#the greatest threat to democracy is democrats

[sawbuckplus]

[wilwheaton]

The conservative justices had an opportunity to rally to the defense of democracy, to gird the system against further attack, to righteously defend the rule of law, and to protect its own prerogatives and powers against a wannabe tyrant who is counting on them to be his supplicants. They could have drawn a sharp line. They could have summoned indignation and outrage. They could have overlooked their partisan priors in favor of principle – or more cravenly in favor of self-preservation. With the possible and limited exception of Justice Amy Coney Barrett, they did none of that. They failed in the worst possible way at the most crucial time.

Rogue SCOTUS Abandons Democracy In Her Hour Of Greatest Need

Say this with me: This SCOTUS majority is not an impartial arbiter of law. This SCOTUS majority has no respect for precedent, the will of the people, or its fundamental role in government.

This SCOTUS majority is doing through force what the other members of their movement could not achieve through elections: change laws to take equality and freedoms away from as many people as possible, to completely remake America into something we don’t recognize.

Donald Trump and his cult are the greatest threat America has ever faced in its history, with this corrupt, venal, activist group of unelected liars (and at least two rapists) enabling him.

Democrats absolutely have to expand the court and begin an impeachment inquiry into Thomas and Kavanaugh the instant they have congressional majorities. 

I don’t think it’s too late, but it’s about five seconds away from being too late. If Congress doesn’t act hard and fast, these seven people will turn America over to corporations and megachurches.

We have to stop this, and the only way we have any chance at all is to turn out in massive numbers this November to overwhelmingly defeat the people who will put Project 2025 into action.

[deadpresidents]

On the cliffs of Normandy, in a small holding area, the President of the United States was looking out at the English Channel. It was only six weeks ago, on the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, and President Biden had just finished his remarks at the American cemetery atop Omaha Beach. Guests had been congratulating him on the speech, but he didn't want to talk about himself. The moment was not about him; it was about the men who had fought and died there. "Today feels so large," he told me. "This may sound strange -- and I don't mean it to -- but when I was out there, I felt the honor of it, the sanctity of it. To speak for the American people, to speak over those graves, it's a profound thing." He turned from the view over the beaches and gestured back toward the war dead. "You want to do right by them, by the country."

Mr. Biden has spent a lifetime trying to do right by the nation, and he did so in the most epic of ways when he chose to end his campaign for re-election. His decision is one of the most remarkable acts of leadership in our history, an act of self-sacrifice that places him in the company of George Washington who also stepped away from the presidency. To put something ahead of one's immediate desires -- to give, rather than to try to take -- is perhaps the most difficult thing for any human being to do. And Mr. Biden has done just that.

To be clear: Mr. Biden is my friend, and it has been a privilege to help him when I can. Not because I am a Democrat -- I belong to neither party and have voted for both Democrats and Republicans -- but because I believe him to be a defender of the Constitution and a public servant of honor and of grace at a time when extreme forces threaten the nation. I do not agree with everything he has done or wanted to do in terms of policy. But I know him to be a good man, a patriot and a president who has met challenges all too similar to those Abraham Lincoln faced. Here is the story I believe history will tell of Joe Biden. With American democracy in an hour of maximum danger in Donald Trump's presidency, Mr. Biden stepped in the breach. He staved off an authoritarian threat at home, rallied the world against autocrats abroad, laid the foundations for decades of prosperity, managed the end of a once-in-a-century pandemic, successfully legislated on vital issues of climate and infrastructure and has conducted a presidency worthy of the greatest of his predecessors. History and fate brought him to the pinnacle in a late season in his life, and in the end, he respected fate -- and he respected the American people.

It is, of course, an incredibly difficult moment. Highs and lows, victories and defeats, joy and pain: It has been ever thus for Mr. Biden. In the distant autumn of 1972, he experienced the most exhilarating of hours -- election to the United States Senate at the age of 29. He was no scion; he earned it. The darkness fell: His wife and daughter were killed in an automobile accident that seriously injured his two sons, Beau and Hunter. But he endured, found purpose in the pain, became deeper, wiser, more empathetic. Through the decades, two presidential campaigns imploded, and in 2015 his son Beau, a lawyer and wonderfully promising young political figure, died of brain cancer after serving in Iraq.

Such tragedy would have broken many lesser men. Mr. Biden, however, never gave up, never gave in, never surrendered the hope that a fallen, frail and fallible world could be made better, stronger and more whole if people could summon just enough goodness and enough courage to build rather than tear down. Character, as the Greeks first taught us, is destiny, and Mr. Biden's character is both a mirror and a maker of his nation's. Like Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan, he is optimistic, resilient and kind, a steward of American greatness, a love of the great game of politics and, at heart, a hopeless romantic about the country that has given him so much.

