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Democracy Has Existed in the Americas Longer Than We Thought Observer The theory that democratic societies existed in pre-colonial Mesoamerica was first introduced by anthropologist Richard Blanton, of Indiana's Purdue University, in a 1996 essay he co-authored for Current Anthropology, after excavating at several sites ...

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Democracy Has Existed in the Americas Longer Than We Thought - Observer

The Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearings for Judge Neil Gorsuchs nomination to the Supreme Court got underway today, and one thing is already clear: As this process unfolds, Democrats need to hammer away at Gorsuch to reveal his views on judicial independence. Doing this requires a focus on President Trumps unprecedented attacks on the judiciaryand, more generally, his relentless undermining of our democracy.

Trumps authoritarian tendencies demand this approach, and the stakes are extraordinarily high. Trumps attacks on the judiciary, for instance, are so far outside the mainstream of normal presidentialbehavior that it would be malpractice for Democrats to fail to make this a subplot. In other words, the Democratic opposition to Gorsuch must be based on far more than his judicial philosophy and history.

More is at stake here than Gorsuchs allegiance to the ideology of the Heritage Foundation or the Federalist Society. One would expect any Republican president to nominate an anti-abortion, pro-business, originalist jurist to the Supreme Court, and Democrats are right to question Gorsuch on these and many other aspects of hisjudicial philosophy. But Trump is not an ideological conservative who has given a great deal of thought to constitutional originalism.

Rather, Trump views the judiciary as a tool for his own financial and political ends. And thats why the politics around the Gorsuch nomination are new and dangerous.

Trump has a long history of assailing federal judges, first using his bully pulpit as a candidate and now using his power as president, to subvert the separation of powers that undergird our democracy. It is clear from his public statements that the president wants a judiciary that doesnt question him, his motives, his edicts or his power.

Some Democrats today did make these issues front and center. For instance, as Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) told Gorsuch this morning,I need to know that you can be an independent check and balance on the administration that has nominated you, and on any administration that follows it.

And Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) laid a robust groundwork for compelling Gorsuch to be explicit in stating his independence not only from Trumps political manipulations, but also from his assault on the separation of powers. Blumenthal caustically called out Trumps campaign of vicious and relentless attacks on the credibility and capacity of our judiciary to serve as a check on lawless executive action, adding that the presidenthas shaken the foundation of respect for judicial rulings. Without respect for judges, and their independence, Blumenthal went on, our democracy cannot function.

Blumenthal then pointedly told Gorsuch:You have a special responsibility here this week, to advocate and defend the independence of our judiciary against those kinds of attacks. Given the looming constitutional crisis arising out of the FBI investigation into Russias interference in our election, which we now know is focused on the possibility of collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign, he added, the independence of the judiciary [is] more important than ever and your defense of it is critical.

In questioning Gorsuch later this week, Democrats should follow this lead and be explicit and direct, placing Trumps long string of attacks on the judiciary front and center. As a candidate, Trumpvilifiedthe federal judge presiding over the fraud case brought by former students of Trump University, saying he was unable to be impartial because he was (variously, in Trumps own words) Spanish, Hispanic and Mexican.

Since becoming president, Trump has launched an offensive against the judiciary over rulings blocking his executive orders banning refugees and migrants from Muslim-majority countries. He uses Twitter and campaign speeches to erode one of the very foundations of our democracy an independent judiciary as a check on executive overreach. These attacks energize his base while undermining the Constitution.

Whats more, Trump dangled nomination promisesas a kind of quid pro quo to win over a skeptical but crucial Republican voting bloc. Last June, when Trump was struggling to win over the leadership of the religious right, Trump promised approximately athousand evangelical leaders that he would pick pro-life justices, according to audio of his remarks that wasleaked to the media. Admitting that he had not been on this side of the issue until very recently, Trump made clear that his primary aim in picking judges was horse-trading for his own electoral benefit.

Trumps other efforts to undermine our democracy such as his repeated claims that millions voted illegally in our election, via voter fraud also deserve an airing out in this context. Those vote-fraud comments suggest a major national crackdown on voting rights might be in the works. And as Ari Berman reports, Gorsuch could be the deciding vote on whether to weaken the remaining sections of the [Voting Rights Act] and whether to uphold discriminatory voter-ID laws and redistricting plans. So it is crucial that Gorsuch be compelled to offer his views of Trumps unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud, as well as his views on the scope of the Voting Rights Act.

Trumps extensive assaults on our democracy make the Gorsuch hearings unlike any others in recent memory. And just as Senator Blumenthal did today, Democrats should treat them as such.

