Tag: Democracy

How To Mend A Broken Democracy

I have had several conversations here on IST and in my contact with people in my community on what will be needed to fix what is going wrong in our democracy….and of course not all the contact was positive….I do live in Mississippi which is bright Red and MAGA friendly….those interactions lead to a few ugly exchanges.

Most thinking agree that something needs to be done by the next government to repair the damage that Donny and the Band of idiots have done to this country….but will that be the will of elected officials?

An article in The Fulcrum takes a gander at the possibilities….an interesting article….

If he leaves, Donald Trump will not leave the Oval Office until January 2029. Seems like a long way off.

But whether it feels near or far, it is time for pro-democracy forces to begin thinking about the work needed to rebuild, revitalize, and improve the infrastructure and architecture of American Democracy. That should not be done as one part of a policy agenda, but as THE priority for a post-MAGA world.

Restoring and/or building a vibrant constitutional democracy will require that singular focus. The damage the Trump Administration has done and will do to the democratic fabric of American life is incalculable.

Addressing it can’t be a side gig. It will take a singular focus for a post-MAGA president to lead a “transition to democracy” in the United States and learn from the experiences of nations that have traveled that path before us.

But if you poke around on the internet, you’ll find several comprehensive projects that place the work of rebuilding democracy side-by-side with an ambitious policy agenda, many of which claim the mantle: Project 2029.

One of them holds itself out to be “a grassroots, citizen-led effort to reclaim our democracy. We are not affiliated with or supported by any political party or political action group (PAC).” But it says very little about how to rebuild democratic institutions and practices.

It offers a vision of government that does many things, like “prioritize(ing) people over profit, embracing policies informed by science, expertise, and empathy. It actively engages citizens as empowered participants in shaping their communities, rather than passive consumers of decisions made behind closed doors.”

https://thefulcrum.us/democracy/rebuilding-american-democracy-post-trump

In case no one read some of the included articles….this one caught my eye it is from a political abstract…..

  • When elites agree to compromise during regime transitions, democratization is more likely to succeed. Human agency is therefore central to successful democratization; however, it cannot be divorced from structural factors, such as class or economic interests, which incentivize elites to compromise in the first place.
  • Leadership plays a key role in guiding transition processes and can even help to break deadlocks between ideological opponents.
  • When existing patronage networks remain strong, elite defection and, hence, the likelihood of authoritarian breakdown is reduced. Conversely, when authoritarian rulers either face dwindling resources or do not co-opt key political and economic elites with patronage, their incumbency is threatened.
  • The nature of democratic transitions shapes the subsequent quality of democracy. Transitions that are “pacted” among elites may result in relatively smooth transitions to electoral democracy but they tend to permit political and economic elites to maintain their privileges, leading to less inclusive democracy.
  • The most vociferous opponents of economic liberalization may not be the marginalized mass publics but rather well-connected elites who benefited under authoritarian rule. Forging a more inclusive political and economic system is challenging, in no small part because it is difficult to dislodge authoritarian coalitions even after democratic transitions have ostensibly occurred.

Some great stuff in there but I disagree with a large part of the abstract….

I do not see any cooperation on major issues…..lobbyists will still own the Congress….oligarchs will still get their way….

That brings me to the newest brain fart by Dems…..Project 2029 (they could not even come up something in an original title….that tells me a lot)

01 Reward Hard Work

Our economy should reward hard work and not just huge wealth. We need to rebuild the ladder of opportunity for Americans and for American communities getting left behind.  (This is for the billionaires to keep them calm)

02 Give Americans Their Government Back

In today’s Washington, wealthy and well-connected people and interests call the shots and drown out the voice of the people. Government needs to work for everyday Americans – and it just plain needs to work by delivering real progress.  (Good idea but I do not think the next Congress will be capable)

03 Restore Law and Order

No one should be above the law – whether they’re on the street corner, in the corner office, or in the Oval Office. It’s time we strengthened our laws and our law enforcement to crack down on dangerous criminals, corporate wrongdoers, and corrupt public officials. (Good one….but what if we get another Donny that just ignores the laws?)

04 Make America Affordable Again

Americans are working harder but still finding it harder to make ends meet. They’re getting crunched by rising costs for housing and health care and squeezed for time as they try to take care of their kids or parents. We need to give them a helping hand and stop corporations from ripping them off.  (This one is my favorite….Just how will they go about this?)