Nothing bears out this point as well as his decision to let history happen in the 2024 election. Not matter how much people say that this was inevitable after the debate in Atlanta last month, there was nothing foreordained about an American President ending his political career for the sake of his country and his party. By surrendering the possibility of enduring in the seat of ultimate power, Mr. Biden has taught us a landmark lesson in patriotism, humility and wisdom.

Now the question comes to the rest of us. What will we the people do? We face the most significant of choices. Mr. Roosevelt framed the war whose dead Mr. Biden commemorated at Normandy in June as a battle between democracy and dictatorship. It is not too much to say that we, too, have what Mr. Roosevelt called a "rendezvous with destiny" at home and abroad. Mr. Biden has put country above self, the Constitution above personal ambition, the future of democracy above temporal gain. It is up to us to follow his lead.

-- "Joe Biden, My Friend and an American Hero" by Jon Meacham, New York Times, July 22, 2024.

[anarchicarachnid]

There is a lot of truth to the criticisms of the place we have ended up as a result of the rigged systems in our flawed democracy. The way they have intentionally made it so that only one of two parties can ever win, the way the establishment within the DNC basically has full control over whether a candidate is allowed to win a primary, the way the partisan media props up whoever gets the most ratings right from the start and fucks over candidates with meaningful criticisms of the status quo.

But regarding the supposed evils of the individual voter, I think it's a misstep to essentially say that anyone who participates at all in the electoral process is either an evil monster or an evil coward seeking personal comfort.

Politics isn't a game of what makes you feel good and how you can best virtue signal. Despite leftists constantly acting like it is, and that their abstaneousness is what makes them holier than thou, the right wing actually gets this. Right wing people are pragmatic and driven. They will fall in lock-step and do whatever it takes to seize power and then use that power, even to the extent that their leaders repeatedly get away with breaking the law.

Fortunately and unfortunately, we neither live in a period of all greys or all black and white. We live in a time of distinct black vs grey:

A party that will do everything Biden has ever done wrong and a hundred times more while also destroying democracy and killing countless people, both foreign and domestic. And if Trump HAD won this election, today we would be having the same conversation about the evils Trump is doing in Gaza, because not only is his administration fascist, but anyone at the top of the US government was always going to support our imperialist ally, no matter how much public outcry there is

OR a party that we wish we could change and, again, is doing all the things that any leader of the US would do, and support our imperialist ally in the Middle East despite massive public outcry BUT is not currently pushing the trans genocide agenda and never will, and is not trying to dismantle democracy, and is actually doing more things with good domestic policy than leftists are willing to acknowledge.

When you view basic electoralism through a pragmatic lens and not a competition of feels-good virtue signaling, I really believe it would be far more immoral to throw your hands up and say "Let the whole damn system burn then, because I dislike our options." And then lots *more* people suffer and die, domestic and foreign. And let's all remember the warmongering that Republicans have demonstrated that goes above and beyond that of the Democrats, before we pretend that this is only to protect US citizens.

This conversation cannot be had under the pretense "If we just didn't vote for Biden, less Palestinians would be dead today", because that is obviously not true, and obviously not the extent of it. Harm reduction isn't a cowardly act, but a morally necessary one, when you literally *literally* have no other options. So yeah, I tell people to vote and then go do more than just vote. Because letting the fascists destroy democracy will NOT protect the people of Gaza.

I'm seeing this being chased all over my dash, so I want to attempt to sort of summarize it.

Not voting for Biden will demolish any chance of making positive changes for the US. Kind of just a fact we all have to lay with. This is the entire vote blue no matter who argument (and to be fair it's a pretty good one)

Biden and the Democrat party have completely obliterated any expectation from any even slightly marginalized community that they can champion them and their needs or rights. The big tent has fallen down. Biden is straight up, no context changes it, supporting a genocide, even going out of his way to send weapons to Israel without congressional oversight. There is no upside to this and is actually being done openly in defiance of a massive global majority that wants us to stop, and history worldwide protests and at home. It's a total negation of the common wisdom that he could be pressured into changing at any point, and it proves that nothing democrats have ever said can be trusted. Yes, voting for Biden is a vote for genocide, because there is no other way for it to be interpreted.

The US system pretty much guarantees at some point a republican will be back in the big chair, at which point the US goes full mask off fascism (the obvious here, which is that America is already fascist by any realistic definition, is being ignored). The vote blue no matter who side will not acknowledge this mathematical certainty, while they argue over and over again that a 3rd party can't win because math.

