portland City Hall Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017.

Bryan M. Vance / OPB

"The next one is to take part in broader civic debates. You could get started by checking out the Mellon Foundations Monuments Project. They pledged $250 million to reimagine monuments over the next five years. We need to rethink the places where national history gets written. So memorials and statues, but also museums and art installations. These are the places where we write who we are as a nation.

"Then finally, and most importantly, you could help out with the organizations that have been fighting these forces for a long time. So, Southern Poverty Law Center, Planned Parenthood, Indigenous Environmental Network, Transgender Law Center ... History has demonstrated that nonviolent protest is extremely effective, and that was true, even in the darkest years of fascism.

Listen to the full conversation by clicking play on the audio player at the top of this article.

See the article here:
What protectors of democracy can learn from the history of Italian fascism - OPB News

Election 2020 has a winner. So what did we learn? We look at the long-term impact of the 2020 presidential election, and what America can do to heal.

Danielle Allen,political philosopher. Professor and director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University. (@dsallentess)

Ret. Col. Larry Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell (2002-2005). Served 31 years in the U.S. Army.Adjunct professor of government and public policy at the College of William & Mary.

Michael Kruse, senior staff writer atPOLITICO. (@michaelkruse)

Washington Post: "The results of our national election may tell a story of division. Ballot measures tell a different tale." "The results of our national election may tell a story of division, but state ballot propositions tell a different tale. They show Americans agreeing about significant priorities, including a fundamental remaking of our justice system. There is much to be grateful for here, and something to build on."

POLITICO: "How Misfortuneand Stunning LuckBrought Joe Biden to the Presidency" "Its been barely more than eight months since Joe Bidens presidential campaign looked all but done."

New York Times: "As Trump Refuses to Concede, G.O.P. Remains Divided" "White House advisers have warned President Trump of his narrow chances in any legal fight. The Biden team turned its focus to the transition. And world leaders offered their congratulations to the president-elect."

POLITICO: "Donald Trump Confronts a New Label: Loser" "I win, I win, I always win. In the end I always win, Donald Trump once said."

Reuters: "Biden campaign urges federal agency to approve official transition" "President-elect Joe Bidens campaign on Sunday urged the Trump political appointee who heads the U.S. General Services Administration to approve an official transition of power despite President Donald Trumps refusal to concede."

The Guardian: "Don't underestimate the threat to American democracy at this moment" "In the early morning hours after election day, the president of the United States showed his authoritarian ambitions. He launched an attack on our democratic system at a moment when it is at its most fragile in recent memory."

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After 2020: The Election's Long-Term Impact On Democracy - WBUR

HONG KONG Hong Kongs pro-democracy lawmakers said Wednesday they would resign en masse to protest Beijings growing control over the local legislature, one of the last remaining centers of dissent in the Chinese city.

The 15 resignations were set off by a decision earlier in the day out of Beijing that forced the removal of four opposition lawmakers in Hong Kong.

The lawmakers departure comes amid Beijings intensifying efforts to silence Hong Kongs political opposition and to curb a vast protest movement.

Heres a look at key moments in the long showdown between pro-democratic forces and the Beijing-backed authorities who have chipped away at Hong Kongs special status as a bastion for free speech and independent courts.

Extradition bill incites enormous protests.

In May 2019, Hong Kong lawmakers scuffled over a bill that would allow extraditions to mainland China, where courts are controlled by the ruling Communist Party. That was followed by huge street protests, with organizers estimating that one million people marched on June 9, 2019, in a city of about 7.5 million.

Three days later, the police fired tear gas at protesters who had blocked a major highway outside the Legislative Council, Hong Kongs legislature. The heavy-handed response prompted another June march that organizers said drew nearly two million people.

On July 21, after protesters vandalized Beijings liaison office in Hong Kong, a mob attacked a group of protesters in a train station. Dozens were injured, including journalists and a pro-democracy legislator. The appearance of police inaction that night would fuel widespread anger toward the Hong Kong police force and suspicion that officers were unwilling to protect antigovernment protesters.

In the months that followed, street clashes became routine between the police and black-clad protesters, who targeted symbols of authority, including local police stations and the citys vaunted subway system.

Even as the arrests intensified, the protest movement claimed a major success: In September 2019, Hong Kongs leader, Carrie Lam, withdrew the extradition bill.

The concession did not end the protests, though, and some began getting more intense. Confrontations on college campuses in mid-November began resembling medieval sieges, with students fortifying their campuses against police charges and sometimes even shooting arrows out toward riot police. The police continued their harsh tactics, using tear gas, batons, water cannons and rubber bullets.

But if Beijing officials were betting that the increase in violence would turn local opinion against the protest movement, they were wrong.

The movement earned a stunning victory in late November as pro-democracy candidates captured most of the seats in local elections for district councils. It was a vivid expression of defiance toward and anger with Beijing and their allies in Hong Kongs leadership.

The pandemic strikes, and elections are put off.

After the pro-democracy movements election wins, a lull in protests set in for several weeks. Then, on New Years Day, demonstrators returned to the streets in full force in a protest that started peacefully but descended into violent clashes with the police.