05 Jumpstart Economic Growth

America needs to win the global race to make sure the jobs and technologies of the future in areas like AI and clean energy are here at home. New innovations need new rules of the road so that we protect consumers, lower prices, and stop big businesses from stifling entrepreneurs and competition. (Embracing AI will do little to make the workers important again….how will the lobbyists be controlled?)

06 Protect America’s Security and Prosperity

 It’s time for a new global agenda to open the doors of global economic opportunity for American workers and business and to ensure America stands on the side of democracies and not dictatorships.  (This is a shot for the M-IC to keep them calm)

All in all I think Project 2029 will not be as successful as Project 2025….using name recognition will do nothing to improve our plight.

The closing of the article says it all….

At the end of the day, the Brennan Center gets it right when it says: “A return to stable democracy requires sustained effort to revitalize democratic institutions to address the underlying weaknesses that made them vulnerable to begin with. While it may be tempting for leaders to simply revert to the status quo that existed before a country started to backslide, trying to do so may actually prolong a country’s period of instability.”

I do not believe the repair work can be finished in anything less than a whole generation for Donny and the Slugs have done damage that runs deep.

Any thoughts you would like to share?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

A Few Thoughts On Democracy

You know that idyllic form of government that we use to have but is slowly being eaten away by a fat orange money and his minion.

As the democracy is being eroded there are a few things that we need to remember….

Democracy as a form of government literally means power vested in its people. But it’s much more than just elections or government institutions—it’s a relationship among its citizens. And in a country of more than 342 million people of all backgrounds governed by fifty semi-independent states, there will never be a singular consensus about anything. Today, our democracy has grown fragile because it depends on its citizens’ willingness to engage with each other, and growing polarization has been eroding that foundation.

A recent Pew Research Center study found that the health of our democracy notably declined in 2025 following a pattern of weakening over the past decade, according to multiple evaluations that have long tracked the performance of democracies around the world. And this decline is perceived among the public: in a March 2026 survey, 69% of American adults reported dissatisfaction with the way our democracy is working. But the irony of this dissatisfaction is that our democracy and its future don’t lie solely in the hands of those in office. While elected officials may bear the heaviest weight of democracy, it is built on its people—a foundation that has been strengthened by centuries of collaboration, discourse, and debate.

https://thefulcrum.us/democracy/dialogue-and-democracy

Let me emphasize….democracy is a responsibility, not a guarantee….in other words if we lose it it will be the cowards and the defeatists that made it so.

In other words….democracy needs citizens not those that are fans…..

However, fans are primarily attached to personalities. The nature of their engagement with politics is much more emotional than institutional. The political centrality revolves around the leader, while institutions lose space in public discussions and expectations. Political questions become personalised. Successes are attributed solely to the leader, while failures are blamed on situations and structure or institutions perceived as obstacles. It no longer connects citizens with the state but admirers to an individual.

Citizens need institutions: the judiciary to protect rights, the legislature to make laws, the election commission to ensure free and fair elections, universities to produce and verify knowledge, and the media to scrutinise power. Citizens often prioritise democracy over any individual because institutions outlast governments and provide coherence to public life. They realise that public trust must rest in procedures rather than personalities.

https://thefulcrum.us/democracy/democratic-accountability

We hear from different camps this person or that is a savior of the nation….democracy does not need saviors, it needs participants…..

And if our civic life depends on finding the rare leaders who can make half the country stop fearing the other half, the problem is not merely leadership — it is structural.

Effective political systems are supposed to reduce the need for heroic leadership. They are supposed to channel disagreement, lower the stakes of political defeat, protect basic rights, and allow citizens who disagree to keep living together without believing every election is a struggle for survival.

Our structure increasingly does the opposite. The president is expected to be head of government, head of state, cultural symbol, emergency manager, economic steward, commander-in-chief, national therapist, partisan warrior, and national unifier.

No human being can effectively do all of that for a country of more than 340 million people divided almost evenly over first governing principles.

https://thefulcrum.us/democracy/unity-in-american-politics

Democracy is losing ground daily…..Donny and the Band of Thieves are eating away at any confidence in democracy….

he overwhelming majority of Americans agree that democracy is the best form of government. But according to the first report from the Democracy for All Project, a collaboration between the Charles F. Kettering Foundation and Gallup, over half of the people surveyed think that American democracy is performing poorly.