So to summarize: yes, voting for Biden is an incredibly evil, immoral act of cowardice, prioritizing your personal comfort no matter how many foreigners have to die. And also. There is no choice but to bote for Biden, becauee any other course of action is basically a blank check for white nationalist christofascism, which domestically, would be the worst kind of fascism. (We are still ignoring that we've been a fascist nation since at least the 80s) Biden not being reelected (because the Democrat party will never choose a different candidate, maybe one who hasn't facilitated genocide and maybe isn't cool with it) would be a catalyst to increasing the worldwide level of fascism.

Here's my hot take: the world is falling apart, between climate change and the energy crisis, late stage unsupportable capitalism, fascism is coming regardless. Capitalists will force thru fascism as a last ditch attempt to get everything for themselves before rhe world burns, and one election isn't going to change that. We might be able to push it back for a couple of years tho, and all it will cost is abandoning the Palestinians to a genocide so that Biden can get reelected.

Whoopee. Great job America.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Promises Kept.

January 5, 2024

ROBERT B. HUBBELL

When Joe Biden declared his candidacy for president in 2019, the nation was bruised, battered, and divided by three years of Trump's unrelenting chaos and carnage. During Biden’s year-long campaign, Trump plunged America into darker waters as he tried to extort Ukraine into fabricating lies about Joe Biden and his son. Trump then engaged in gross dereliction of duty by mishandling the nation’s response to Covid, ultimately resorting to lies and quackery as the death toll mounted.

Biden stepped into the breach, promising “to restore the soul, honor, dignity, and decency” of America. In word and deed, Biden has kept those promises—despite virulent and violent opposition by MAGA extremists who sought to prevent the peaceful transfer of power—and who still seek to destroy our democracy today.

Historians may view Biden’s greatest success as the restoration of normalcy, decency, and rationality to the executive branch of the US government. Biden’s legislative accomplishments are historic and will be an enduring legacy standing alone.

Identifying Biden’s legislative successes is easy; identifying the depth and breadth of Biden’s restoration of decency and rationality is more difficult—because living in a normal frame of reference is subtle and ineffable. It infuses every aspect of democracy and political discourse. It is the absence of chaos, it is not waking up every morning thinking, “Oh, God. What has he tweeted now?”, and it is not hearing every governmental action re-interpreted through Trump's lenses of narcissism, delusion, and insecurity.

Joe Biden acts within a rational political framework. His policies can be praised or criticized because they exist (in writing) and reflect the reasoned judgment of Biden and his staff after a period of reflection and debate. They are not made up “on the fly” in response to reporters’ questions shouted over the noise of helicopter rotors.

The return to normalcy, decency, and dignity is neither sexy, compelling, nor “made for TV.” But it was precisely what the nation needed after the chaos of Trump's tenure as president. Joe Biden kept his promises. For that, we owe him a debt of gratitude that we must repay in 2024.

On the eve of the third anniversary of January 6, Biden is launching his 2024 campaign in earnest. In a political ad previewed on MSNBC, Biden said that he is making “the preservation of democracy” the centerpiece of his campaign. In the ad, Biden says, in part,

All of us are being asked, “What will we do to maintain our democracy?” History is watching. The world is watching. Most importantly, our children and grandchildren will hold us responsible . . . .

A campaign theme of “preserving democracy” is neither sexy, compelling, nor “made for TV.” But it is precisely what the nation needs as it stares into the abyss of a second Trump term as president.

I have heard from dozens of readers this week who are disappointed with Biden’s responses regarding immigration and the war in Gaza. Some have suggested that they will not vote or will vote for a third-party candidate. Both of those options are the functional equivalent of voting for Trump.

The freedom to criticize the president is a privilege of our democracy guaranteed in the Constitution. We can debate presidential policies only if we have a democratic frame of reference within which to hold those debates.

That democratic frame of reference will exist under a second Biden term. Under Trump, the democratic frame of reference will be replaced by a simple test: Does speech praise Trump? If not, the speaker will act at their peril. Trump’s vigilantes will threaten the speaker, and state and federal agencies will pretend the threats are harmless jokes or over-exuberant expressions of loyalty to Trump.

The threat of vigilantism to punish speech is not hyperbole. As we approach the third anniversary of January 6, elected officials who criticize Trump or apply the law to his unlawful conduct are being deluged with death threats. They are being “swatted” by sick individuals who call 9-1-1 to make false reports of crimes in progress—resulting in the deployment of armed emergency responders to the elected officials’ homes.

Like Joe Biden, Trump has made promises. He has promised his followers that, if re-elected, “I will be your retribution.” He has also promised that he will be a dictator “on day one” if he is elected to a second term.

Joe Biden has kept his promise “to restore the soul, honor, dignity, and decency” of America. We should take Biden at his word that he will work to preserve democracy if re-elected in 2024.

