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AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. Im Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: It was 59 years ago this week that civil rights leader Malcolm X was assassinated, February 21st, 1965, as he stood at the podium before a crowd here in New York in Harlems Audubon Ballroom. His wife, Betty Shabazz, pregnant with twins, and his four daughters were in the ballroom looking on. As Malcolm began speaking, a man shouted, accusing another of picking his pocket, creating a disturbance. A smoke bomb was thrown. Amidst the confusion, three gunmen at the front of the hall opened fire. Malcolm was hit 17 times in the ensuing hail of bullets. He died on the stage as chaos erupted.

On Wednesday night, at what is now the Malcolm X and Betty Shabazz Center in Washington Heights, Malcolms daughter Ilyasah Shabazz recalled that horrifying day.

ILYASAH SHABAZZ: My parents young lives were filled with joys, and they were filled with challenges. And one week before my fathers assassination, our family home was targeted. A firebomb was thrown into the nursery where my sisters and I slept as babies. History records that we escaped unharmed. Yet, a mere seven days later, my family witnessed the unimaginable. Our father was gunned down as he prepared to speak right here in that location. My pregnant mother placed her body over my three sisters and me to protect us from gunfire and to shield us from the terror before our eyes.

AMY GOODMAN: Malcolm Xs daughter Dr. Ilyasah Shabazz, speaking last night at the former Audubon Ballroom, now the Malcolm and Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Education Center, during a commemoration marking the 59th anniversary of the assassination of Malcolm X. Malcolm X often began his speeches, including the one that was cut short by that hail of bullets, by addressing everyone in the room. This a speech he gave in 1964 at the Audubon Ballroom.

MALCOLM X: As-salamu alaykum. Mr. Moderator, our distinguished guests, brothers and sisters, our friends and our enemies, everybody whos here.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, 59 years after Malcolm Xs assassination this week, two former members of his security team have come forward for the first time to reveal details of their entrapment and imprisonment by New York police just days before he was killed. Yesterday, one of the two men and family members of Malcolm X appeared at a press conference. This is 81-year-old Khaleel Sultarn Sayyed.

KHALEEL SULTARN SAYYED: From its creation in 1964 to 1965, I attended public events organized by the Organization of Afro-American Unity, the OAAU, founded by el-Hajj Malik Shabazz, Malcolm X. It was widely known by my acquaintances that I had deep fondness for Malcolm X, as I spoke frequently with respect for Malcolm X, and I always made an effort to attend his speeches.

In or about January 1965, I attended public events Im sorry. On or about January 1965, I was introduced to Raymond A. Wood. I only interacted with Wood on approximately two occasions. Robert Collier, a new acquaintance, told me that he wanted to introduce me to his friend, who had some ideas. This friend was Raymond Wood. When Collier introduced me to Wood, I had only known Collier for two or three months. Collier would invite also invited Walter Bowe to attend. Since Wood was undercover, I had no idea he worked for law enforcement. I later found out Wood was an undercover police agent or, Im sorry, Wood was an undercover police officer from the New York City Police Department in the Bureau of Special Services and Investigations.

The idea Wood introduced was a conspiracy to destroy national monuments, specifically the Statue of Liberty. Those at the meeting laughed, so I assumed Wood was not serious about this idea. I said very little at the meeting. In the weeks leading up to my wrongful arrest and incarceration, I never heard the idea again.

I was asked by a close follower of Malcolm X to serve as security at Malcolm Xs home after it was firebombed on February 14th, 1965. I was offered this opportunity because it was widely known that I respected Malcolm X and was interested in the OAAU. It was a small group of individuals who were asked to serve as security for Malcolm Xs home, only two or three individuals per shift. I would always have made myself available to serve as security for Malcolm X, as I had I would always have made myself available to serve as Malcolm Xs security, had I not been wrongfully arrested. It was widely known that Malcolm Xs life was frequently in danger and under constant threat.

On or about February 16, 1965, five days before Malcolm Xs assassination, I was detained and arrested by the New York City Police Department related to the Woods conspiracy. I was shocked to hear the New York Police Department accusing me of conspiracy to destroy the Statue of Liberty. I lost 18 months of my young life for a crime I did not commit. I was only 22 years old at the time of my arrest. I spent four years as a student at Howard University working toward a degree in electrical engineering. I was helping my father during I was helping my father in his store during a gap year in my studies, when I was arrested. As a result my detention, I never graduated from Howard University.

