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Unfortunately, the House Judiciary Committee hearing on impeachment this week has been perceived by many as a showdown between partisan law professors rather than an objective analysis. On the Democratic side were Noah Feldman of Harvard, Pamela Karlan of Stanford, and Michael Gerhardt of the University of North Carolina. On the Republican side was Jonathan Turley of George Washington University, who is a legal analyst with me at CBS News. Feldman, Karlan, and Gerhardt argued that the conduct of President TrumpDonald John TrumpLawmakers release defense bill with parental leave-for-Space-Force deal House Democrats expected to unveil articles of impeachment Tuesday Houston police chief excoriates McConnell, Cornyn and Cruz on gun violence MORE is unequivocally impeachable, while Turley urged caution and a fuller factual record to avoid a rush to judgment.

This is the wrong way to frame the hearing. The Constitution is not a partisan document. It does not even mention political parties, let alone endorse them. Every member of Congress, as well as the president, the federal judiciary, and numerous officials and civil servants in the executive branch, take an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution. That oath is not a pledge of fidelity to the incumbent president. It instead promises fidelity to the founding document designed to protect regular people against a bullying and overly powerful government comprised of officials who only care about shoring up their own power. This basic foundational concept goes back to the Code of Hammurabi, which declared that the first duty of government is to protect the powerless from the powerful.

If the office of the president of the United States rises above the law, with no more accountability to Congress or to the courts, then regular people will lose their individual rights and liberties. This was the message of the constitutional scholars who testified that the behavior of Trump cannot go unchecked. Just imagine a American president with unlimited power to punish political rivals and employ the massive might of the military and the criminal justice system to secure incumbent power. Over the past couple of weeks, protests in Iran over high gasoline prices prompted that totalitarian government to shut down the internet, leaving 80 million people untethered to the rest of the world. Online videos show security forces subsequently opening machine gunfire on crowds, reportedly killing at least 200 people, including peaceful protesters and civilians.

But this could never happen in America. Right? We cannot be so sanguine. In their sobering book, How Democracies Die, political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt put together a compelling historical narrative of how numerous functioning democracies around the world have since morphed into authoritarian regimes, not by violent coups but by elected governments themselves. Several countries such as Venezuela, Georgia, Hungary, and Turkey witnessed their democratic institutions backslide at the ballot box while maintaining the veneer of democracy. The authors identify four patterns. An elected demagogue packs the courts and exerts stringent control over the legislature and the administrative bureaucracy, attacks his opponents, ignores or destroys rules and norms governing his conduct in office, and encourages violence from his devout loyalists.

When it comes to President Trump, it is not hard to do the math. Check, check, check, and check for each of these patterns. The founders of our government vehemently rejected a monarchy, whereby the king could do no wrong and could not be impeached or removed from his throne by the will of the people. In America, the people are the kings. In a government by we the people, the president works for us. But what if he uses that power to manipulate the electoral process so that he can stay in power? The founders recognized that this was a problem. It is why they included impeachment in the Constitution. If another election were the only way to hold a president accountable for distorting an election to gain and retain power, then there is no way to ensure a true government by the people.

Here are the facts today. The July call memorandum shows that Trump had a phone conversation with Ukrainian President Voldymyr Zelensky in which he asked for the favor of initiating investigations of the Bidens and the unsubstantiated theory that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 American election. We know that he withheld nearly $400 million in aid approved by the Senate and a White House meeting at the same time, all while Zelensky was trying to establish legitimacy as the new Ukrainian leader in the midst of a difficult war with Russian President Vladimir PutinVladimir Vladimirovich PutinUkraine, Russia agree to restart peace process Trump, Russian foreign minister to meet Tuesday Impeachment, Ukraine, Syria and warheads color Washington visit by top Russian diplomat MORE.

We know that the withholding of aid was viewed as a threat to national security within the administration, and there is still no clear explanation offered by Trump for that decision, which he does not deny. We also know that he was interested in the announcement of the investigation, but not necessarily its completion or results, which suggests that it was about damaging his political rival, rather than actually uncovering government corruption in Ukraine. There is also no explanation for why Trump asked Ukraine to perform a function that our superior American intelligence services could have done instead. It simply does not add up, and there remains no counter narrative in defense of Trump that makes any sense.

Although it is true that the Democrats are moving quickly and without full information, largely by virtue of the White House refusing to cooperate, the majority of the scholarly panel this week was correct to suggest that this is a code red moment in American democracy. If we let presidents use their office to get reelected, then we will lose our ability to control our own government. When we lose that, our individual rights will no longer be rights but more like goodies that can be doled out to select people by a president acting more like a monarch, depending on his own personal predilections and politics. That is not the America I want for my children.

Kimberly Wehle is a former assistant United States attorney, a former associate independent counsel in the Whitewater investigation, and a professor at the University of Baltimore Law School. She is a CBS News legal analyst, a BBC News contributor, and author of How to Read the Constitution and Why. You can follow her updates online @Kim_Wehle.