As with Biden, we should take Trump at his word: He will exact retribution and act as a dictator on day one of his second term.

The competing promises of Trump and Biden tell us everything we need to know about the choice we face in the 2024 election.

Concluding Thoughts.

The choice between presidential candidates in 2024 could not be starker. There is no ambiguity, nuance, or grey area. We must help Joe Biden communicate that fundamental difference and help people understand that the choice in 2024 is not about policies or the economy. It is about democracy—and whether we are for it or against it.

[cuubism]

I get it- about the parents thing. My mom was like "I'm just so relieved and thankful" meanwhile KNOWING that I (her eldest) identify as non-binary/trans. I'm so sorry you're having to go through it too.

I'm so sorry to hear that :( in my experience the Trump supporters who aren't as actively hateful end up wildly underestimating how hateful the administration is. There are plenty who passively support queer rights, are neutral/apathetic to it, or are anti-lgbt but in a "I just don't want to hear about it" way rather than "I think it should be illegal" way. The problem is they're still willing to align themselves with a party that's more hateful. They also have a position of "those things you're afraid of won't actually happen." They think fearing the Trump administration's homophobia and transphobia is alarmist. My parents are... maybe kind of passively homophobic in a 'why do they have to be so visible' way, in a 'we'd prefer our children to be straight' way, but they've moved somewhat left on it over time and would probably agree that gay marriage should remain legal, etc. Didn't stop them from voting for Trump. If I express concern about the roll-back of queer people's rights or women's rights, they would tell me 'that won't actually happen.' Same with Trump's threats to be a dictator. 'That's hyperbole' 'that's just how Trump talks' 'that can't actually happen.' It Can't Happen Here.

I think It Can't Happen Here is a blind spot of the so to speak "less radical" Republicans (and to an extent apathetic Democrats too). There's a certainty that no matter what, American democracy can't fail, that won't happen, not in the greatest country in the world. Autocracy happens to other people. America is free after all. Our national mythos blinds us and makes us arrogant.

Of course there are plenty of Trump supporters who would love for America to be less free in the specific way they want ie. Rules For Thee Not For Me, or they want to be free from other people's freedoms and equality. But I think it's inaccurate to assume all Trump supporters are pro-dictatorship, they're just complacent to it, or don't understand the threat. It's not very much less hurtful, though, to have family dismiss the threat against you as not real.

Rambling. I'm sorry we're in the same family boat. The queerphobia and misogyny in the country, and apathy towards it, is weighing heavy on me. I'm not even out to my parents because I take a position of People aren't owed information about you especially if they've proven themselves unsympathetic about it. Maybe more openness or an impassioned plea would have swayed them--who knows. I still love my parents but there's been a rift between us for years and I know they don't fully grasp why. Which hurts me.

I hope you have other friends and family who support you more 😔 the level of hatred towards trans people is sickening and worse when family doesn't have your back.

[mariacallous]

A growing Christian supremacist movement that labels its perceived enemies as “demonic” and enjoys close ties to major Republican figures is “the greatest threat to American democracy you’ve never heard of,” according to a new report from the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The SPLC, a civil rights organization that monitors extremist groups, released its “Year In Hate And Extremism 2023” report on Tuesday. A significant portion of the report, which tracked burgeoning anti-democratic and neo-fascist movements and actors across America, is devoted to the New Apostolic Reformation, “a new and powerful Christian supremacy movement that is attempting to transform culture and politics in the U.S. and countries across the world into a grim authoritarianism.”

Emerging out of the charismatic evangelical tradition, the NAR adheres to a form of Christian dominionism, meaning its parishioners believe it’s their divine duty to seize control of every political and cultural institution in America, transforming them according to a fundamentalist interpretation of scripture.

NAR adherents also believe in the existence of modern-day “apostles” and “prophets” — church leaders endowed by God with supernatural abilities, including the power to heal. In 2022, a handful of these “apostles,” the report notes, issued what they called the Watchman Decree, an anti-democratic document envisioning the end of a pluralistic society in America.

The apostles claimed they had been given “legal power and authority from Heaven” and are “God’s ambassadors and spokespeople over the earth,” who “are equipped and delegated by Him to destroy every attempted advance of the enemy.”

And who’s the enemy? Basically anyone who does not adhere to NAR beliefs. NAR adherents see their critics as being literally controlled by the devil.

“There are claims that whole neighborhoods, cities, even nations are under the sway of the demonic,” the report states. “Other religions, such as Islam, are also said to be demonically influenced. One cannot compromise with evil, and so if Democrats, liberals, LGBTQ+ people, and others are seen as demonic, political compromise — the heart of democratic life — becomes difficult if not impossible.”

