Tag: Democracy

Here’s why the right abandons Democracy in favor of authoritarianism

There is a theme that has been emerging since the Tea Party was formed in reaction to Barack Obama’s election. It has most recently been articulated in response to the online exchange between Sohrab Ahmari and David French. As I noted previously, Andrew Sullivan did a good job of summarizing Ahmari’s position.

He wants the state to act boldly “to fight the culture war with the aim of defeating the enemy and enjoying the spoils in the form of a public square re-ordered to the common good and ultimately the Highest Good.”…

He wants to shut down the primacy of individual autonomy in a country where different people can coexist with others of radically different politics or faith…

View the complete June 18 article by Nancy LeTourneau from Washington Monthly on the AlterNet website here.

What Republican Whiners Dread Is Democracy – Not ‘Mob Rule’

Donald Trump flanked by Mike Pence and John Kelly

To hear some people tell it, America stands at the edge of a dangerous precipice. No less an authority than Donald J. Trump, the nation’s leading exponent of racial grievance theory, fears for the safety of the republic.

Marauding bands of women in silly pink hats have the commander-in-chief spooked. “You don’t hand matches to an arsonist,” he told a Kansas rally the other day “and you don’t give power to an angry left-wing mob—and that’s what they’ve become.”

Democrats, he means.

View the complete October 18 article by Gene Lyons on the National Memo website here.

Members of Congress respond to more than money – sometimes

The following article by Jan Leighley, Professor, Department of Government, American University, was posted on the Conversation website February 9, 2018:

Demonstrators protest against U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order banning travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries from entering the United States, in front of the U.S embassy in Brussel, Sunday, Feb. 12, 2017. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)

Does citizen activism really affect the actions of elected officials?

Despite the ubiquitous role of money in campaigns, elections and policymaking, some citizens clearly still believe in the power of protest.

In the month of December 2017 alone, an organization called The Crowd Counting Consortium “tallied 796 protests, demonstrations, strikes, marches, sit-ins and rallies,” some of them featuring thousands of people, across the country. Over the past year, the offices of many members of Congress and other elected officials have been jammed with constituents voicing their opinions on the Affordable Care Act, the immigration program called DACA, abortion and sexual harassment, among others. Continue reading “Members of Congress respond to more than money – sometimes”