’Democracy summit’ highlights fragility of freedom
Urgent, growing domestic threat to vaunted US ‘experiment’ looms over global gabfest
Voting rights legislation must be the top priority
For the past few days, much attention has been focused on The Summit for Democracy convened by the White House for more than 100 selected countries.
It was a noble endeavor with laudable goals indeed: boosting democracy in its battle against autocracy.
It comes at a moment in history when the very concept of representative government elected in free and fair elections is facing growing threats around the globe – and, not incidentally, in the US too.
It was lost on very few (especially China and Russia, who were not invited) that in the country hosting the “summit” the threat is as real as anywhere – possibly even worse because the US sees itself as an example for everyone else.
The insurrection at The Capitol on Jan. 6 and subsequent events have highlighted for the entire world what was on display this week: that American democracy is in unprecedented peril not seen since the Civil War era.
The evidence is clear, and growing by the day.
Unintentionally, the domestic threat in the US loomed over the summit – instead of the mutual support for which the event was intended.
The bad news for the US got measurably worse with publication in November of The Global State of Democracy Report 2021 by the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) of Sweden, which has been rating countries around the globe for half a century.
For the first time this year, the think tank categorized the US as a “backsliding” democracy … where it joined Poland and Slovenia.
According to the report, “The world is becoming more authoritarian as non-democratic regimes become even more brazen in their repression and many democratic governments suffer from backsliding by adopting their tactics of restricting free speech and weakening the rule of law.”
The IDEA Institute reported that for the fifth consecutive year, the number of countries moving in an authoritarian direction exceeds the number of countries moving in a democratic direction.
“In fact, the number moving in the direction of authoritarianism is three times the number moving towards democracy,” it reported.
The IDEA report – and particularly its categorization of the US as “backsliding” – got global media attention, like the Nov. 22 report in The Guardian US added to list of ‘backsliding’ democracies for first time.
“The US has been added to an annual list of ‘backsliding’ democracies for the first time, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance of Sweden said, pointing to a ‘visible deterioration’ it said began in 2019,” The Guardian reported.
“Globally, more than one in four people live in a backsliding democracy, a proportion that rises to more than two in three with the addition of authoritarian or “hybrid” regimes, according to the Stockholm-based IDEA Institute.
“This year we coded the United States as backsliding for the first time, but our data suggest that the backsliding episode began at least in 2019,” IDEA said in its report.
“A historic turning point came in 2020-21 when former president Donald Trump questioned the legitimacy of the 2020 election results in the United States.”
International IDEA bases its assessments on 50 years of democratic indicators in about 160 countries, assigning them to three categories: democracies (including those that are “backsliding”), “hybrid” governments and authoritarian regimes.
Adding to the urgency, on the eve of the summit on Wednesday, a major new report painted a stark picture of the domestic threats facing the US when the Brennan Center for Justice released an assessment Addressing Insider Threats in Elections in which it warned that “the effort to sabotage [US] elections has only intensified (since 2020),” with dozens of new officials in many states taking over positions where they will have direct control over election administration. It calls them “insider threats.”
“Congress and state and local governments must take critical steps to protect against insider threats,” the report warns.
Citing recent polling data, Brennan notes that almost one-third of Americans now believe the false narrative that the 2020 election was stolen.
“Given this fact, we shouldn’t be shocked that among the more than 8,000 local election officials — and tens of thousands of additional public and private sector employees that support their work — there are some who will also buy into these conspiracy theories.
“In fact, there has been an active effort to recruit and convince election officials to facilitate these conspiracy theories and push the goals of election deniers.” (emphasis added)
The Brennan report noted that since the 2020 election, incumbent officials have faced threats, harassment, intimidation and unprecedented political pressure.
As a result “many are choosing to leave the election administration field altogether … and in many cases, the people seeking to fill these open positions are those who have been most activated by the conspiracies surrounding the 2020 election and the most determined to abuse their authority to ensure a different outcome in 2024.”
The most crucial state-level officials with direct impacts on election administration are the attorneys general and secretaries of state – elected offices.
The new Brennan report notes: “At least 10 candidates running for secretary of state and eight running for attorney general have received former President Trump’s endorsement because they backed his false claims that the 2020 election was illegitimate.”
If these candidates are successful, then they will be in crucial positions to do what was NOT done in 2020: manipulate election results to ensure their favored candidate is the winner – regardless of the voters’ wishes.
The Brennan report also recommends several ways the threats could at least be mitigated.
Stopping insider threats will require “that lawmakers and election officials act now to prevent such attempts to sabotage election administration in 2022 and 2024.”
Among its recommendations:
Restrict access to election systems;
establish transparent procedures and monitor for inappropriate activity;
remove and prosecute officials and workers who actively undermine election integrity;
and establish standards on cybersecurity, personnel security, and supply chain integrity for their election vendors.
“Over the next year, it is vitally important that we ensure the public understands the stakes for election administration in upcoming elections.”
The alarming news about insider threats to US elections was underscored by the annual report from the widely respected Freedom House think tank Freedom in the World 2021: Democracies under siege which noted an 11 point decline in the US average score in 2021.
Freedom House rates citizens’ access to political rights and civil liberties in 210 countries and territories through its annual Freedom in the World report.
Its Index of Democracy has been declining for 15 consecutive years. The group notes that “nearly 75 percent of the world's population lived in a country that faced deterioration last year.”
That includes the United States, which is now tied with Panama and ranks behind quite a few of the Eastern Bloc countries that entered the democratic column only 30 years ago.
