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AMERICAN DEMOCRACY and the valued institutions that uphold it are under attack. That is the pessimistic conventional wisdom of progressives and scholars alike.

For many, Trump poses a unique threat to America itself. At the core of their fear is the realization that American democracy and its norms and institutions are fragile, strong only until the first authoritarian gives them a solid push.

For the pessimists, a confluence of factors has weakened our institutions: an increasingly reactionary Republican Party shielded from public opinion by structural political advantages such as gerrymandered districts and the Electoral College; a polarized political atmosphere with citizens split into echo chambers; and a corporate media that cares more about clicks than truth.

Put these together and you have a uniquely American recipe for the next democracy to backslide into illiberalism, as has occurred in Turkey or Venezuela.

Forgive me my optimism in difficult times, but allow me to dissent. Rather than suddenly discovering that our democratic institutions are deceptively weak, I suspect we are in the process of learning precisely the opposite: American democracy can take a punch.

As someone who teaches comparative politics, I understand my students concerns. The threat is real. But here are four reasons not to bet against American democracy just yet.

Democracy works. Theres an internal logic to its success. Democracy contains an imperfect but self-regulating mechanism: Good governance leads to re-election; poor governance leads to losses. Yes, the self-regulation is incomplete, frustrating, delayed and at times uneven. But in general it works. It is tempting to witness the well-documented dysfunction of the American political system and assume the worst. But we have seen instances of the process regulating against extremism.

The best example is Trumpcare, which died an early, humiliating death. Our judicial system forced a rewrite of Trumps draconian immigration executive order. All the gerrymandering and voting rights setbacks in the world will not save the Republican Party from large losses if the Trump administration continues down its self-destructive path.

Modern Republican principles and platform remain, for the most part, unpopular, appealing largely to a demographically shrinking constituency. The GOPs most important and consistent goal in the past few decades has been to lower the tax burden on the wealthy. This goal fervently believed and advocated polls terribly. Yet it remains at the top of the partys to-do list. Combine this substantive unpopularity with a flailing administration, and a very real correction at the polls becomes increasingly likely.

Trumps administration is completely incompetent. These are the Keystone Kops of budding authoritarians. This should not be surprising, nor expected to improve any more than Trump himself, who seems incapable of restraint or effective management. He has surrounded himself with people inexperienced in public policy and has left hundreds of key executive spots unfilled. The administration continues to leak like the Titanic. His presidency has suffered as a result. What should have been a honeymoon for Trump and the GOP looks more like the morning after an inebriated Vegas marriage.

Trumps scandals are only going to grow. Trumps conflict of interests, combined with his complete indifference toward them, suggest that he will soon unseat Andrew Jackson, the man who gave us the Spoils System, as the most corrupt president ever. Additionally, the Russian scandal is almost certain to expand. What was at first treated by journalists as an evidence-thin distraction has become a full-blown, legitimate story that threatens to drain this administrations legitimacy, if not bring it down in full.

Trump represents a real danger to our democratic institutions. But the United States isnt Venezuela. Its a fully developed democracy, which will prove to be more valuable than current conventional wisdom assumes. In a battle between Donald Trump and democracy, my moneys on America.

Matthew Hall

is an assistant professor in political science and geography at Old Dominion University.

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Matthew Hall: Don't bet against democracy | Guest Columnist ... - Virginian-Pilot

Tunis - The Tunisian branch of the radical Islamist Hizb ut-Tahrir movement, which calls for Islamic law and wants to unify Muslims into a caliphate, said on Saturday it was time to "bury" democracy.

"Democracy no longer attracts anyone," the movement's politburo chief Abderraouf Amri told its annual conference.

"It is time to announce its death and work to bury it."

Hizb ut-Tahrir is banned in several countries and Tunisian authorities regularly accuse it of "disturbing public order".

Hundreds of party members took part in the congress near Tunis, praising "the caliphate, saviour of humanity" and denouncing "persecution" by the democratic system.

It said it was the victim of "attempts to prohibit and hinder" its activities.

Mehdi Ben Gharbia, a minister overseeing relations with civil society, said he had filed a request earlier this month for a one-month suspension of the group's activities over its "attacks against Tunisia's republican system".