I believe I was detained in this conspiracy by the NYPD, BOSSI and FBI in order to ensure Malcolm Xs planned assassination would be successful. Had I not been arrested, I would have attended his speech and could have served as part of his security detail.

AMY GOODMAN: So, that was 81-year-old Khaleel Sultarn Sayyed, speaking Wednesday alongside our next two guests, who are fighting for justice for Malcolm Xs family to expose the depth of the governments involvement in the assassination of the civil rights icon, both the NYPD and the FBI. Were joined now by Ben Crump, civil rights attorney, and Flint Taylor, lawyer and co-founder of the Peoples Law Office in Chicago.

We welcome you both back to Democracy Now! Ben Crump, lets begin with you. Can you put that testimony in context? I was there last year for the 58th anniversary of Malcolm Xs assassination, when you also held a news conference revealing new information. Talk about this year and the significance of what these two men had to say.

BENJAMIN CRUMP: Thank you so much, Amy.

It is quite significant when you consider last year Mustafa Hassan, who was shown in photographs in The New York Times was present in the Audubon theater the day Malcolm X was assassinated in fact, he was the one who was seen grabbing one of the assailants as he tries to escape after shooting Malcolm X. And his testimony was very riveting, because he said there was no presence of uniformed New York police officers, and they came up after all the chaos after Malcolm had been shot, and the first thing he heard them say, Is he with us? Is he one of us? as if even NYPD knew there were undercover police officers in the Audubon theater that day, and they didnt know what they had done in the theater that day.

And now this year, we have two additional witnesses, who have never before spoken, come and offer new evidence. These were members of Malcolm Xs security team: Walter Bowe, who is now 93 years old, who was a charter member of the OAAU with Malcolm X, as well as Khaleel Sayyed, who we just heard from. And both of these individuals were framed by Ray Wood, who, unbeknownst to them, was an undercover police officer working with BOSSI and the FBI. And he

AMY GOODMAN: Explain what BOSSI is.

BENJAMIN CRUMP: Its the Bureau of Special Services, that was specifically targeted to infiltrate Black organizations. They infiltrated the Black Panthers, CORE, as well as Malcolm Xs organization and the Nation of Islam there in the city of New York. They were an arm, if you would have, like a little brother to the FBI there in New York. And so, what they were doing, we believe, was carrying out the deeds at the behest of J. Edgar Hoover at the very top.

And these young men, just as other individuals have been wrongfully convicted to cover up for the conspiracy to assassinate Malcolm X, they were arrested five days before Malcolm X was assassinated. They believe that their arrests had everything to do with Ray Wood and BOSSI and the FBI trying to be complicit, if you would, in Malcolm Xs assassination. And so, thats why attorney Flint Taylor and I and Ray Hamlin and our legal team are trying to peel back the layers to finally, after 59 years, get some measure of justice for Malcolm Xs family.

NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Ben Crump, could you explain what was the pretext for their arrests? Can you talk about the destroy the Statue of Liberty conspiracy?

BENJAMIN CRUMP: Absolutely. So, this wasnt the only time we saw the workings of Raymond Wood, this undercover New York police officer. He also used this to have the members of the Panther 21. Afeni Shakur, Tupac Shakurs mother, was a member of the Panther 21. And they were all arrested under this pretense that they were endeavoring to bomb United States monuments namely, the Statue of Liberty. Well, thats the same exact thing that they said about Khaleel Sayyed and Walter Bowe, Malcolm Xs security members. They said that they were out to bomb the Statue of Liberty. I mean, you would think that they could come up with something new. But all of these Black self-determination organizations, they would infiltrate them and try to say, Oh, they were conspiring to bomb the Statue of Liberty, so we have to arrest them. And so, thats exactly what they did to Panther 21, and its exactly what they did to Malcolm Xs security detail. They came up with a bogus theory and had them convicted of crimes that was orchestrated by undercover police officers.

AMY GOODMAN: Now, Ben Crump, can you talk about the man who was in the Audubon Ballroom with a long gun under his trench coat, the one who was set free?

BENJAMIN CRUMP: Certainly. As attorney Flint Taylor from the Peoples Law Office in Chicago, who has joined our legal team to get justice for Malcolm Xs family, articulated, Bradley, this individual, who we know from the files that have been revealed, had a shotgun and was one of the killers of Malcolm X, yet he was not arrested. He was able to leave the Audubon Ballroom free. And they arrested two innocent people, we believe, to cover up for those individuals who they knew were responsible for Malcolm Xs death.