New research by Freedom House suggests that this negative impression is more than a feeling. The recently published Freedom in the World 2026 report highlights concrete problems with the institutions that Americans are losing confidence in, specifically Congress and the justice system. We argue that long-term issues like legislative dysfunction and gridlock, alongside discrimination and a weakening of anticorruption safeguards, are eroding confidence in democracy and worrying many Americans. We conclude that to counteract these trends, policymakers and civil society groups should engage 18-to-29-year-olds, who the Kettering-Gallup survey suggests are eager to be involved in their communities. Helping young people transform their enthusiasm into action could go a long way to both improving America’s political institutions and shoring up faith in democracy.

https://thefulcrum.us/democracy/americas-democracy-in-decline-analysis

We are losing the republic piece by piece…..time to decide if you want democracy or whatever this Trump thing is called….what will you do to stop the erosion?

I have seen too many that are rolling with the punches and accepting the fate that Donny offers….NOT ME!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Has Democracy Changed?

We have just celebrated our 250th year of existence and we have a complete idiot as leader and things have changed in this country….that brings us to the question has Trump changed democracy forever?

This is what 11 historians have to say about the question…..

 

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2026/07/04/america-250-round-up-00981023

 

Do you agree with these findings by historians?

What do you think….has Donny changed the definition of democracy?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Let’s Look At The Dems And Their Possibilities

We all know that the mid-terms are less than 6 months away and the voted in the primaries has already began….and the Dems are making some in-roads into taking back Congress.

But is it sound Democratic polices or just a dislike of Donny?  Sorry to say it appears the hatred of Donny and his policies that is driving this bus.  But will the hatred of Donny save us?

My opinion is the rise of Dems will do little to save us from the damage of Donny.

But here is an opinion on this phenom….

All told, Democrats already seem as though they’re headed for a great midterm election. Voters already troubled by the state of the economy now have the impacts of Donald Trump’s teeter-tottering war in Iran to contend with, and polls tell us they aren’t happy ⁠– per poll averages from the analyst Nate Silver, nearly 55% of Americans oppose the war in Iran, 61% of Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy, and 57% of Americans disapprove of Trump overall. As it stands, Democrats have a six-point advantage in generic congressional ballot polling over Republicans.

And Republican hopes that a mid-decade redistricting rush would save their tight majority in the House have been frustrated. The partisan gerrymandering war of the last several months peaked with the victory of a ballot measure in Virginia that allows the state’s Democratic legislature to draw maps that would eliminate three Republican seats and a riposte by Florida Republicans who approved their own map that could allow Republicans to gain as many as four seats in that state – mere hours after the supreme court struck down provisions in the Voting Rights Act banning racial gerrymandering.

While the redistricting battles will drag on, electoral history and Trump’s standing give Democrats plenty of reason to presume it will take the House in November ⁠– on average in elections since the end of the second world war, the president’s party tends to lose well over 20 House seats in midterm elections and Republicans currently hold the chamber by just three. And given polling for competitive races in Maine, North Carolina, Ohio, and elsewhere, even the Senate may now be in Democrats’ reach.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/04/democrats-trump-election-voter-poll

Some voters see the likes of the mayor of NYC, Bernie and AOC, among others as the true intent of the Democratic Party and also see them as the savoir of a struggling party.

Progressives are gaining in all quarters….as a hard Leftist I see this as a positive change….but there is so much to be done will it be enough?

This year marks 250 years since the first American Revolution. Yet the American ruling class has no grounds for celebrating the occasion. The country they have ruled for a quarter millennium is teetering on a catastrophe.

As they survey the state of the nation from the bird’s-eye view of their skyscraper penthouses and corporate boardrooms, from their gilded halls of power, and their remote luxury islands, they see a picture of decline. As they look at this country’s position in the world, the mood of its population, perception of its institutions, quality of its political leadership, and its economic trajectory, they have no reason for optimism in the years ahead.

We are living through a historical pivot. On the global stage, US imperialism has lost the hegemonic grip it once held. In the space of 25 decades it has matured from colonial infancy, to unrivaled colossus, to the irreversible frailty of senile decay. Its strength has waned for decades, but in the 2020s, the gradual downward slope has started to tip into free fall. When future historians look back on the country’s curve of rise and decline, they’ll identify this decade as the tipping point.

Capitalism’s historical mission has come and gone. The next American revolution is approaching.

I say bring it on!

Get money out of politics, silence special interests and lobbyists, enact term limits and mandatory retirement requirements….work on things that will make any change permanent for that is what Donny and the Bros are attempting to do as I type.

It is time to make this country a great nation…..a beacon of democracy and freedom that it use to be….

Change is good and NOT to be feared.

Bring on the new American revolution.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Can We Be Hopeful?