Tunisia's government in September asked a military court to outlaw the movement, created in the 1980s but only legalised in 2012 following the overthrow the previous year of longtime strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Interior Minister Hedi Majdoub has called the group "a party that does not recognise the civilian character of the state".

Hizb ut-Tahrir's 2016 Tunisian conference was banned for "security reasons".

Tunisia has been in a state of emergency since a deadly 2015 jihadist attack against presidential guards.

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Tunisian Islamist party says time to 'bury' democracy - News24

BGA President & CEO Andy Shaw talks about civic disengagement and recent suburban elections in his bi-weekly column for Crain's Chicago Business.

We had an election in the Chicago suburbs on April 4.

Thats not breaking news, except perhaps to 80-plus percent of the registered voters in Cook and the Collar Counties who didnt bother to cast a ballot.

Thats four out of five potential voters who, intentionally or inadvertently, contributed to our national epidemic of civic disengagement and the weakening of an American democracy that depends on informed citizens electing good leaders.

Ladies and gentlemen: Thats a big deal.

So whats going on?

Well, maybe some of the no-shows are simply satisfied with the way their local officials spend their tax dollars.

Perhaps theyre affluent enough to ignore or even accept the waste, inefficiency and occasional corruption in their towns and villages.

Whatever.

Other non-participants may think one vote wont change anythingincumbent Tweedle Dee is no worse than challenger Tweedle Dumso why bother going to a polling place?

A cynical reality.

In extreme cases, theyre so fed up with local government or so disgusted by our increasingly coarse, polarized politics that theyve thrown in the towel.

Sad, but totally understandable.

And finally, the elections themselves, which were characterized by a woeful lack of competition.

In Cook County, 67 percent of the races, or two out of three, were uncontestedthey had only one candidateand 20 races didnt have anyone on the ballot, according to election officials.

A Daily Herald analysis that added in the Collar Counties found only 30 percent of the races had more than one candidate, down from 45 percent eight years ago.

Former Chicago alderman and veteran UIC political scientist Dick Simpsons take: By any statistical measure were a worse democracy today than 40 or even 20 years ago.

Spot on.

Some of the disengagement reflects personal feelings developed over time, and theres no easy way to change that.

But other disincentives to civic participation are bi-products of our rigged election system.

Its still too difficult for hard-working, time-challenged citizens to register, vote, get and stay on the ballot, or even contemplate running for office, and those impediments protect incumbents from challengers.

By gerrymandering the boundaries of electoral districts, letting municipal officials control their local election boards, maintaining obstacles to voter registration and voting itself, and permitting an unregulated deluge of moneymuch of it untraceableto influence election outcomes, political leaders make it harder for potential challengers to run and easier for registered voters not to mark a ballot.

Fortunately there are legislative remedies designed to encourage competition and voter turnout by leveling the playing field.

Reforms worth considering include automatic voter registration, an expansion of early voting, redistricting reform, open instead of party-specific primaries in a month warmer than March, elections on weekends, more campaign finance disclosure, and a mix of public dollars and small donor matching funds to encourage people without deep pockets or special interest backing to run for office.

Those reforms threaten incumbents, including the political ruling class that controls government, so they continue to resist fundamental change.

But our democracy is at stake, and if enough regular citizens fed up with the status quo and committed to fairer elections and better government join the fight for responsible reforms we can get it done.

Americans rose up to evict the British; end slavery, sweatshops and child labor; empower women; and enact civil and gay rights.

I view the challenges and opportunities Ive laid out in this column as a new battleground, and one of this generations most important ones.

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Andy Shaw: Empty Voting Booths A Symbol Of Our Ailing Democracy - Better Government Association

With due respect to Santayana, perhaps we can say that those who love the mistakes of the past will condemn others to repeat them. A case in point is a new book published by MIT Press thats actually titled Communism for Kids I kid you not.

The Washington Free Beacon reports that the book, written by a German author who specializes in political theory and queer politics, was released last month. The thesis of the children's book is that communism is not that hard, but has not been implemented in the right way.

Wow, Ive never heard that one before. You mean, if I try touching the hot stove just one more time, it may not burn my hand?

The Washington Times Cheryl K. Chumley provides more detail, with a comic spirit:

[T]he Amazon descriptionreadsthusly: Once upon a time, people yearned to be free of the misery of capitalism.

You had me at free lost me at misery of capitalism.