And this Bradley fellow was then, four years later, arrested for a bank robbery, he and his accomplice. His accomplice was in prison for 25 years, but yet Bradley was allowed to escape walk away out the jail scot-free. And so, you know that they have something connected with this Bradley character, if he continues to commit major crimes, federal crimes, and yet the government lets him walk scot-free, as if he has something that they are connected, to say that he will have no culpability for his dastardly deeds.

And thats why we want these files. We want these files to see what connections, to see who were those undercover agents that were in the Audubon Ballroom the day Malcolm X was assassinated. And the reality is this here. Its 59 years later. Who are they trying to protect? What persons life will be put in danger 59 years later? They continue to offer us excuse after excuse after excuse every time we get FOIAs for the information. They even went so far as to tell us that one of the reasons they cant give us the information that we request on the surveillance of Malcolm X and the documentation that they have on Malcolm X is because Malcolm X is potentially still alive.

AMY GOODMAN: Is potentially still alive? Lets bring Flint Taylor in right now. You stood there in the Audubon Ballroom, the site where Malcolm X was gunned down 59 years ago this week, yesterday with the family of Malcolm X, with Dr. Ilyasah Shabazz, with Ben Crump. But youre actually based in Chicago. And if you can talk about why it is possible, almost 60 years later, all of these documents do not become public, and the experience you have back in Chicago trying to get information on another leader, the Black Panther leader, Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, when they were gunned down in 1969?

FLINT TAYLOR: Good morning. Thank you for having me on.

Yes, it was a very powerful experience standing there, for the first time for me, in that ballroom. And as you may know, I stood in the blood of Fred Hampton the morning that he was assassinated 55 years ago. And, of course, that had a similarly powerful effect on me and the people in the Peoples Law Office at that time. And that started us on a 13-year battle to find out the truth and to change the narrative of what happened to Fred Hampton, the young, 21-year-old, very articulate, very powerful, very charismatic leader, young Black Panther leader.

And, of course, at first, they talked about it as a shootout. And as we got into the litigation and as the community raised the case in the public eye over years, we were able to fight to get evidence that was covered up, by the FBI predominantly, that there was this COINTELPRO program, Counterintelligence Program, a super-secret program that was targeting the Black Panthers, attempting to destroy the Black Panthers at that time it came from Hoover in Washington and that it also claimed as part of its program dealing with what they call messiahs, who would bring together and lead the Black liberation movement. And they cited to Malcolm X as one of those messiahs.

So, theres evidence that is starting to come out about Malcolm X. That piece existed back then. But whats coming out now, as attorney Crump has mentioned, is this file on William Bradley, an FBI file, and a statement straight from Hoover that said there were nine informants, FBI informants, in the ballroom, and that at all costs they should not let those informants be known, and at all costs not let it be known what they might have been doing, and whether they were working, of course, for COINTELPRO, because we know that what the FBI was doing was trying to foment the split between the Nation of Islam and Malcolm and his organization. So, you put this evidence together, and you demand more evidence about Bradley, about those informants, about BOSSIs role. And BOSSI seems to be kind of a junior FBI COINTELPRO program in New York. I shouldnt say seems to be, but was. And so, thats where we stand.

And thats one of the reasons that attorney Crump asked me and my office to come in, because we fought this case, similar case, an assassination case, that had in it the FBI covered up the Chicago police informants. Of course, the main informant in our case in Chicago was William ONeal, who set up the assassination of Fred Hampton. So those same questions come up here. And after Cyrus Vance revealed the tip of the iceberg with regard to the FBI files that had been suppressed and the BOSSI files that had been destroyed, thats when attorney Crump and, of course, the family and now the Peoples Law Office have become involved.

And we feel that its not only a civil case for justice, but that its a human rights case. And its not only a case that has significance in New York, not only significance nationally, but it has international significance. And I think attorney Crump and I are both calling on the mayor of the city of New York and the federal government for transparency, for giving us these files and for, in fact, all these years later, making reparations. And thats what it is. Its reparations, not unlike the reparations that we fought for and obtained in Chicago for the survivors of police torture. Its reparations to the family. Its reparations to the community of New York and nationally, in terms of justice and in terms of compensation.