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Democrats must make the Gorsuch hearings about Trump's contempt for our democracy - Washington Post (blog)

Cambodias ruling party under Prime Minister Hun Sen has created a climate of fear as the government widens a crackdown on the opposition and activists ahead of commune elections in June, a group of Southeast Asian politicians said Monday.

In a report titled Death Knell for Democracy, the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) said democracy in Cambodia is being systematically dismantled, calling recently passed amendments to the countrys law on political parties the culmination of an ongoing effort to undermine the capacity of the political opposition.

Over the course of the past two years, an assault on free expression, dissent, and opposition by the ruling Cambodian Peoples Party (CPP) has targeted nearly all segments of Cambodian political life, the report said.

This has significantly impacted the oppositions ability to functionboth within Parliament and outside itand has created a climate of fear, which casts a dark shadow over all of Cambodian society.

Opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) officials have warned that the CPP seeks to prevent its candidates from standing in the upcoming elections through a variety of different measures, including the passage of amendments to the political party law approved by the National Assembly on Feb. 20, despite an opposition boycott of parliament in protest.

The new law bars anyone convicted of a crime from holding the top offices in a political party and forced former CNRP president Sam Rainsy to resign last month to preserve the party. Other amendments put the party at risk of being dissolved for fanning disunity, which observers say is deliberately vague.

Since a culture of dialogue broke down with the CNRP in mid-2015, the CPP has launched a series of politically motivated cases, eroded parliamentary immunity protections, and orchestrated violence against opposition politicians, according to the APHR, a group made up of former and serving Southeast Asian lawmakers.

The CPPs tactics have increasingly threatened not only the safety of opposition parliamentarians, but the credibility and effectiveness of democratic institutions themselves, including the capacity of the Parliament to serve its legislative, representative, and oversight roles, the report said.

The report noted that at least 17 opposition parliamentarians, out of 66 in the National Assembly and Senate combined, have been direct victims of harassment and attacksjudicial or physicalwhile others face what it called looming threats in an unpredictable and hostile political climate.

Renewed dictatorship

Phil Robertson, deputy director of the Asia division of Human Rights Watch, told reporters in Bangkok at the launch of the report that Cambodia is suffering from a disease of renewed dictatorship.

There is a renewed attack, not only on the opposition parliamentarians, but also on civil society, on independent media, on human rights defenders, on community-based groups and organizations who are trying to defend their area, their way of life, their land, he said.

At this rate Cambodia is more on its way to the one-party rule wearing an ill-fitting robe of democracy that you see in places like Vietnam or Laoswhere the outcome is never in doubt and the candidates are vetted and controlled by the party.

Robertson called the passage of the amendments to the law on political parties the capstone to what has been going horrible the whole year in Cambodia, adding that it had basically put a gun to the head of the CNRP ahead of elections the CPP is afraid of losing.

Hun Sen was all for democracyor the facade of democracybut he's actually not prepared to accept any real challenge to his power that comes through that system, he said.

People realize that he is the head of a party that has been looting the Cambodian economy for years He's now figuring out how you rule without popular support. The answer, with the political party amendment, is that 'if you don't like me, well make sure there are no other choices.

Cambodias government spokesman Phay Siphan on Monday dismissed the APHR report as a political attack and said it violated ASEAN statues prohibiting member countries from interfering in one anothers internal affairs.

They act like the puppet of a political group that is manipulating the terms of justice and freedom in Cambodian law for their propaganda, he said.

Cambodia have followed the election laws. Elections have been held regularly in accordance with the will of Cambodians. Several parties have participated in each election. Cambodia is much better than some ASEAN countries [at holding elections].

Kings appeal

Also on Monday, Cambodias top electoral body, the National Election Committee (NEC), published for the second time a rare open letter penned by the countrys King Norodom Sihamoni, urging all registered voters to cast their ballot in the June 4 commune elections.

In the letter, dated Feb. 20, the king exhorts registered voters to take part in the election, which he pledges will take place in accordance with the democratic and multiparty principle, where voters can cast their ballots in secret.

Voters should not be afraid to choose candidates who best represent their interests, despite outside influences, Sihamoni adds.

Do not feel pressured, threatened or intimidated by any individual or political party, the letter reads.

Please exercise your right to cast your vote with your own conscience and faith to a candidate of political party of your own choosing.

The CPP won more than 70 percent of the vote and secured 1,592 of 1,633 communes in Cambodias 2012 local elections, held before the CNRP was formed. The opposition party won nearly half of the vote in the general election the following year.

Observers say the CNRP could give the CPP, which has ruled Cambodia for 35 years, a run for its money in the June pollsa race that many believe may foreshadow the general election in 2018.