This rhetoric has become increasingly widespread among Republican lawmakers, including former President Donald Trump, who last year referred to Marxists and atheists as “evil demonic forces that want to destroy our country.”

That Trump would use NAR-inspired rhetoric is unsurprising considering his relationship with Paula White-Cain, an NAR figure who delivered the invocation at Trump’s inauguration in 2017 and at the kickoff of his 2020 reelection campaign, as noted by Paul Rosenberg in Salon. White-Cain also delivered the invocation at Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021, “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington, D.C. — the event that eventually became the insurrection at the Capitol.

The attack on the Capitol was largely inspired, the report suggests, by NAR’s theology of dominionism. “NAR prayer groups were mobilized at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as well as supporting prayer teams all over the country, to exorcise the demonic influence over the Capitol that adherents said was keeping Trump from his rightful, prophesized second term,” the report states.

Major Republican figures took part in such events on or around the day of the attack. Mike Johnson, who is now the speaker of the House, joined the NAR’s “Global Prayer for Election Integrity,” which called for Trump’s reinstatement as president, in the weeks leading up to the attack on the Capitol. Johnson has also stated that Jim Garlow, an NAR leader, has had a “profound influence” on his life.

Ultimately, the SPLC report is an attempt to ring the alarm bells about the NAR, ”the greatest threat to U.S. democracy that you have never heard of.

“It is already a powerful, wealthy and influential movement and composes a highly influential block of one of the two main political parties in the country,” the report continues. “So few people have heard of NAR that it is possible that, without resistance in our local communities, dominionism might win without ever having been truly opposed.”

The SPLC’s report, according to a press release, also documents 595 hate groups and 835 antigovernment extremist groups in America, “including a growing wave of white nationalism increasingly motivated by theocratic beliefs and conspiracy theories.”

“With a historic election just months away, this year, more than any other, we must act to preserve our democracy,” Margaret Huang, president and CEO of the Southern Poverty Law Center and SPLC Action Fund, said in a statement. “That will require us to directly address the danger of hate and extremism from our schools to our statehouses. Our report exposes these far-right extremists and serves as a tool for advocates and communities working to counter disinformation, false conspiracies and threats to voters and election workers.”

[traegorn]

It's growing harder and harder to not believe that many leftists and liberals really are EXACTLY as described by others: undisciplined, selfish spoiled brats who cling to ideals when they're easy, but run away and cower the minute anything becomes remotely difficult.

I have never seen so many people be this fair-weather, this prone to just giving up and backstabbing quite possibly our only real chance at facing down the greatest threat to our democracy like this before.

It feels like they've all taken the wrong lessons about opposing the establishment; that rather than using opposition as a means to make a point about the flaws of the system and to draw more people towards their point of view in order to better things, they've instead turned into chronic backstabbers who betray anyone who dares to fail to live up to their perpetually moving goalposts, always demanding more while never giving anything in return.

I don't expect loyalty or obedience or anything like that, but by god you'd think more people would have stronger PRINCIPLES, longterm thinking and a fucking spine than this.

I don't even know WHY this is being like this. Did instant gratification culture influence them without realizing it? Are we just all more affected by Trump's outrage centered behavior to the point we just want our politicians to be like that? Are we so centered around our own self-image of purity and righteousness that we're willing to condemn everyone else just to avoid sullying ourselves?

What the hell's going on?

Democrats have never been able to politically strategize to save their ass, and Republicans work in lockstep.

The only reason Democrats ever win is because they're a center-left coalition party most likely to take the actual popular positions of the country. They never get their shit together and do what it takes to win. And they think the rules are still what they were thirty years ago.

It's why we need to start mobilizing on the state and local level the way the right wing did in the 1970s to build up a solid foundation for real change. Ranked choice voting and the state and local governments should be our focus. The Presidency is a stop-gap. A necessary one, but a stop-gap none the less.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Payton Armstrong at MMFA:

Donald Trump Jr. is scheduled to appear at an Oklahoma church led by an extremist right-wing pastor and media figure who has referred to Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris as a “lying whore,” claimed that “Democrats have a demonic obsession with murdering babies,” and called Islam “the GREATEST threat to the Western Civilization.”

Jackson Lahmeyer, who is also a former congressional candidate, leads Sheridan Church in Tulsa. After Donald Trump Jr.'s September 19 appearance, Eric Trump and former President Donald Trump's legal spokesperson Alina Habba are both scheduled to appear at the church for an additional “special event” on October 10. Lahmeyer is a pro-Trump pastor and commentator who founded the right-wing group Pastors for Trump, which holds events with MAGA media figures such as Michael Flynn and Roger Stone in support of Trump’s 2024 campaign. Under Lahmeyer’s leadership, Pastors for Trump has drawn “sharp rebukes from mainstream Christian leaders for being extremist, distorting Christian teachings and endangering American democracy by fueling the spread of Christian nationalism,” as reported by The Guardian.