These are days that try men’s souls….our nation seems to be dissolving in front of our eyes.

Many of us are worried the nation will destroy itself and others are just as certain that all will be okay if we just give it time to straighten itself out.

This is an opinion piece along these lines…..

I grew up in a place called Freedom.

Freedom, Pennsylvania, to be exact. In the borough of Economy. My high school is in a town named after the American Bridge Company. The son of an Army veteran and a nurse. A literal white picket fence. Family of five. A dog. The American Dream by many measures.

Nearly 40 years later, I’m not sure I believe in that American Dream. And I’m not alone in that doubt. This year, the United States will celebrate 250 years of independence — with fireworks, reenactments, and the familiar stories of founders and freedom. But for a lot of us, the milestone lands differently. Not as a celebration, exactly. More like a question we can’t stop asking.

Independence from what? And for whom?

I’ve watched the definition of freedom narrow in my lifetime. I’ve felt the quiet suggestion — sometimes subtle, sometimes loud — that people like me are outside the frame of what this country was meant to be. And yet, queer people have always been here. In towns like mine. In families like mine. Serving, building, showing up. We were never separate from the American story; we were just edited out.

When I say I’m not sure I believe in the American Dream, I mean: I’m not sure the version I was handed was ever the whole truth. What I’m still reaching for is something underneath it — a possibility that requires participation, friction, and revision. Something that asks more from us than nostalgia.

Which brings me to hope. And how hard it is to hold onto right now. Author and civil rights activist James Baldwin once wrote, Hope — the hope that we, human beings, can be better than we are — dies hard; perhaps one can no longer live if one allows that hope to die. But it is also hard to see what one sees. Published in 1972. It could have been written this morning.

https://thefulcrum.us/democracy/i-m-not-optimistic-about-america-at-250-im-still-hopeful

What do you think?

I think we can survive….but not from the sidelines as a by-stander….I think we need to go out and make our positions known and demand our rights and the survival of our country.

But that is just me.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Collapse Of Democracy

There have been many writers that are telling us that we are witnessing the collapse of American democracy since the election of Donny for his lovely second term as president….that is wrong…..we have been living through it well before Donny started his assault on our rights.

Since Donald Trump returned to the White House, American political life has taken on a familiar rhythm. Each week brings another court ruling framed as a breaking point, another election cast as the last real one, another executive order described as the moment it all finally tips over the edge, another person murdered by a government that’s finally gone too far. Democratic party fundraising emails promise to “save the Republic”. Commentators warn that the guardrails are giving way. Anxious citizens refresh their screens, waiting for the collapse of American democracy.

This state of permanent panic rests on what Sigmund Freud called an illusion: a belief embraced not because it reflects reality, but because it satisfies a psychological need. The illusion in this case is that the United States still has a democracy to lose. The more unsettling truth is that Americans are not living under threat of future democratic breakdown; we are living inside the aftermath of one that has already occurred.

For tens of millions of people, democratic life has been absent for decades as they endure precarious housing, inaccessible healthcare, unchecked policing powers, debt servitude, vanishing public goods, and near-total exclusion from meaningful formal political power. For others – the wealthy, the politically connected, the donors and oligarchs – the same system produces not insecurity, but insulation, along with a constant need to rationalize the deprivation of others upon which their power is predicated and to disavow any responsibility for it.

These are not signs of a democracy under threat. They are symptoms of one that eroded – if it ever existed – long ago. Why, then, does American political discourse remain fixated on a catastrophe that always seems imminent but never quite arrives?

https://www.theguardian.com/global/commentisfree/2026/mar/08/trump-democracy-oligarchy-policy

This is a situation that some of us have been saying for decades but people were too busy to notice the slide….and that is where our problem lies….people think that living only for their individual interests will keep everything on a an even keel…..I believe people can see now that that was a moronic reason….well some people.

Disagree?  Knock your socks off.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Simplistic Thinking

Have you ever wondered why Americans, some Americans, have seemingly abandoned democracy?

How they can allow the destruction of this nation to proceed without voicing their displeasure?

Why is this?

Many have taken democracy for granted, forgetting how fragile it is. Yet across the world, support for its most basic principles (free elections, free speech, political equality) is eroding. The democratic institutions that brought more prosperity than ever before are sliding, and it’s not clear why.

A new study published in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciencessuggests that the threat does not come from a single political ideology. Instead, it arises from the psychological forces that drive people both to defend the system and to tear it down in a simplistic fashion.