The report’s section on the United States is devastating:
“The parlous state of US democracy was conspicuous in the early days of 2021 as an insurrectionist mob, egged on by the words of outgoing President Donald Trump and his refusal to admit defeat in the November election, stormed the Capitol building and temporarily disrupted Congress’s final certification of the vote,” the report said.
“This capped a year in which the administration attempted to undermine accountability for malfeasance, including by dismissing inspectors general responsible for rooting out financial and other misconduct in government; amplified false allegations of electoral fraud that fed mistrust among much of the US population; and condoned disproportionate violence by police in response to massive protests calling for an end to systemic racial injustice.
“But the outburst of political violence at the symbolic heart of US democracy, incited by the president himself, threw the country into even greater crisis.
“Notwithstanding the inauguration of a new president in keeping with the law and the Constitution, the United States will need to work vigorously to strengthen its institutional safeguards, restore its civic norms, and uphold the promise of its core principles for all segments of society if it is to protect its venerable democracy and regain global credibility.”
It does not seem the warning from Freedom House is being taken as seriously as it should be. If it were, then a huge outcry would have arisen about the actions – largely under the radar – being taken at the state level by legislators in many states.
As documented in the Brennan Center for Justice report on State Voting Laws “As of September 27, lawmakers have enacted at least 33 laws with restrictive provisions in 19 states. Overall, legislators have introduced more than 425 bills with restrictive provisions in 49 states,” it reported in October.
In many cases, the bills introduced but not acted on could still be enacted next year if state legislators wish.
It was in this report that the Brennan Center laid out in stark terms what needs to happen. “Congress has the power to protect American voters from the kinds of restrictions enacted so far this year,” it said.
It has several action items, all of which are languishing in the US Senate.
The Freedom to Vote Act is a comprehensive package of voting, redistricting, and campaign finance reforms. It includes national standards for voting that would ensure access to the ballot across state lines.
In October, it was blocked by a Republican filibuster in the Senate.
The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act which has passed in the House, would complement the Freedom to Vote Act. It would prevent changes to voting rules that discriminate on the basis of race or membership in language minority groups, and it would restore voters’ robust ability to challenge discriminatory laws.
It was blocked by a filibuster on Nov. 3, with 49 Republicans voting “no.”
In an attempt to circumvent the filibuster, Sen. Joe Manchin negotiated a watered-down version of the voting rights bill with some Republicans. The Manchin bill also sought to address some of the dozens of anti-voting rights laws being passed in Republican-controlled states across the country.
All 50 Senate Republicans voted to filibuster the bill, effectively burying it. So much for compromise.
Appearing on video on the first day of The Summit for Democracy, in his opening remarks to the assembled delegates President Joe Biden began with some lofty rhetoric:
“Here in the United States, we know as well as anyone that renewing our democracy and strengthening our democratic institutions requires constant effort,” Biden said. “American democracy is an ongoing struggle to live up to our highest ideals and to heal our divisions. … Democracy doesn’t happen by accident. We have to renew it with each generation.”
But the president made only a passing reference to the core domestic issue, what he called “two critical pieces of legislation that will shore up the very foundation of American democracy.
“We need to enact what we call the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to prevent voting discrimination, provide baselines for assessing — accessing the ballot box, and ensure the will of the voters is upheld, and so much more,” Biden said.
“We should be making it easy for people to vote, not harder. And that’s going to remain a priority for my administration until we get it done.
“Inaction is not an option.”
This last statement is incontrovertibly true, but the president’s actions – so far – do not match the gravity of his words. He did not once mention the main obstacle: the filibuster. There was no sense of the urgency involved.
There’s only one solution
Before, during and since the summit, many have noted that there is a dangerous and growing mass movement in the US that not only believes – despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary – that the 2020 election was stolen, but that any means (including violence) are justified to prevent this from happening in 2024.
One half of the body politic, the Republican Party, is happily leading this charge at the state and federal levels.
It is entrenching voter suppression, encouraging candidates who support the Big Lie, advancing those willing to deny legitimate election outcomes if the opposing party wins, and using increasingly violent rhetoric to promote their views.
There is only one solution, and it is hiding in plain sight.
Concerted action by the majority in Congress is the only means left to prevent an irreversible and terrifying outcome.
Federal voting rights laws are the only remaining way to preempt the anti-democratic forces reaching a fever pitch in many states.
But to get them passed, the US Senate must reform or abolish the filibuster. It has been used three times to block reasonable and urgent voting rights laws – the key to saving American democracy. Three times is more than enough.
Finding a way around the filibuster is the necessary precondition for passing voting rights protections.
President Biden and Democratic leaders must make this their top priority.
If they do not, nothing else matters.
What I don’t understand is the willingness, or perhaps interest in having a government run by a tyrant, by the American people. How is that a great way to live? If someone did a survey and asked questions like:
• Do you think an authoritarian form of government is better than a democratic one?
• Can you think of a country with authoritarianism as its basic philosophy, which is a great place to live?
• Are you attracted to governments where bribery is what greases the wheels?
I’m sure there are other (better) questions, but it would be interesting to see what the average American really thinks.
If the Senate can’t get its act together and pass voting rights laws, it’s curtains for our democracy.
The GOP is methodically arranging things in all the states they control so that next time the COUP will succeed. They are taking over election administration wherever they can and where they can’t, kicking out the honest officials who refused to steal it last time.
It is a dangerous moment. The only way to break the logjam is to get rid of the filibuster.