But even as they marched, many protesters were expressing more trepidation than righteous anger. Mainland and Hong Kong officials had made clear they would not back down, and Hong Kongs economy was showing signs of intense strain from the disruption.

The tone was already shifting, and then the coronavirus pandemic struck. As the new virus began spreading around the world, social-distancing rules and the imperative to stay home took even more steam out of the protest movement.

The Hong Kong government said the pandemic meant the legislative election scheduled for September would need to be postponed by a year. The opposition cried foul and said the government was afraid that establishment candidates would be defeated.

After a year of protests, and opposition election victories, Beijing had had enough.

In late June this year, the mainland government imposed an ominously vague and far-reaching national security bill on Hong Kong that targeted dissent and protest. Calls for Hong Kong to be independent were made illegal, and sabotaging transportation infrastructure, which became increasingly common during the protests, was designated as terrorism. A national security office was set up, and Chinas state security apparatus, which had previously worked covertly in Hong Kong, was allowed to operate in public.

More than two dozen people have since been arrested under the new law. Most prominent among them was Jimmy Lai, founder of the citys biggest pro-democracy newspaper, Apple Daily.

This week, Beijing officials went even further, granting the Hong Kong government broad powers to remove lawmakers from office who do not show clear loyalty to China.

Within minutes, Hong Kong officials removed the four lawmakers, prompting the other 15 members of the pro-democracy bloc to resign in protest. Their departures will leave the political opposition without a voice in the Hong Kong legislature, which had stood as a symbol of the one country, two systems framework intended to keep Hong Kong semiautonomous until 2047.

Read more:
What Led to the Hong Kong Resignations? - The New York Times

WILMINGTON, Del. The teleprompters were set, the patriotic decorations assembled, and onlookers had been waiting for hours. Still, as the light faded behind an oversize American flag and the evening grew chilly, there was no sign of Joseph R. Biden Jr. on the elaborate stage from which his fans hoped he would declare victory.

And so last Friday concluded the way the previous three days had: After hours of anticipation among Mr. Bidens supporters, a flurry of preparations by his team and mounting Democratic hopes for Biden beats Trump headlines, everyone in the vicinity of the Westin hotel in Wilmington, Del., would be left waiting on the result of the presidential campaign, again.

Democracy is sometimes messy, Mr. Biden said last week. It sometimes requires a little patience as well.

Or, perhaps, a lot of patience. Certainly, some of Mr. Bidens earliest supporters had been waiting at least since his first presidential bid, in the 1988 campaign, to see him win the White House, so perhaps they were used to it. But not everyone had been standing by for quite so long, and the lurching uncertainty of what turned into an election week was an especially intense and vivid experience for Democratic staff members, Biden friends and family members, as well as journalists who spent much of the last week in Wilmington, near Mr. Bidens home.

For the second time in three months, international attention turned to this city of around 70,000 along the Delaware River, where the Amtrak station is named for the president-elect and seemingly everyone has a story about running into one member of the Biden clan or another.

Wilmington first readied itself for prime time in the presidential campaign in August. The city hosted the culmination of the largely virtual Democratic National Convention, featuring in-person fireworks and a drive-in rally here after Mr. Biden accepted the nomination, but the event was over as advertised after that.

Last week, the spotlight stretched on as one election night extravaganza turned into four days of waiting before a winner was called.

On the original election night, last Tuesday, longtime Biden fans and neighbors showed up to a drive-in rally hoping to watch him and Senator Kamala Harris declare a landslide victory. They left anxious and edgy as President Trump prevailed in Florida instead, with the presidential race uncalled. Biden staff members who had plainly been expecting a valedictory speech that night were terse with the reporters who chased after them in the subsequent hours.

As the vote count stretched on in key battlegrounds across the country, the days in Wilmington settled into something of a rhythm, much like a day spent waiting in an airport for a long-delayed flight.

In the morning, the Biden team would project confidence and sometimes preview remarks, of some kind, from Mr. Biden. Throughout the day, mask-wearing journalists would scramble after sources who walked through the lobby of the Westin, momentary bursts of physical activity in an environment where leaving the security perimeter even for a sandwich or a mandatory coronavirus test was risky, in case news about a state came in.

Yet if any members of the news media or campaign staff felt nostalgic for the rituals of pre-pandemic political reporting, which often involved waiting around to corner someone in person instead of on a campaign-managed conference call, the bonus days of the election offered glimpses of that era.

At night, everyone waited.

The home base for the festivities was the Chase Center on the Riverfront, an event center near the Christina River or, more specifically, the parking lot outside, which was transformed into the home of a drive-in gathering on election night, and then a second gathering on Saturday night once the race had been called by news organizations. Inside the center itself, Mr. Biden gave occasional remarks, urging patience and projecting calm even as his aides and donors grew increasingly impatient.

The lobby of the Westin next to the Chase Center became ground zero for spotting Biden aides and allies an unfamiliar activity, given the virtual nature of the campaign for many months. In Democratic politics, it quickly became the most famous hotel lobby east of the Des Moines Marriott, traditionally an epicenter of political activity before the Iowa caucuses.