AMY GOODMAN: Ben Crump, lets end with you. Flint just mentioned the mayor of New York, right? Eric Adams is a former police officer. Have you spoken with him? Is he joining the call for the documents, both in BOSSI and the New York Police Department and the FBI, to be opened, more than a half a century after Malcolm Xs assassination?

BENJAMIN CRUMP: At this time, we are unaware if he will join us in that call for transparency. I know that in past conversations, Ilyasah and myself have felt assured that New York Police Department would Im sorry, the city leadership in New York would do the right thing here and help Malcolm Xs family finally get justice. Now, with attorney Flint Taylor and I and our legal team, we have put the ball squarely in their court to be able to tell us if theyre going to be on the right side of history 59 years later. Will they give up their records?

AMY GOODMAN: Well, Ben Crump, were going to leave it there. Were going to ask you to stay for a few minutes so we can ask about the Houston police shooting of Eboni Pouncy, an amazing story, with video just revealed, and well post it at democracynow.org. Ben Crump, civil rights attorney. Flint Taylor, co-founder of Peoples Law Office of Chicago. To see all our coverage of the Malcolm X assassination, go to democracynow.org. Im Amy Goodman, with Nermeen Shaikh. Thanks for joining us.

Read more from the original source:
Malcolm X Assassination: New Details Pointing to FBI, NYPD Conspiracy - Democracy Now!

By Kylie Madry

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -Huge crowds filled Mexico City's main square on Sunday in support of the nation's electoral authority, accusing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador of trying to weaken the body ahead of a presidential election in June.

The protests, one of several in recent years meant to "protect" the National Electoral Institute (INE), come after Lopez Obrador sent a sweeping package of constitutional reforms to Congress, which would include an overhaul of the INE.

Organizers said 700,000 people turned out, which could mark one of the largest protests against Lopez Obrador as his administration comes to a close.

The Mexico City government, which is controlled by Lopez Obrador's MORENA party, said just 90,000 people attended. The disparity in counting turnout has also occurred at previous pro-INE demonstrations.

Lopez Obrador has made it no secret the package is meant to influence debate before June 2 voting in which his political successor Claudia Sheinbaum is likely to win, though the president has said it is unlikely most reforms will pass.

One would turn the INE into the National Institute of Elections and Consultations, which would take over the country's local electoral bodies and shrink the number of counselors heading the group. It would also require electoral judges be elected by popular vote.

"Authorities are seeking to eliminate (autonomous institutions), to subordinate them or take them over," Lorenzo Cordova, the former head of the INE, said to the crowd. "We've seen a ferocious attack against these institutions."

The president has long shared his dislike of the INE, including accusing the electoral body of helping to engineer his defeats when he ran for the presidency in 2006 and 2012.

Protesters on Sunday accused Lopez Obrador of meddling in an attempt to concentrate power in the hands of his party's government, though Lopez Obrador has said he will respect the results of the election.

Demonstrators also used the protests to speak out against other hallmarks of Lopez Obrador's administration, including what they allege is a failure to curb widespread violence and social spending programs.

"The current government is leading us to catastrophe," said Maria de los Angeles Lopez. "To be afraid of going out on the streets, to be afraid our money will no longer be enough, that is why I came out to protest."

(Reporting by Kylie Madry in Mexico CityAdditional reporting by Alberto Fajardo and Gloria Lopez for Reuters TVEditing by Chris Reese and Matthew Lewis)

Read more:
Mexicans turn out in droves to 'protect democracy' ahead of elections - Yahoo News

President Jair Bolsonaro summoned his ministers and staff to a meeting at his official residence on July 5, 2022. They discussed at length ways to prevent a defeat in the upcoming October elections. Everyone in the room seemed to agree that democracy should not stand in their way.

When in office, the former president spoke several times against the integrity of the 2022 elections, ripping off Donald Trumps infamous #StopTheSteal campaign. To the Bolsonaro administration, elections had always been a nuisance, but no one knew how far they would go to remain in office.

Last week, footage of the meeting was disclosed as part of a court order issued by Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes. The Federal Police arrested three of Bolsonaros closest aides and carried out search warrants against former ministers and high-ranking military officers.

They are being investigated for allegedly hatching a military coup as a response to Lula da Silvas victory in the vote. Amid searches, the police found a draft decree through which Bolsonaro would institute a state of siege in the country, hand over power to the generals, and put Justice Moraes behind bars.

Bolsonarism hates Moraes even more so than it hates Lula. After all, several decisions made by Brazils maverick justice have been key to curbing extremism and preserving democracy.