“Despite growing concern about the erosion of democratic values worldwide, we do not have a solid understanding of the psychological underpinnings of antidemocratic attitudes,” Artur Nilsson, a professor of psychology at the University of Bergen and Linköping University, who led the study with colleague Ali Teymoori, told PsyPost. “The present study set out to bring together and compare the most influential explanations, offering a more unified understanding of why people might turn against principles of liberal democracy.”

Nilsson’s team surveyed 824 adults in the United Kingdom, asking them about their beliefs and attitudes toward democracy. Participants answered questions that probed everything from their openness to new information to their willingness to justify violence or censorship.

The researchers found that antidemocratic attitudes don’t belong exclusively to the political left or right. Rather, they emerge from two opposing but psychologically similar worldviews.

The first, called system-justifying, includes authoritarian and dominance-oriented beliefs. These are the views that emphasize obedience, hierarchy, and the protection of established norms. These individuals were more likely to support censorship or restricting civil liberties to maintain order. These are the ones that try to support the establishment.

https://www.zmescience.com/science/psychology-science/simplistic-thinking-both-on-the-left-and-the-right-can-drives-people-to-turn-against-democracy/

Do you agree with the article?

If not then what do you think is causing the abandonment of democracy by so many?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Democracy For A Peaceful World

Since the early years of my schooling I was taught that the US was a beacon of freedom and democracy in this world.

The original mission statement for the Department of State was that it was to promote democracy and human rights….I believe that mission statement has been changed in the last few months.

The high moral ideal that democracy promotes peace is being challenged these days.

This is an article from Switzerland…..

Switzerland is not only a peaceful, democratic country, it is also – as stated in its constitution – committed to democracy and the peaceful “coexistence of peoples” worldwide. The extent to which democracy and peace are linked from a Swiss perspective is demonstrated by the fact that the promotion of democracy is the responsibility of the “Peace and Human Rights” department in the foreign ministry.

The perspective that democratisation brings peace has also had an impact internationally since 1945. Since the Second World War, the number of interstate wars has decreased and the number of democratic states has increased.

In 2024, there were once again more autocratic states than democratic ones. And liberal democracies, which respect the rights and freedoms of the individual, have even become a rare form of government. Only 900 million people live in a liberal democracy. In contrast, 72% of the world’s population live in a dictatorship. This is the highest number since 1978. At the same time, Western countries, above all the US, are scaling back their promotion of democracy abroad.

Are these developments linked to the many conflicts that exist around the world?

In addition to peace, prosperity in particular has long been a promise of democratisation, political scientist Karina Mross told Swissinfo. “But the example of China has undermined this argument. Especially since China is trying to define its own form of democracy,” she said.

A few years ago, China presented an argument as to why dictatorship is “a democracy that works”External link. Authoritarian states are trying – also in international organisations – to counter the liberal order with their own alternative model of values and prosperity.

If the economic argument is dropped, the question arises as to whether democratisation is at least a guarantee for peace.

https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/global-elections/does-democracy-really-make-the-world-more-peaceful/89646855

In recent years I have not seen the promise of democracy brings with it a peaceful world.

Has anyone else had this vision?

What makes anyone think that a country that spends a trillion dollars on war prep is working for a more peaceful world?

Indicators point o a problem….

In 2024, the number of state-based conflicts worldwide reached its highest level since 1946. Military expenditures have risen for 10 consecutive years, surpassing $2.7 trillion annually.

A record number of children have been victims of armed conflict, and gains in women’s rights hang in the balance around the world amid record levels of conflict.

The world is confronting converging crises. In September 2024, the United Nations convened the Summit for the Future, an initiative by the UN secretary-general aimed at addressing the collapse of the post-Cold War multilateral system, as well as the increasing number of conflicts and humanitarian emergencies. All of this is occurring in the climate change era.

https://theconversation.com/the-world-on-the-brink-why-governments-must-invest-in-peace-not-just-arms-264543

The world does not need more wars….even our once proud nation has been slowly drifting away from being a safe place….

Global Peace Index (GPI), released annually by the Institute for Economics & Peace, provides a look at the country’s overall safety and security—and it’s concerning. The Index rates more than 160 nations on factors like crime, conflict, and military spending. In the most recent report, the United States ranks near the bottom.

The 2025 results officially place the U.S. among the least peaceful countries in the world. Here’s more insight into why America’s score is so low and how it compares with other nations.

https://www.thetravel.com/study-shows-us-one-of-least-peaceful-countries-in-the-world/

How sad is that?  But not to worry it will make america great again, right?