[...]

Lahmeyer has spread vitriolic rhetoric in right-wing media interviews, social media posts, and online sermons, claiming Democrats are under the influence of Satan or demons; pushing bigotry toward LGBTQ people, Jewish people, and Muslims; and attacking the vice president in sexist terms. Lahmeyer has said that “Islam has been and remains the GREATEST threat to the Western Civilization,” suggested that “Democrats have a demonic obsession with murdering babies,” and called the LGBTQ movement “a demonic-inspired movement.” In addition to calling Harris a “lying whore,” Lahmeyer has repeatedly referred to “304,” a slang term for “hoe,” when discussing the vice president. Lahmeyer has been scheduling an array of extreme speakers at his Oklahoma church, including far-right media figures Jonathan Cahn and Perry Stone. 

[...] Eric Trump and Donald Trump's legal spokesperson Alina Habba are both scheduled to join Lahmeyer at his church for an additional “special event” on October 10.

Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. are set to appear at Sheridan Church in Tulsa, OK. Sheridan Church’s pastor is the far-right extremist and Christian Nationalist Jackson Lahmeyer. Lahmeyer founded the Pastors For Trump group.

[tzifron]

“Those arguing in favour of appeasement — that Canada must do whatever the U.S. wants to avoid retaliation — should not delude themselves that Canada would be integrating more deeply with a fellow democratic country, protected by shared norms and the rule of law.

To integrate further with a country that has rejected the rule of law would be to surrender Canadian sovereignty. Deep integration with the U.S., once our greatest asset, is now Canada’s greatest vulnerability.

Canada-U.S. relations experts know this relationship is fundamental to Canada’s prosperity and survival. Canada will find a way to manage this relationship because it has to.

But it must do so within a context in which the question “is it legal?” no longer makes sense. Instead, the question confronting Canada is: “How can a liberal-democratic nation survive next to a much more powerful country with no respect for the rule of law?”

The difference between these two questions is the distance between democracy and authoritarianism. It is here that Canada now finds itself.”

[tomorrowusa]

« I belong to neither party and have voted for both Democrats and Republicans — but because I believe him to be a defender of the Constitution and a public servant of honor and of grace at a time when extreme forces threaten the nation. I do not agree with everything he has done or wanted to do in terms of policy. But I know him to be a good man, a patriot and a president who has met challenges all too similar to those Abraham Lincoln faced.

Here is the story I believe history will tell of Joe Biden. With American democracy in an hour of maximum danger in Donald Trump’s presidency, Mr. Biden stepped in the breach. He staved off an authoritarian threat at home, rallied the world against autocrats abroad, laid the foundations for decades of prosperity, managed the end of a once-in-a-century pandemic, successfully legislated on vital issues of climate and infrastructure and has conducted a presidency worthy of the greatest of his predecessors. History and fate brought him to the pinnacle in a late season in his life, and in the end, he respected fate — and he respected the American people. »

— Historian Jon Meacham in a guest column at the New York Times on the legacy of President Joe Biden.

Biden restored calm, stability, and sanity to the federal government after a coup attempt and the horribly botched Trump response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He did more than anybody else outside Ukraine to keep it from falling into the kleptocratic totalitarian hands of imperialist Vladimir Putin. And Biden's infrastructure and stimulus programs have restored American manufacturing jobs which Trump's empty bombastic promises failed to do.

Historically, imagine combining Gerald Ford's modesty, John F. Kennedy's determination to prevent the spread of totalitarianism, FDR's efforts to create jobs, with Barack Obama's inclusiveness and you come close to defining the Biden presidency.

Of course Biden still has six months to go. He can now concentrate on governance without the distraction of an election campaign.

[darkmaga-returns]

By J.B. Shurk

The “experts” said it couldn’t be done.  They called him a “loser” and an “illegitimate” president whose time in office should be stricken from the pages of history.  Political pundits said his refusal to accept the mail-in-ballot-fraud-tainted 2020 election results made him an “insurrectionist” and a “dangerous threat to democracy.”  Democrat prosecutors and judges threw his supporters in jail.  Democrat operatives in the FBI and DOJ insinuated that he is a “Russian spy” and “domestic enemy” who should be convicted of treason.  The most hoity-toity “reporters” from the fanciest newspapers in the land said that Americans would never elect a criminal defendant facing the possibility of life in prison.  All of the “very best people” from the “most respected institutions” told us that Donald Trump’s political comeback was impossible.