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We have now reached a code red moment in American democracy | TheHill - The Hill

The Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Marija Pejinovi Buri, has underlined the importance of protecting human rights, democracy and the rule of law including when fighting terrorism in Turkey as in all other Council of Europe member states.

Speaking at a conference on Turkeys Action Plan on Human Rights, the Secretary General said that the failed coup attempt of three years ago was an illegitimate attack on the democratic institutions of this country. She underlined that the Turkish government will continue to have the Council of Europes practical and technical support in the framework of human rights-related reforms.

The Secretary General emphasised that the long-lasting cooperation between the Council of Europe and Turkey - the organisation's second-largest member state and a member since 1950 - has brought positive results, such as the right of individual application to the Constitutional Court in Turkey and the courts important jurisprudence.

The finalisation of the new Action Plan on Human Rights is another of those results, said the Secretary General. However, progress is still needed on some outstanding issues, in particular shortcomings identified by the European Court of Human Rights in the areas of criminal justice, deprivation of liberty and freedom of expression.

The Secretary General said that the ambiguity of some legislation, the limited or narrow interpretation of human rights standards and excessive limitations on rights and freedoms are still at the origin of many applications to the European Court of Human Rights.

To overcome these problems, changes in judicial interpretation and further legislative amendments are needed, she said. The Action Plan must therefore reinforce domestic tools to ensure human rights protection, in line with the European Convention on Human Rights, which will further imbed individuals rights in Turkish law and practice.

Achieving maximum effect will require political drive, intensive judicial interaction between Strasbourg and Ankara, inclusive dialogue with all relevant stakeholders including civil society and media organisations and the determination of the Turkish authorities, at the highest level, to ensure that change is put into practice, concluded the Secretary General.

Following a meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdoan, the Secretary General said: I had a frank and very constructive meeting with the President in which we covered many issues of common concern, in particular the growing threat of Islamophobia, anti-Semitism and racism in Europe.

The Secretary General also commended Turkey for its major efforts in accommodating and providing aid to Syrian refugees.

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Turkey: Protect human rights, democracy and the rule of law even when fighting terrorism - Council of Europe

The survival of our democracy is a miracle in itself. The concept is timeless, but the reality is elusive. Success for democracy requires willingness on the part of leaders to set aside their differences and work for the good of all regardless of party and politics, and willingness on the part of the people to support the leaders whether they voted for them or not.

The problem with our two-party system is that the names of the two parties, Democrats and Republicans, are not descriptive. Both parties are elements in a democratic republic, just like the Greeks. Variations on this formulation for governance dot the recorded history of the world. Multiparty systems are less functional because of the inability to find common ground among enough of them to form a lasting government. Just look at the trouble we have with only two parties!

In case this looks like an argument for a one-party system, let's put that one to rest. Dictatorships by whatever title fail because of the ideological and social limitations most of them depend on. Too few people are willing to speak truth to power. Those who try don't last long enough to accomplish anything.

Larry White

East Lyme

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Survival of democracy is a miracle - News from southeastern Connecticut - theday.com

By TNH Staff December 9, 2019

Hooded protesters use an aim laser pointer to riot police during minor clashes in Athens, Friday, Dec. 6, 2019. Thousands of protesters in Greece have joined marches in the nation's capital and other cities to mark the anniversary of the fatal police shooting of a teenager that sparked extensive rioting 11 years ago. (AP Photo/Yorgos Karahalis)

ATHENS A Greek police crackdown on violence and lawlessness, especially in the anarchist-dominated neighborhood of Exarchia is being orchestrated by the New Democracy government to get back at the Radical Left SYRIZA it ousted in July 7 snap elections, officials in the defeated party claimed.

That came in a report in TRT World, a Turkish state-run international channel after clashes in Athens on the Dec. 6 anniversary of the 2008 killing of 15-year-old Alexis Grigoropoulos, who was shot dead by a police officer in Exarchia.

SYRIZA and Amnesty International accused the government of emboldening police brutality with the Leftists claiming some demonstrators were beaten and roughly treated even as police said they were being pummeled with objects.

SYRIZAs Dimitris Papadimoulis, a Member of the European Parliament, said that he planned to internationalize the issue and accused New Democracy of taking revenge on leftists and other activists opposed to its policies.

The new government is trying to hit first the young people, Giorgos Papanikoulaou, a 25-year-old left-wing student activist, told TRT World. They are trying to put a police state in every aspect of our lives.

The government had also sent in squadrons of police to rid the neighborhood of drug dealers and empty abandoned buildings of squatters, many of them refugees and migrants, trying to restore law and order.

There were battles in the street with anarchists breaking stones to toss at police, setting rubbish mounds on fire and rampaging in Athens, as well as the countrys second-and-third largest cities of Thessaloniki and Patras, leaving two injured and dozens detained.

Videos emerged showing riot police officers stomping, dragging and cursing demonstrators they had detained with a 20-year-old woman saying she was hit in the head with a police baton although she wasnt involved in the protests.The Ministry of Citizens Protection established a new committee to monitor allegations of police violence, a five-member panel that will investigate claims submitted regarding police brutality reports.