The rise and fall of Bolsonaro has made it clear that the far right is as much about ideology as it is about authoritarianism. The former Brazilian president and his associates would not just go to great lengths to fight culture wars and discredit enemies; investigations have shown that they would do whatever it took to hold on to power.

Why, then, did Bolsonaro fail to overthrow democracy? Incompetence and self-deception have surely played a role, but there are more layers to Brazils democratic survival. One of them is that the Supreme Court seemed to be always one step ahead of Bolsonaro.

Since the presidents supporters began flooding the streets during the COVID-19 pandemic to demand a military intervention, the court ordered no less than eight probes against Bolsonaro and his allies both inside and outside the government. Judicial pressure has greatly increased the costs of spreading mass disinformation and openly attacking institutions.

Another reason was international mobilization in defense of Brazilian democracy. Bolsonaros desire to play by Donald Trumps radical playbook was a red flag to many foreign activists, journalists, and politicians. As it became clear that Bolsonarism was, in many ways, a tropical version of Trumpism, Brazil was turned into a global ideological battleground between progressives and reactionaries.

The far right, spearheaded by Steve Bannon, used Brazil as a laboratory of extremist ideas, especially while Trump was still president. Democratic advocates, in turn, closed ranks with their Brazilian counterparts to resist Bolsonaros assault on human rights, public health, and the environment. With Biden in the White House, the US also helped constrain the Bolsonaro administration through diplomatic channels.

Lulas electoral triumph in 2022 was largely seen as a victory for democrats. Yet, Brazils political institutions cannot be taken for granted. Perhaps the most alarming message of the latest Supreme Court probes is that military officials have been involved in undermining democracy every step of the way.

Rather than repudiating popular calls for a coup, the military has at times stimulated anti-democratic behavior to serve its own vanity and run counter to the law. Thousands of Bolsonaro supporters had camped in front of the military headquarters, with the complicity of the armed forces, providing the perfect breeding ground for the January 8, 2023 coup attempt.

In fact, the Brazilian version of the January 6, 2021 Capitol riots is a cautionary tale of how a coup attempt may take place even after the autocrat steps down. While Trump, who was still in office, stirred a mob to invade Congress and prevent the session that would certify the 2020 election results, chaos spread by pro-Bolsonaro hordes took place one week after Lula had been sworn in. Even under Lulas authority, the military did nothing to stop the destruction in Brasilia.

One year on, some members of the military still seem to be testing the limits of democracy. A few days ago, following the arrest of some active and retired officials in the federal police operation, former Bolsonaro vice-president and now Senator Hamilton Mouro went as far as to call on the military to stand up against the Supreme Courts arbitrary and persecutory ruling.

Mouro, a retired general turned politician, is not alone in his disgust at the rule of law. According to a national poll that ran the day after the February 8 probe, the country remains very much divided regarding Bolsonaro: 36.8% of respondents believe the former president did not attempt to stage a coup, 42.2% consider that he is being unfairly persecuted and 47.3% think Brazilians live under a judicial dictatorship.

This is all too symptomatic of a country that has yet to exorcise the demons of its dictatorial past and move beyond its deeply polarised present. Judges and politicians who are committed to democratic values must work together to fight and punish authoritarian populism in all its forms.

However, as long as Bolsonaro remains a central figure in Brazilian politics, this scenario is unlikely to change and it may even get worse if Trump is elected again in the US. Although Bolsonaro is currently ineligible to stand for office, a political comeback is not unimaginable should democratic institutions fail to do their job.

Link:
Why Bolsonaro failed to overthrow democracy and why a threat remains - The Conversation

Hey readers, this article originally went out as a new newsletter were calling Democracy, Empowered. It will include our election coverage, ways for you to get involved, important election information and dates. If you find the newsletter helpful, you can sign up for it online. Well be sending it out about once a week.

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Even if youre not registered to vote, you can do same-day registration during the early voting period. Learn how here. Also, if you decide to vote early, you can visit any precinct youd like to cast your vote. Find Guilford County polling locations here and Forsyth County locations here. If youre voting on Election Day (March 5), you have to go to your assigned precinct. Find where that is here. A reminder! All voters need ID to vote this year. Learn more about what counts as a valid ID here.

Want to make it easy on yourself before you go vote? Download or print out your sample ballot and then circle or write down which candidates you want to vote for. You can also find a physical copy of our issue out on the streets now and mark that up if youd like! Easy peasy, extra cheezy.