Steve Ricchetti, a longtime adviser, whirled through on Friday evening. Anita Dunn, a senior adviser, and Bob Bauer, the former White House counsel, dipped in and out. Senator Chris Coons, Democrat of Delaware and a close Biden ally, regularly held impromptu news conferences. Members of Mr. Bidens team who typically sparred with reporters by phone or on television were swarmed for their latest in-person intel.

The entire area was turned into a fortified compound for election night and the days that followed, with imposing fencing keeping out the public. Outside the security barrier, Biden supporters sat on lawn chairs and at least one father and son slept in a car, hoping to get close enough to glimpse a possible president-elect. The onlookers traded Biden signs and shared doughnuts, and lucked out with unseasonably warm fall weather as the wait stretched on.

There was at least one casualty of election night turning into election week: an enormous American flag that hung from two cranes. After it had ripped and been mended once, it ripped again, and eventually a replacement flag was hoisted in its place.

On Saturday morning, 48 years to the day that Mr. Biden was first elected to the Senate, his sister, Valerie Biden Owens, walked through the Westin lobby.

Its wonderful, she told a small group of reporters as she walked out the door. Its a wonderful thing for us, but its a better thing for America.

A few minutes later, CNN called the race for her brother.

On the streets outside the security barrier, drivers leaned on their horns in celebration, passers-by responded with cheers and the smell of cigar smoke wafted.

And inside the Chase Center parking lot, attendees who had waited days to celebrate Mr. Biden at a drive-in rally were ready to display their joy. They waved glow sticks, affixed Biden signs to their cars and, in at least one case, left a Champagne bottle perched on top of a vehicle.

Mr. Biden opened his own remarks the most important speech of his life by giving the world an introduction to Delaware politics.

Delawareans! he said. I see my buddy Senator Tom Carper down there, and I think Senator Coons is there, and I think the governors around.

Is that Ruth Ann? he asked to cheers, referring to former Gov. Ruth Ann Minner.

At the end of his speech, the sky lit up with another name.

Biden, read the lights in the sky, courtesy of a drone light show. President Elect.

The rest is here:
Democracy Required Kind of a Lot of Patience, Actually - The New York Times

Whether the candidate you supported for president won or lost, we all need to support the person chosen by the majority to lead this nation.

Columns share an author's personal perspective and are often based on facts in the newspaper's reporting.

Election day has passed, and by the time you are reading this, we should know who won the election. Whether the winner is the person you voted for, or his opponent, that person will be the president for the next four years.

I have been saddened at what I have seen posted on social media sites about candidates. I am not talking about candidate postings. I am talking about what my fellow MetroWest residents have been posting about candidates. Where has our sense of decency gone? Did we all forget that old adage that two wrongs do not make a right?

If you want to address an issue with a candidates position, or perhaps a statement on a topic you are interested in, then do that in a civil and factual way. What do you think you are accomplishing when you post memes that are derogatory about a candidate? Do you honestly think some meme is going to change a persons mind about the candidate they support? News flash, it will not.

We are a democracy, and many seem to have forgotten what that means. Let me remind you. Merriam-Webster dictionary defines democracy as government by the people: especially:rule of the majority; and a government in which the supreme power isvestedin the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held freeelections. I ask you to pay particular attention to the statement, rule of the majority.

There are so many issues facing this nation today. How we act on them will impact ours, our children's and our children's children's lives. Climate change, racial and economic equity, and reproductive rights are not new issues. We have been talking about and legislating them for years. We have seen the efforts on those issues sometimes take a course we are not happy with over the last few years. That simply means that those on the opposite side of these issues are now seeing their side lead, just as we saw our side do for a time prior to the last few years. That is what democracy does, gives us the right to choose to change our direction when the majority of the people feel the need for that change.

Let us all start leading by example. You want respect? Then be respectful of all others, even those whose political views we may find reprehensible. You want equality? Then treat every person you engage with as your equal, as someone who has just as much right to their opinion as you have to yours. You want change? Then work to build a coalition of like-minded people to do just that. You want to complain about an elected official? Then do that using facts and statistics.

For many of us here in MetroWest, the path our country has been on for the last few years is not the path we would choose. We need to remember that for the eight years prior to that, some of our friends and neighbors felt as we do now, that we were on the wrong path.

Fundamentally, we have seen our country shift on the ideals that for so long defined who we are. That shift will have consequences. What those consequences will ultimately be remains to be seen. A wise man once told me that nothing lasts forever, not even the bad stuff. So if you see what is happening as bad, hang on. Just like the weather, it will change soon.

The will of the people must be sacrosanct in all we do in order for democracy to work. Without that, we are not a democracy. Whether the candidate you supported for president won or lost, we all need to support the person chosen by the majority to lead this nation. While doing that we should concentrate on working for the betterment of all, and for the United States of America to be the shining light in the darkness that those who founded this nation designed us to be.

Stephanie Deeley is co-president of the League of Women Voters of Framingham.

Excerpt from:
Opinion/Deeley: In a democracy, the will of the people must be sacrosanct - Milford Daily News