After the Dec. 6 clashes, the Hellenic Police announced that it had sent videos and photographs to the new committee in order for an investigation to be carried out.

At the same time, citizens who have relevant material or are witnesses or believe they have been subjected to violence in similar cases are invited to report to the aforementioned Ombudsman investigation mechanism, read a statement released after the incidents.

Many New Democracy lawmakers backed the police and the partys stance against lawlessness it said was tolerated and even encouraged by SYRIZA, which is riddled with anarchist and terrorist sympathizers.

Konstantinos Bogdanos, a New Democracy lawmaker, tweeted that the police crackdown demonstrates what it means to have a state at last, saying elements in SYRIZA had condoned lawlessness.

Leaving all other issues aside, there is a fundamental paradox in the policies of New Democracy, Alexis Charitsis, a SYRIZA spokesperson, told TRT World about the Conservatives.

The law and order agenda is not targeting big financial interests that are associated with corruption and organised crime. This discrepancy reveals the true nature of the law and order governmental rhetoric, he said.

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SYRIZA Says New Democracy Using Cops to Get Revenge - The National Herald

Yes, I know, according to the Poll of Polls, the Conservatives are 10 points ahead of Labor. Conservatives Johnson may be a bluffer, but Labors Corbyn is irreparably tainted by association with anti-Semitism. This should all end with a nice fat double-digit Tory majority.

But here are a few reasons why Tories should curb their optimism, aside from the well-known unreliability of British opinion polls. First, history. If you count the general elections of 2010 and 2017 as wins in the sense that the Tory leader became prime minister after them, despite lacking a majority in the House of Commons the Conservatives have won the last three British general elections. The last time the Conservatives won a fourth election in a row was in 1992, when John Major only just scraped home with a majority of 21 (a result not predicted by the polls). Oh, and Major just declined to endorse Johnson.

There is no other example of four consecutive election victories in British political history.

Heres another reason for Conservative concern. Across social media platforms, Corbyn leads all other political figures in terms of both followers and engagement. On Facebook, Corbyn has 1.55 million followers compared with Johnsons 771,000. Across Facebook and Twitter, Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage has more followers than Johnson. Indeed, Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, has nearly as many followers as the prime minister.

Whats more, Corbyn posts to Facebook more often than Johnson, and his pages posts especially his videos are far more widely shared. The Labor leaders following on Instagram has increased dramatically during the election campaign. From Nov. 11 to Dec. 5, his follower count rose 28 percent. In the same period, Johnsons followers grew by just 9 percent.

In short, this aint over, despite what financial markets think (the pound is up to $1.31), and despite what prediction markets imply.

So what if we dont get a decisive result on Friday? What if the Tories come up just short of a majority? If you want to know what a deadlocked democracy looks like, visit the Netherlands, where it took 208 days of negotiation after the March 2017 general election to cobble together a coalition.

Or take a trip to Israel. After last Aprils election was effectively a draw, they had to have another election in September. Benny Gantzs centrist Blue and White party emerged slightly ahead of Benjamin Netanyahus Likud, but neither leader was able to form a government. Last month, Netanyahu was indicted on charges of breach of trust, bribery, and fraud. Hes still clinging on as prime minister, but it looks increasingly likely that there will need to be . . . another election.

Now ask yourself what the consequences might be if something similar happens next year in the United States?

What if the result in next Novembers presidential election is as close as it was in 2000? Remember those nail-biting days? George W. Bush lost the popular vote to Al Gore. Everything hinged on who won Florida, with its 25 Electoral College votes. On the night of the election, the networks called it first for Gore, then for Bush, then for neither. The returns showed that Bush had won the state, but by such a slender margin (just 537 votes) that state law required a recount. A 36-day legal battle culminated in the Supreme Court, which decided by five votes to four to end the recount.

Despite the strength of an economy juiced by tax cuts and easy money, Donald Trump is not a popular president. Recent polling by The New York Times gave Joe Biden a tiny edge over Trump in the key swing states Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin but gave Trump an equally slim advantage over Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Meanwhile, independent voters seem more displeased by the presidents Ukrainian skullduggery than they were by the Mueller Report. In short, this could be another close one.

In 2000, Gore ultimately accepted defeat with a modicum of grace, grew a beard, and went off to save the planet. But two decades have changed American political culture for the worse. I find it hard to imagine Trump and the MAGA-hat-wearing faithful being so stoical if he is denied a second term by hanging chads or their equivalent in Michigan especially as there is every reason to fear more foreign meddling in 2020, including direct interference with the far-from-secure voting systems in the various states. Conversely, many Democrats would lose their minds if this Supreme Court, with its two Trump appointees, voted to give Trump four more years.

Ive never played for a draw in my life, my fellow Ferguson, Sir Alex, once said. Wise words. May Boris Johnson and all voters who care for the United Kingdom heed them on Thursday. Its not just Britain that needs a win. Democracy does.

Niall Ferguson is the Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

Originally posted here:
Deadlocked democracies - The Boston Globe