Forbes | The New Cold War: Democracy Vs. Autocracy Forbes Over the past 8 days, North Korea successfully tested two nuclear-capable missiles, making a mockery of President Trump's tough approach on North Korea. He has meanwhile opened his arms of friendship to Russia and China, the biggest global threats to ... |
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The New Cold War: Democracy Vs. Autocracy - Forbes
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Posted: May 22, 2017 12:01 AM
Until the American Civil War, the political party of slavery, secession, segregation, and now socialism, referred to itself as The Democracy. After the slow burning of DNC leaks, Crooked Hillarys corruption, the dripping frauds of the DNC elections, and recently the chaos of the now-concluded California Democratic Party convention, its clear that there is nothing democratic about the Democratic Party.
I commiserate with my California liberal, progressive, Democratic friends. They really believe that more government, more socialism is the answer to our nations illsbut at least they believe in a fair, just process. But fairness and big government dont go hand in hand. Communism is fundamentally unfair, taking from those who have and giving to those who dont. Besides, the world has its problems, and solutions to the worlds ills cannot be solved with government-backed solutions. Trade-offs are the calling of the day. This is a fallen earth, and people are fleshy, power-driven, out for themselves. And that same drive for power means Lie, cheat, and steal to win. That only foretells Communisms doom.
The progressives in our midst, 60% of whom were California Democratic Party delegates, still believe that people are basically good and more government will fix the world. After three days of listening to out-going Chairman John Burtonlots of profanity, punctuated with gesticulating middle fingersit should be crystal clear that human beings, whatever their political affiliations, are flawed.
The first day of the California Democratic Party convention exposed the dissension in their ranks. Besides Chairman Burtons curse-laden rants, the general order was disorder and heckling. Left-wing nurse associations agitated repeatedly for single-payer healthcare. When Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez spoke to the Friday crowds, he got boos and heckling in double doses. The new DNC Chairman cheated for his seat, just as Crooked Hillary cheated for the nomination.
The California Democratic Party faithful have been berned, er burned so badly, they were not interested in playing establishment games with Swamp Thing Clinton and Barack Obama. Of course, who was the alternative? Left-wing Muslim Keith Ellison, Congressman from Minnesota. This man had ties to the CAIR, the Muslim Brotherhood, and embraced the most radical of backgrounds and undergroundsmany of whom want to take down the United State of America. The future of the Democratic Party is communistic, Islamist, anti-American, and anti-Western: Cultural Marxism with an American flag hijab.
Now heres the good news for Republicans and for our country. Based on the chaotic three days of the California Democratic Party convention, the same principles which Reagan expounded on in 1983 still hold true today. The desire for liberty is too strong in men, and their demand for justice will never pass away. There is something in human nature, that even as they pursue the expansion of the state into our daily lives, they want the rolloutand thus the rolling away of their own natural rightsto be done their way.
Self-interest, natural law, the Invisible Hand, all of these features of economics and political design will undermine every push for Communism in any form. Indeed, the California Democratic Party is a microcosm of this cultural truthand spell the national partys devastation. Nationally, The Democracy has dissolved into conflicts over class or race. Intersectionality is the latest craze. The left-wing factivists are determined at all costs to ensure the hierarchy of victimization is protected from all attacks, foreign or domestic. All of you half-African, half-Asian elderly lesbians in wheelchairs now hold the cards in this political universe.
Funny thing is, though, that elections depend on votes. Today, most of the nations voters are working people, many of them of European background, but share the same concerns about safety, security, traditional values, and economic opportunity as all ethnic minorities. We are all Americans, right?
The end for the future of the Democratic Party has been laid bare to us in California. Corruption has been the norm. Everyone wins by kowtowing to the special interests. Chairman-elect Bauman certainly did. Mr. Big Pharma hustled to ensure that Prop. 61 for fair pricing for drugs failed miserably. Six months later, Bossman Eric sent out last-minute eblasts to ensure delegates that he is Gung-Ho for single-payer health care. FYI: Dianne Feinstein opposes it. So does State Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (or at least he talks that way). No one cares about white people, and the white president is routinely pilloried. The left-wing Berniecrats dont trust Bauman to fight for the Bernie Revolution, since he was a vocal cheerleader for Crooked Hillary. In came Bernie-endorsed Kimberly Ellis, a vocal progressive with a hint of honesty.
Saturday evening, nearly 3,000 delegates voted with enthusiasm and anxiety. The final tally? Bossman Eric won by 60 votes. Just sixty. One has to wonder if they would have started flipping coins to ensure which way ballots would gojust like in Iowa. The media went nuts up and down the state. Bernie delegates were outraged again. First Hillary steals the Presidential nomination. Then Perez steals the DNC chairmanship. Now Mr. Anti-natural law, pro-crony Bauman steals the California Democratic Party chairmanship. Delegates demanded a recount. Kimberly Ellis threatened to sue. Nothing in the formal by-laws provides the process for a recount (I wonder why?) Then delegates started demanding Voter ID to ensure no ballot-staffingand a recount!