Just wondering.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Losing My Religion

Nope not some tribute to a song by R.E.M.

By ‘religion’ I mean democracy because to some of us democracy is a religion and it needs preserving and helped to thrive…..and it appears to be diminishing almost daily.

For decades there has been a slow destruction of our beloved democracy and since the early 90s that destruction has sped up until we arrive at today and the total disregard of our democracy by some.

The culprits are those oligarchs, the uber-wealthy, that are using their wallets to secure influence and drain the life out of democracy.

It doesn’t take a conspiracy to dismantle democracy — just concentrated wealth and time.

Across the globe, but especially in the United States, the ultra-wealthy have learned to bend democratic institutions not through revolution or coups d’état, but through slow but determined erosion. They don’t storm the halls of power; they sponsor those halls, sue them if they resist, and slowly discredit them if they persist. They present themselves to the public and a pliant media as hardnosed realists and pragmatists — people who know how to get things done – rational actors disillusioned with what they denounce as ‘the inefficiencies of self-rule.’ But what they’re really doing is waging a cold and relentless war on the very machinery of democratic life.

The corrosion starts subtly: A billionaire funds a lawsuit, quietly buys a newspaper, or drops millions into a political race. It initially appears to be wholesome participation (Bezos saving journalism by giving it room to breathe) — civic engagement by successful individuals. But with the benefit of time, the scale and intent reveal something else.

When Peter Thiel bankrolled the lawsuit that bankrupted Gawker Media, he wasn’t just seeking justice for a perceived personal slight. He was sending a clear message: If you cross a billionaire, we will destroy you — and we won’t need to win an argument to do it. You will not be debated; you will be swiftly liquidated.

The legal system, which in theory protects the weak from the powerful, is in practice yet another arena where wealth sets the rules. Strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPP suits) have become the favorite tool of oligarchs to intimidate journalists, whistleblowers, and activists into silence. The goal isn’t to win in court; it is to bleed critics dry with legal fees and drag them through years of debilitating litigation. In a democracy, speech should be protected; in an oligarchy, it is priced and, in that way, snuffed out.

The media, too, has been captured — not in a dramatic coup, but through purchase after purchase.

Rupert Murdoch’s sprawling empire has normalized the idea that facts are pliable, that narratives are weapons, and that partisanship isn’t a danger but a business model. Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter (now X) is a more recent version of the same impulse: Control the flow of information, and you control what people believe is real. Democracy depends on shared reality, while plutocracy, in sharp contrast, thrives and prospers in the fog.

https://thefulcrum.us/ethics-leadership/billionaire-oligarchy

The destruction is nearing completion….the tenets by which this great nation was founded are being chipped away…..what will you do to preserve the system we love?

Thoughts?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

How To End Democracy

There is lots of talk these about the possible demise of democracy….personally I think we are stronger than that….but that is just me….

I read this article about other tyrants across the globe and their attempts/advice on doing the unthinkable….

The leader of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is an ally of Trump. As is the leader of Hungary, Viktor Orban, another authoritarian society. So is the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, to which Trump has shipped Venezuelan nationals (1 percent of El Salvador’s entire population, including 3,000 children, are held in megaprisons, where they are subject to torture).

Argentina’s President Javier Milei, who rose to power carrying around a chainsaw to “slash the overgrown state,” seems to have inspired Elon Musk’s brandishing a chainsaw at a recent rally of conservative allies.

…

These are all part of a global anti-democracy movement.

Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, is acting on a theme promoted by Trump: Harass and strangle nonprofits you don’t like. Modi’s government obstructs and even dismantles nonprofits and human rights organizations by weaponizing the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA), which governs the receipt and use of foreign donations by nonprofits. Without FCRA certification, nonprofits are barred from international donations.

Other autocrats, who got a head start on Trump, are now using his example to go even further.

The Hungarian government is orchestrating a crackdown on gay people far beyond anything Trump has done so far to reverse the protections that prior US administrations extended to gays and other vulnerable groups. And Orban is citing Trump as cover for these actions.

One for All, All for One: Trump, Foreign Tyrants Share Tips on Ending Democracy

Just a few thoughts about the anti-democracy movement in countries that Donny has given credence to in his speeches and actions.

We stand on the precipice of a dilemma and we have only to take our eyes off the democratic prize and we could very well lose that which so many have fought to preserve for centuries.

Just that what you want?

If not then keep you eyes open and your hearts where it belongs with this country and its people…..and the institution that our forefathers carried forward for those many centuries.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”