But this book isnt your regular red-minded, communist-loving, theory-driven drivel. Perish the thought. Its a story book, filled with again, hat tip Amazon jealous princesses, fancy swords, displaced peasants, mean bosses and tired workers not to mention a Ouija board, a talking chair and a big pot called the state.

Speaking of capitalists, is MIT Press a for-profit operation? Just wondering.

This is likely, since the book isnt offered for less than its usual $12.95 to those with modest abilities and greater needs. What the book is offering, writes MIT Press, is relief for many who have been numbed by Marxist exegesis and given headaches by the earnest pompousness of socialist politics, as it presents political theory in the simple terms of a childrens story, accompanied by illustrations of lovable little revolutionaries experiencing their political awakening.

MIT Press later assures, Before they know it, readers are learning about the economic history of feudalism, class struggles in capitalism, different ideas of communism, and more.

And before they know it, readers are standing in a bread line and having teeth pulled without Novocain.

Just in case youre not yet enticed enough to stuff this work in a Christmas stocking, Chumley provides a synopsis of its plot, which focuses on workers at two factories who must fight through a myriad of problems to save the business day. And their struggles are played out along the lines of the various economic systems.

I dont want to be the spoiler here, Chumley then states, but guess which system, in the end, saves the worker day?

Of course, it never works out that way in real life the implementation always fails because Marxist doctrine thoroughly ignores the realities of mans nature.

First a little history. Socialism and communism were popularized via Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels 1848 pamphlet The Communist Manifesto; it is the definitive work on the matter.

Now, under the Marxist doctrine explained therein, socialism is what most people think communism is: government control of the means of production, the abolition of private property, etc. This socialist revolution is meant to usher in communism, which is the final phase of the program, in which the government has melted away and people live harmoniously in a state of economic equality and bliss. (Thats the theory, anyway.)

This is why the USSR wasnt guilty of false advertising when calling itself the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics: Communist government is an oxymoron.

Its also an impossibility. Marx believed that all human suffering and woes were caused by economic inequality; thus, eliminate that inequality and theres no crime or evil of any kind and hence no need for government.

This shallow theory fails because it views man as merely an economic being ergo the supposition, Take care of the economics, and everything else takes care of itself.

(This infects all modern thinking, mind you. Example: Crime is due to poverty. Seldom realized is that crime rates dropped markedly during the Great Depression.)

But man does not live on bread alone. He has moral and spiritual dimensions as well. Besides, the proverbs Busy hands are happy hands, Work ennobles man, and An idle mind is the Devils playground all warn of the perils that can attend wealth. Its no cure-all.

Then there are the perils of not allowing wealth. The socialist revolution fails because, absent the profit motive, people generally become slothful. Moreover, there cant be the level of top-down control socialism entails without authoritarianism. And while leaders are typically worse than their people to begin with, moral individuals dont rise to powers pinnacle under such systems.

The result? Despots such as Kim Jong Un, who clearly has greater needs than any other North Korean and luxuriates while his people languish.

How could Marx believe something so ridiculous, that economic equality could not only be achieved but render government unnecessary? He likely was mentally ill. Note that he was infamous for not washing (common among the mentally ill) and exhibited that dangerous genius-insanity combination: impressive talents couple with dislocation from reality.

So thats Marx excuse. Whats MITs?

Of course, its doubtful MITs little communism book instructs in that which Marxists have actually excelled (Kill like a communist, kids! Stalin, Mao et al. have handed you the baton, and you get to start with 94 million bodies already on the register!). But just in case the publisher decides to reissue the work, theres that and then this idea: Easy recipes for budding communists (needed for preparation: utensils, unsanitary conditions, and a Pol Pot):

How to make an omelet after youve broken some eggs

Cooking cats and dogs (with special emphasis on Venezuelan cuisine)

Cereal with low-fat cockroach protein.

Lastly, since Communism for Kids is one of MITs first forays into the childrens market, here are some ideas for follow-ups:

Nazism for Kids

Genocide Made Easy, for Ages 9 to 12

Ten Steps to Running a Really Cool Gulag

Oh, I almost forgot. One more would be Communism for Dummies because thats what youd have to be to, after a century of socialist failure, still believe the Marxist hype and tripe.

Original post:
Brainwashing Shocker: MIT Press Releases Communism for Kids Book - The New American

Published: 1 day ago.