Do you know who youre going to vote for in the state attorney generals race? What about lieutenant governor? If youre confused (its ok, we are too) weve got our comprehensive 2024 Primary Election Guide out now that has every single candidate on the ballot in the Triad from president all the way down to school board. Can we get a hell yeah?

We know that judicial races often dont get a lot of news coverage. That makes the races hard to understand and difficult to figure out who to vote for. What do the superior and district courts even do? How long are judges elected for? Who is running?

Weve got all of those answers for the Guilford County judicial races in our latest election piece here. Weve also got info for the Forsyth County judicial races in our Primary Guide here. Read it, share it up and then make sure to vote in the primary on March 5! Early voting is already in session.

Weve also got pullout articles about attorney general, governor and the lieutenant governor races.

Its been about a week since early voting started on Feb. 15 and so far, it looks like theres been decent turnout! Heres the rundown courtesy of the John Locke Foundation:

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TCB presents Democracy, Empowered: Everything you need to know to vote this election season - Triad City Beat

American democracy is in dire peril. Enraged at the establishments cowardly response to external threats, a megalomaniac demagogue rides a wave of popular support, appearing before a series of fervently attended political rallies. He threatens to oust an old, sickly, unpopular president, and seize power. Once in control, he clearly means to rule as a strongman.

Sixty years have passed since movie audiences first got to see this scenario played out in the Hollywood thriller Seven Days in May, which starred Burt Lancaster as a mutinous general, and Kirk Douglas as the officer who thwarts his would-be coup. Today, as fears intensify about what Donald Trump plans to do if he recaptures the presidency, the anniversary is a reminder that the nightmare of American dictatorship did not begin with Trump, or the attack on the Capitol. The fear goes all the way back to the Declaration of Independence, which warned of the absolute Tyranny that George III was supposedly plotting to impose on the colonists. Such spectres have haunted America ever since.

Seven Days in May was based on a novel by two political journalists, written to dramatise the creeping fear of the early 1960s that elements in the military posed a serious threat to American democracy. President Eisenhower left office in 1961, warning of the unwarranted influence of the military-industrial complex: the potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power could, he said, endanger our liberties. The generals bitterly resented the new President Kennedys assertion of control over spending, strategy and troop indoctrination.

Liberal public figures denounced senior officers scarily anti-democratic statements. One congressman cried: We want no military czars in this country. We want no men on horseback. President Kennedy himself took the threat seriously enough to encourage the director John Frankenheimer to turn Seven Days in May into a movie, to alert America to the threat.

Burt Lancasters General Scott was inspired partly by a former general, Edwin Walker, who Kennedy forced out of the army for trying to indoctrinate his troops with far-right propaganda. Walker denounced Kennedy as a communist and, for a time, seemed to be the man on horseback that right-wing extremists yearned for. But Scott was also based on the ferocious chief of the air force, General Curtis LeMay, who clashed with Kennedy over the botched covert invasion of Cuba in 1961, and his terrifyingly gung-ho approach to nuclear war.

So why didnt the movies nightmare scenario actually happen? One reason was that, as ever when fact inspires fiction, messy reality becomes overly neat and simple. There was a crucial difference between the two men the movie melded together. One was a general, the other a former general. Walker became a public demagogue, but was not powerful; LeMay was powerful, but did not turn demagogic while in uniform. Eventually, he did take part in a far-right push for power as the presidential running-mate of the segregationist George Wallace. But when they lost, he accepted the result.

So on one level, Seven Days in May was simply a centrist nightmare that did not come to fruition. Its lesson is that you cant watch over democracy by looking for vague spectres; you have to be specific about the nature of the threat. But with that in mind, eternal vigilance remains the price of liberty.

This vigilance has proven to be a price worth paying under a new Trumpian paradigm. Its little surprise that fears of military coups and civil wars have crept back into the cultural landscape: take A24s bluntly titled Civil War slated to release this year. Perhaps, the films trailer leads us to believe, a dystopian future of gun-toting secessionist militias is closer to becoming reality than wed like to think.

If he wins in November, Trump seems prepared to deploy soldiers against protestors. Today, the militarys willingness to disobey the president may yet become a hot political issue once again: this time, not to destroy democracy, but to save it.

Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 3 months with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.

Read more from the original source:
Prepare for the battle between the President and the US Army - Yahoo News