They...were...wrong.

No president has won a second term in office after suffering a re-election loss in 130 years.  When Grover Cleveland last pulled off this neat trick, he, too, returned to the White House after first losing it to gross electoral fraud.  Americans do not like rigged elections, but they absolutely despise elections that are so rigged that the robbery is impossible to ignore.  

In 2020, President Trump won almost every traditional bellwether county in the country by double-digits and increased his 2016 totals by over ten million votes.  He won a record share of the vote from black and Hispanic Americans, blue-collar workers, and other Democrat-leaning voting blocs.  Despite all of this evidence that the American people supported Trump’s handling of the economy, illegal immigration, violent crime, and foreign wars, professional political pundits immediately painted Joe Biden’s razor-thin “victory” (in which the dementia-addled nursing home patient magically “won” extra mail-in ballots in Democrat-controlled counties in battleground states days after the election) as a national rejection of Donald Trump.  

They...were...wrong.

[mightyflamethrower]

President-Elect Donald Trump’s landslide victory will likely go down in the books as the greatest political comeback in American history.

With every win, there is a loser. The biggest loser of the presidential race was Vice President Kamala Harris. But her failed campaign, once propped up by Democrats and media allies, also left many others with egg on their faces

Below are five big losers after Trump’s massive victory.

Media Elites

The credibility of the establishment media appears to have hit rock bottom after it tried to smear Trump as fascist and a threat to democracy.

In the final weeks before the election, the media tried to push several hoaxes. It claimed Trump called for guns to be pointed at Liz Cheney. But far from speaking about executing Cheney, Trump’s remarks were about the establishment’s willingness to send Americans to die in foreign wars.

It also pushed a Harris campaign narrative that accused Trump of wanting to “control” women’s bodies “whether they like it or not.” Trump’s full statement shows Trump said he would “protect” women from migrant crime and from foreign adversaries. Trump’s statement was not in the context of abortion.

The media also ran with an Atlantic story that cited “attendees” and “contemporaneous notes” of a meeting taken by “a participant,” that claimed Trump refused to pay for the funeral of U.S. Army soldier Vanessa Guillen in December 2020.

Americans already did not trust the media before the election. A Gallup poll in October found that Americans’ trust in the establishment media to report current events “fully, accurately and fairly” had plummeted to a record low.

Obamas

The Obamas’ massive effort to help the Harris campaign defeat Trump failed. The Obamas are the most esteemed members of the Democrat party after former President Barack Obama won in landslide victories in 2008 and 2012.

Barack Obama campaigned hard for Harris. He appeared to use every trick in the book to help Harris win, such as guilting black men for purportedly not wanting a woman president.

Former first lady Michelle Obama unexpectedly took to the campaign trail in the final weeks. During her rallies, she implied that people who don’t support Harris for president are sexist and racist. She also questioned if voters were “ready for this moment.”

Voters rejected the Obama’s scare tactics. Early voting data suggests Trump performed historically well with black and Hispanic voters.

Mark Cuban

Cuban, a never-Trumper, strongly backed Harris as a campaign surrogate. He appeared for weeks on high profile shows, trying to bridge the gap between business leaders and the Harris campaign. He claimed Harris was not an ideological politician and defended her refusal to answer policy questions.

In the last week of the campaign, Cuban delivered a large gaffe that galvanized Trump’s base. Cuban claimed on The View that Trump was never around “strong, intelligent women.” Conservative women immediately took to social media to condemn his remark. Trump slammed Cuban’s claim by stating “all strong women, and women in general, should be very angry about this weak man’s statement.”

Liz Cheney: Republican Benedict Arnold

Cheney, another Trump hater, made a Democrat alliance with the Harris campaign, and it backfired. Cheney campaigned heavily with Harris in suburbs of rust belt states. At each campaign stop, Cheney ripped Trump as a threat to democracy, a rhetoric that voters rejected on Election Day.

The failed alliance suggests Cheney might have actually helped Trump. The Democrat party is already asking questions about who is to blame for the failure.

“The thing that I’m really most curious about now is, where does the Democratic Party go?” Democrat Dan Turrentine, co-host of The Morning Meeting, said. “I think there’s going to be one side that’s going to say that the party did not, you know, Harris was howling around with Liz Cheney in the suburbs, talking to Haley Republicans and not talking to the progressive base, and the kind of RFK, Bernie Sanders, progressive part of the party, wound up in Trump’s camp.”