Remember what I said about human nature? Right?! On Sunday, Ellis backed down, and Bauman took the gavel, but the Bernie Delegates arent backing down. They fled the convention floor and hosted their own meeting nearby. Communists fight for their way of tyrannizing the world, after all.
What do you know? The drive for the Communistic Democracy is hitting more snags. Progressive activists are abandoning The Democracy. The California Democratic Partys crack-up is good for Republicans, with a promising California Comeback on the way. Could they become Republicans? They want what the GOP has worked for: good government, proper public service, an end to corruption, and expanding opportunity for individual voters and small businesses.
BREAKING: General Michael Flynn Will Plead the Fifth
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Popcorn: The Self-Destruction of The Democracy, as Seen in California - Townhall
The conservative columnist Peggy Noonan wrote last week: The president needs to be told: Democracy is not your plaything. She is so right. Donald Trump has warmly welcomed despots to the White House, suggested that reporters who publish classified information should be jailed, and may have obstructed justice by firing the man leading the investigation into possible collusion between Trump and the government of Russia. The first four months of this presidency underscore the necessity of the checks and balances the Founders wrote into our Constitution and the importance of the institutions of democracy that have evolved over time.
Those checks have shifted into overdrive. Trumps Muslim ban has been stopped while the courts consider its legality. The media are investigating and reporting matters of urgent public interest, in spite of Trumps almost daily diatribes against the press. And the most important checkthe will of the publicis evident in the activism Americans are displaying in protests, town halls and other forums from coast to coast.
But one check on the executive branch has been notably lacking: the Republican leadership in Congress. Their response to everything from controversial tweets to a potential constitutional crisis? It ranges from sticking their heads in the sand to this anemic statement from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell: We could use a little less drama from the White House.
Thats not to say congressional Republicans havent been busy. While Trumps pyrotechnics dominate news cycles, GOP lawmakers are pushing hard for legislation that hurts working families, such as their proposals to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
After the House of Representatives narrowly passed the American Health Care Act, or Trumpcare, House Republicans headed to the White House, where the Rose Garden provided a picturesque backdrop for a perverse celebration. The president, vice president and a phalanx of GOP lawmakers beamed as they congratulated each other on passing a bill that will take health security away from millions of people in the United States. No wonder the publics trust in political leaders is at a new low. Only 21 percent of Americans approve of the Republicans health care plan, and voters are much less likely to support representatives who voted for it.
Its hard to know which is worsewhat Trumpcare contains, or the way it was passed.
Under Trumpcare, 24 million people would lose health insurance in the coming decade. People like the patients Toria Harris sees as an oncology nurse in Ohiopatients whose advanced cancer could be cured with access to healthcare. Millions of people with pre-existing conditions may be one reoccurrence away from bankruptcy or death. Reduced funding for Medicaid would be devastating for students like Evan, a 6-year-old from Souderton, Pa., with Down syndrome. Medicaid enables Evan to receive occupational, physical and speech therapy and other services that are vital to his growth and independence. Trumpcare would also strip $117 billion from Medicare for seniors. All of this to pay for a tax cut for the top 2 percent of earners.
And the way the House Republicans rammed the AHCA through steamrolled the government mechanisms intended to create trust and transparency. No time for the Congressional Budget Office to score the bills impact and cost, no time for House members to read it, no amendments, and less than three hours of debate. Enormous changes to the healthcare Americans rely on and a law affecting one-fifth of the economy require a scintilla of transparency so Americans know what their representatives are doing.
The president is displaying increasingly unbalanced, dangerous and authoritarian behaviors. Every member of Congress takes an oath of officenot to party or president, but to uphold the Constitution. That sworn oath is mere words unless exercised.
In On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century, Yale historian Timothy Snyder takes readers through three times when Europeans confronted authoritarian regimes: the end of World War I, the end of World War II and the fall of communism. Until recently, most Americans had only been spectators to assaults on democracy. We might be tempted to think that our democratic heritage automatically protects us from such threats, Snyder writes. This is a misguided reflex.
This is no time to lower our defenses or sit on the sidelines. With an increasingly erratic president and members of his party who refuse to act as a check on his power, it is we, the people, who must serve that function to protect democracyat town halls, rallies and, ultimately, at the ballot box.
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A Clarion Call For Democracy - HuffPost
Washington DC has been shaken by an astounding series of seismic events in recent weeks, from the unexpected firing of FBI director James Comey to bombshell reports that Trump had shared sensitive intelligence with Russian officials in the Oval Office, to the appointment of a seasoned FBI veteran as special counsel to investigate Russias interference in the US election.
The events in the US capital have been described as a circus (paywall), or signs of a nation on the verge of a nervous breakdown. But the past two weeks have also provided a whirlwind tour through the checks and balances that make American democracy work. Its been tumultuous and ugly, yes, but, there are also irrefutable signs that the process is working.