Karl Marx is buried in Londons Highgate Cemetery

Once upon a time, people yearned to be free of the misery of capitalism. How could their dreams come true?

Thats how the promotion for a new book for kids about the wonders of communism starts out.

The book, Communism for Kids, has been published by a major U.S. university publisher, MIT Press, and is now available in paperback or Kindle on Amazon.

The book, penned by German author Bini Adamczak and translated by Jacob Blumenfeld and Sophie Lewis, teaches children the tenets of Karl Marx through a series of fairy tales.

Adamczak reportedly specializes in political theory and queer politics.

His thesis is that communism is not that hard but has not been implemented in the right way.

This little book proposes a different kind of communism, one that is true to its ideals and free from authoritarianism, according to the jacket description.

The book uses cartoon drawings of lovable little revolutionaries to help convince kids of the evils of capitalism.

Offering relief for many who have been numbed by Marxist exegesis and given headaches by the earnest pompousness of socialist politics, it presents political theory in the simple terms of a childrens story, accompanied by illustrations of lovable little revolutionaries experiencing their political awakening, MIT Press states.

It all unfolds like a story, with jealous princesses, fancy swords, displaced peasants, mean bosses, and tired workers not to mention a Ouija board, a talking chair, and a big pot called the state,' the jacket description continues.

Before they know it, readers are learning about the economic history of feudalism, class struggles in capitalism, different ideas of communism, and more, MIT Press states.

With traditional Marxism a proven failure, leftists have concocted new tricks to destroy capitalism and replace it with communism Paul Kengor exposes all of them in Takedown: From Communists to Progressives, How the Left has Sabotaged Family and Marriage.

The Washington Free Beacon notesthat the book lays out various approaches to communism, all of which fail. However, Communism for Kids ends with the message that class warfare could still lead to a better world.

Finally, competition between two factories leads to a crisis that the workers attempt to solve in six different ways (most of them borrowed from historic models of communist or socialist change), the description states. Each attempt fails, since true communism is not so easy after all. But its also not that hard.

At last, the people take everything into their own hands and decide for themselves how to continue, MIT Press concludes. Happy ending? Only the future will tell. With an epilogue that goes deeper into the theoretical issues behind the story, this book is perfect for all ages and all who desire a better world.

The book sells for $12.95.

With 58 customer reviews on Amazon, the book has an overall rating of two stars, with five being the highest and one the lowest.

Amazingly, the book ranks among Amazons top-five bestsellers in the categories of government, No. 5, and communism and socialism, No. 2.

Some reviewers have noted the book is poorly written, but others say it makes Marxism cool again!

According to Salon.com, the book has received rave reviews from Rachel Kushner, a novelist who uses revolutionary themes and scares male critics.

Kushner says the book is especially needed now, since Donald Trump won the presidency.

Communism for Kids, by Bini Adamczak, is in fact for everyone, an inspired and necessary book especially now, a moment when people feel that we are on the verge of the destruction of the world, and without any new world to hope for, or believe in, Kushner says. Have two hundred years of capitalism brought us freedom? Or just more inequality than has ever been experienced by humans on earth?

Global capitalism is not human destiny, it merely is, Kushner adds. To think beyond it, with the help of Adamczaks primer, is to take a first step toward freedom, at least the freedom to imagine other worlds.

Atheistic Marxists have formed an alliance with an unlikely partner in their drive to destroy America and its Constitution: Their plan is exposed in the investigative blockbuster Stealth Invasion: Muslim Conquest through Immigration and Resettlement Jihad.

Fredric R. Jameson, a professor of romance studies at Duke University who has done more than any contemporary intellectual to rethink and renew the tradition of Marxist cultural theory, also praised the book as great for kids.

This delightful little book may be helpful in showing youngsters there are other forms of life and living than the one we currently enjoy; and even some adults might learn from it as well, Jameson says. At a time when our younger generations are not only dissatisfied but active enough to have some new thoughts of their own and to look around seriously for alternatives, political pedagogy has a real function and might well, as here, be reinvented in new ways.

Chapter titles for the 101-page book are as follows: What is communism? What is capitalism? How did capitalism arise? What is work? What is the market? What is crisis? and What is to be done?

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Major US university publishes 'Communism for Kids' - WND.com