Joe Biden

Americans widely voted against four more years of President Joe Biden’s vice president. Under the Biden-Harris administration, costs increased by about 20 percent across the board, Russia invaded Ukraine, Hamas and Iran attacked Israel, illegal migrants invaded the southern border, and the nation suffered the deadly Afghan withdrawal.

Voters soundly rejected the Biden administration’s unprecedented tactic of waging lawfare against Trump. Never before had a nominee of an American political party been indicted by an administration’s Justice Department.

In addition to his shunned agenda, Biden, who Democrats have praised for stepping aside for Harris, will likely be viewed as a failed president because his chosen successor did not prevent Trump from completing the greatest political comeback in American history. Biden endorsed Harris, campaigned for Harris, and conveyed all his campaign money to Harris.

“It’s been a historic presidency,” Biden said Thursday. “Much of the work we’ve done is already being felt by the American people…”

[thoughtlessarse]

For the first time since the second world war, the far right is at the gates of power in France. As historians from differing political backgrounds who share an attachment to democratic values and the rule of law, we cannot remain silent in the face of an alarming prospect that we still have the capacity to resist. Despite a superficial makeover, the National Rally (RN) remains fundamentally the successor and heir of the National Front, founded in 1972 by people nostalgic for Vichy and French Algeria. It inherited its programme, its obsessions and its personnel. It is deeply rooted in the history of the French far right, shaped by xenophobic and racist nationalism, antisemitism, violence and contempt for parliamentary democracy. Let us not be fooled by the rhetorical and tactical prudence with which the RN is preparing its seizure of power. This party does not represent the conservative or national right but poses the greatest threat to the republic and democracy. The RN citizenship policy known as “national preference”, renamed “national priority”, remains the ideological heart of its project. This is contrary to the republican values of equality and fraternity and its implementation would require the amendment of the French constitution. If the RN wins and implements its declared programme, the abolition of the right to French nationality of those born in France will introduce a profound break in our republican conception of nationality, since people born in France, and who have always lived here, will no longer be French, and their children will not be French either.

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[mightdeletelater]

rishi, the only extremist in the room is you

Rishi Sunak's speech yesterday about the need to "protect democracy" is incredibly rich coming from an unelected PM, and it proves the closeness we are to despotism.

I am speaking from someone who partly grew up under a dictatorship. In some ways, I actually think that we're entering an even scarier era. Where I was growing up, at least officials were open about their regime. Yes, they made their people suffer greatly. But they did it openly. Still very horrible, but fascism under the disguise of democracy is, in my mind, more dangerous. And so very near.

Sunak's speech, filled with falsities, continued what his government have parroted ever since October in reaction to what is happening in Israel and Palestine. And that is the broadening of the definition of extremism to encompass dissenting voices, potentially criminalising those opposing political and financial support for Israel. That's not an exaggeration. Sunak said as much in his rambling speech.

A ceasefire should be the minimum expectation, yet leaders of the 'free world' can't even support that. If we lived in a just world, we'd have sanctions, trials and prosecutions. We'd have an end of diplomatic ties and an end of the occupation. We'd have war reparations, restoration of land and a right of return for all Palestinians.

This week, we've witnessed the extreme act of protest in the form of self-immolation, which saw a US air force airman dousing himself in gasoline outside the Israeli embassy in Washington and lighting himself on fire. Days later, the IDF targeted Palestinians seeking aid and food after killing over 30,000 of them. It's very concerning that 24 hours after the most grotesque image of someone being bulldozed by a clearly labelled IDF tank went viral on social media, that was the statement Sunak chose to make.

And yes, his speech is in reaction to what is happening in the Middle East, but its implications go beyond. His words run deep even if the current situation was magically solved tomorrow. The very act of protesting is under threat, making his lecturing on division exploitation outside Downing Street hypocritical, considering that is the driving force behind his government. He is right. There is a group in the UK fostering extremism and threatening democratic freedoms – the Conservative Party led by him. Sunak's warnings about extremism would carry more weight if his tenure as prime minister hadn't consistently promoted it.

His speech also included an endorsement of Voter ID, disenfranchising thousands. You cannot claim to protect democracy by making it harder for people to vote. The man, who again became PM through clearing and without a public vote, also said that people voting for an MP he disagrees with is an attack on democracy. It's like we're living in a dystopian satire that not even the greatest writers of our time could imagine.

And Sunak's assertion that Britain has never been on the wrong side of history in his concluding remarks is particularly troubling, considering his background and lack of acknowledgement for his ancestors who endured colonial rule for nearly 90 years in British India.

The worst part? Sunak is just one of many. If he goes, there is someone next in line to replace him and crackdown even further.

It's like playing an endless game of whack-a-mole. You get rid of one, but another pops up, and then another and another and another until we all get sicker, poorer, and sadder and die.