The Department of Justice, headed by the attorney general, is a part of the executive branch, but its top officials swear to uphold the US Constitution, not protect the Oval Office. While attorney general Jeff Sessions role in the firing of Comey raised questions about his independence, especially because he recused himself from the departments investigation into Russian interference in the US election, the actions of two DOJ employees in the past two weeks have bolstered confidence in this system.
Former acting attorney general Sally Yatess testified on May 8 to the Senate about concerns she shared with the White House that Michael Flynn, who served as the national security advisor, could be blackmailed by the Russians, showing that the Trump administration had specific knowledge weeks before Flynn was fired. Yates also defended her decision not to enforce the Trump administrations first travel ban, calling it a constitutional concern, and fundamental issue of religious freedom. Trump fired Yates, but her testimony will be part of the official record in the Senate now.
On May 17, deputy attorney-general Rod Rosenstein appointed former FBI director Robert Mueller to head the investigation into Russian tampering in the US election, without tipping off the White House, or Sessions, beforehand (which is how an independent special prosecutor should be named), earning praise from Republicans and Democrats both.
The Republican-led Congress has mostly dragged its feet in the pursuing investigations into the Trump teams ties to Russia.
But Comeys firing, and the subsequent reports that he has written notes of the president urging him to soft-pedal the investigation, have galvanized them into action. While the Senate Intelligence Committee was already doggedly pursuing its own investigation, it has gained new momentum, and the stalled investigation in the House was restarted. And some Republicans are speaking out about the investigation, signaling it is important, breaking with the president who says it is dividing the country. South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, for example, noted it was likely a criminal investigation on May 18.
Some of the push on members of Congress to act is coming from US citizens, who have been organizing, demonstrating, and contacting their local representatives. Voters turned up in record numbers at town halls over the recent spring recess, when Congress members go home to their constituency, sometimes chanting Do your job to their elected representatives.
The first few months of the Trump presidency have seen an groundswell of civic action against the administration, from protests and demonstrations to letter-writing campaigns and phone trees. There are new candidates running for office who have never before considered politics, like a group of scientists. Trumps fiery campaign rhetoric and promises to working-class Americans brought voters to the polls who had checked out of the political process in the past, and some of these supporters are flocking to town halls as well.
The phrase the fourth estate was coined by Scottish philosopher Thomas Carlyle, who equivocated printing to democracy itself. He said, whoever can speak, speaking now to the whole nation, becomes a power, a branch of government, with inalienable weight in law-making, in all acts of authority.
Mainstream media and conservative outlets alike helped Trump win the US presidency, giving him an oversized share of free advertising with their non-stop coverage of his outrageous statements and rallies, and saw their profits soar in return. Now, many of them are taking a hard look at the Trump administration, devoting more resources to whats happening in the White House than in presidencies past.
No one media outlet in America can claim to be speaking now to the whole nation, but investigations into Trump are still having a sizable impact.
Michael Flynn would likely still be national security advisor had the Washington Post not reported that he had discussed (paywall) sanctions with Russias ambassador to the US, refuting public statements by vice president Mike Pence. He was fired five days later. A New York Times report (paywall) that Comey had written memos documenting Trump pressuring him to shut down the Flynn investigation nudged the House investigating committee back into action.
While Trump has called for strengthening of libel laws, and reportedly discussed putting reporters in prison with Comey, the press, to date, remains free and unfettered.
Conservative media outlets that arent covering the questions hanging over Comeys firing, or the ongoing probes into the Trump teams ties with Russia have seen ratings dropa potential sign that some American viewers are looking for fact-based reporting rather than partisan coverage.
None of the medias breaking news reports would be possible without a slew of anonymous sources from inside the White House and the federal government. Trump and his supporters have decried these leaks as part of a deep state trying to undermine the election. Reporters on the receiving end, though, say theyre often long-time government employees concerned about what they see as the dangerous actions of some players in the Trump administration.
Rather than seeing these leaks as dangerous to democracy, whistle blower advocates say they are an important part of it.
The public has a right to know, and that is who federal employees ultimately work for, said attorney Michael D. Kohn, co-founder of the National Whistleblowers Center. Most dont want to vilify their superiors, they want to problem fixed, and leaking is a last resort. Almost all whistleblowers have raised their concerns internally first, he said. Its clear that going to the media can sometimes produce the best result in addressing a problem, he said, citing the Flint, Michigan water contamination scandal.
Whistleblowers are the publics eyes, ears and conscious. Freedom of the press depends on whistleblowers and our democratic institutions will fail without them.
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American democracy is far from dead, just look at the past two weeks - Quartz
New York Times | Editorial Contest Winner | 'The Collateral Damage of Defending Democracy' New York Times Tribesmen in 2013 on the rubble of a building destroyed in an American drone strike against suspected militants in Shabwa Province in southeastern Yemen. Related Article Credit Khaled Abdullah/Reuters. We are honoring each of the Top 10 winners of our ... |
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Editorial Contest Winner | 'The Collateral Damage of Defending Democracy' - New York Times