Reported by Sereyvuth Oung and Maly Leng for RFAs Khmer Service. Translated by Nareth Muong. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Read more here:
Democracy in Cambodia Under Threat Amid 'Climate of Fear' - Radio Free Asia

DILI, EAST TIMOR

East Timor is voting for a new president in an election that will test Asia's newest and poorest nation.

Francisco "Lu Olo" Guterres, a former guerrilla leader from the leftist Fretilin party, is up against seven other candidates Monday. He and the Democratic Party's Antonio de Conceicao, the minister of education and social affairs, are the front-runners.

East Timor presidential candidate Antonio da Conceicao from the Democratic Party (R) arrives to cast his ballot during the presidential election at a polling station in Dili, East Timor, March 20, 2017.

While East Timor's president has a mostly ceremonial role, the prime minister heads the government.

Current President Taur Matan Ruak is not running again and is expected to make a run for prime minister in July's parliamentary elections.

East Timor's transition to democracy has been rocky, and its leaders have battled massive poverty, unemployment and corruption in a country still recovering from a bloody break for independence from Indonesia over a decade ago.

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East Timor, Asia's Youngest Democracy, Votes for President - Voice of America

The war on expertiseis not a new phenomenon. Nearly 60 years before Tom Nichols published his bestselling book, The Death of Expertise, author C.S. Lewis wrote about it in an essay titled "Screwtape Proposes a Toast," a follow-up to his internationally renowned book The Screwtape Letters.

In the novel, a senior devil, Screwtape, writes a series of letters to a junior devil, Wormwood, on how to be a good tempter. Thus, every moral pronouncementin the book is precisely the opposite of how humans ought to behave. The Enemy, to whom Screwtape refers constantly, is God.

In his toast, Screwtapeexplains to a large gathering of "gentledevils" how the concept ofdemocracy can be perverted to undermine a society:

Democracy is the word with which you must lead them by the nose...You are to use the word purely as an incantation; if you like, purely for its selling power. It is a name they venerate. And of course it is connected with the political ideal that men should be equally treated. You then make a stealthy transition in their minds from this political ideal to a factual belief that all men are equal.

Mr. Lewis says that this belief leads people to another: "I'm as good as you." In other words, democracy not only leads people to believe that all humans are of equal value (which is true), but all humans are equal in their abilities, thoughts, and behaviors (which is completely false). Yet, many people in a democracy believe the latter. And it leads to a very bad outcome:

What I want to fix your attention on is the vast, overall movement towards the discrediting, and finally the elimination, of every kind of human excellencemoral, cultural, social, or intellectual. And is it not pretty to notice how Democracy (in the incantatory sense) is now doing for us the work that was once done by the most ancient Dictatorships, and by the same methods?

How incredibly prescient. This passage could have been written in 2017, but it was publishedsix decades ago by a man who fought in World War I. Expertise dies in a democracy.

Consider scientific knowledge. The public rejects any notion of "consensus," despite the fact it is a crucial part of the scientific method. On a whole host of issues -- from GMOs and vaccines to nuclear power and climate change -- the public believes it knows better than PhDs and MDs who have spent their entire lives studying these topics. Besides, citizens say, scientists telling people what to believe is fundamentally undemocratic.

Mr. Lewis warned us years ago. Will we listen?

The Know-Nothing "March for Science"

Probably not. The organizers of the "March for Science," the latest misguided manifestation of democracy, have culturally appropriatedscience to push a purely political agenda. We were among the march's early critics because it was clear to us that science had taken a back seat to partisanship.

Others are finally taking notice. The Mad Virologist, in a blog post, writes:

I have to join the growing number of scientists who won't be participating in the march. Part of my problem with the group and the movement stems from the fact that it is disorganized and has become co-opted by those advocating for pseudoscience.

Who are some of those groups? Center for Biological Diversity (anti-GMO), Union of Concerned Scientists (anti-GMO, anti-nuclear), Center for Science in the Public Interest (fearmongering about "chemicals"), and Earth Day Network (anti-GMO). So, the Mad Virologist is calling it quits.

Protesters in 2017 are fond of shouting, "This is what democracy looks like." Uneducated and scientifically illiterate? Let's hope not.

How Do We Fix This?

I have been asked, over and over again, "How do we educate the public about science?" Unfortunately, simply stating the facts won't work, as psychology research has shown. The best solution, perhaps, is the clich, "People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care."

Until the public is convinced that scientists and journalists care about truth and society, then I fear all of our labors will be in vain.

Read more here:
March for Science: How Democracy Kills Expertise - American Council on Science and Health