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As we turn the final pages on a tumultuous 2021, all this week The Fulcrum will share a year-end series of guest commentaries from a distinguished group of columnists on the current state of electoral reform and what we may expect in the upcoming year.

Penniman is the founder and CEO of Issue One, a crosspartisan political reform organization, and author of Nation on the Take: How Big Money Corrupts Our Democracy and What We Can Do About It.

Our democracy is under attack. The campaign to sow doubt in our elections and create distrust in our institutions is extremely motivated, and bad actors are gaining ground across the country.

This year alone, we saw 19 states enact new laws that will make it harder for Americans to vote, and several states placed election administration under greater partisan control. Barring federal action, we will see even more states in 2022 take steps to undermine the will of the people and set the stage for a constitutional crisis the likes of which we have never seen in our history.

Thats why Congress must act. Many common sense proposals which benefit from a long history of bipartisanship and are supported by overwhelming majorities of Americans have already been introduced. But Republicans in Congress have repeatedly filibustered these bills, going so far as to block debate on the very reforms needed to fix our broken political system.

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We cannot allow this inaction to continue into next year. If we want to save our democracy, we must act now. As the leading crosspartisan political reform group in Washington, D.C., heres what Issue One is focused on achieving in 2022.

Our election officials and frontline poll workers have been facing death threats on a daily basis since the 2020 presidential election. These have been fueled by baseless claims of fraud despite former President Donald Trumps own Department of Homeland Security, and attorney general, declaring the 2020 election safe and secure.

While the Department of Justice launched a task force earlier this year to investigate threats against election workers, there have been few arrests or criminal convictions, and many secretaries of state are frustrated that the task force hasnt been deployed aggressively enough.

Our election officials are the embodiment of democracy in action helping members of their communities register to vote, find their polling locations, cast their ballots and ensure that every vote is counted accurately. Many now live in fear, and states are bracing for mass retirements in the wake of these threats, which leaves positions open to extremists. As former Trump advisor Steve Bannon, a leader of the Stop the Steal movement, said last month, Were taking over all the elections.

In addition to the DOJ stepping up its game, members of Congress should seek to pass bipartisan legislation protecting election officials from intimidation and threats of violence.

Weve seen a growing number of states move to strip local election officials of their power and place election oversight into the hands of partisan politicians. Its difficult to interpret these laws as anything but election sabotage an attempt to do what failed in 2020 by making it legal for politicians to toss out legitimate votes if they dont like the outcome.

Principled Republicans, Democrats and independents must stand against this trend before it takes over not just purple states and red states but also blue states.

Even in the midst of a global pandemic, mail-in ballots, early voting and additional measures helped ensure that Americans were able to safely exercise their sacred freedom to vote.

What was the response in some states to this tremendous success? Making it harder to vote.

The massive disinformation campaign that Trump and many of his supporters continue to spread about the 2020 campaign has empowered lawmakers to roll back voting modalities they once championed like mail-in voting.

And for what gain? In Novembers gubernatorial election in Virginia, where steps have been taken in recent years to make voting more accessible, we saw how Republicans appear to have benefitted from some of the very proposals that have now stalled in Congress including early voting, no-excuse absentee voting and automatic voter registration.

Passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would at least empower the Department of Justice to take a closer look under the hoods of some of these laws and make sure they dont discriminate against certain groups of voters. Congress has previously reauthorized the VRA on five separate occasions by overwhelming majorities of Republicans and Democrats since its original passage in 1965, and they should once again affirm that bipartisanship.

Weve all seen the classic examples of gerrymandering zigzagging districts engineered down to partisan perfection. Its a tried and true weapon that both political parties have mastered, long ago coming to the realization that the best way to win elections and hold onto power is to prevent races from becoming competitive in the first place.

Its had a profound effect on the makeup of Congress: of the 435 seats in the House of Representatives, only 10 percent are considered up for grabs in next years midterm elections. Which means that 90 percent of House members need to worry mainly about getting through their primaries, either by raising so much money they prophylactically scare off competitors or by being so extreme that they cultivate the affinity of base voters.

When we talk about the dysfunctionality on Capitol Hill, we have to realize that its in large part the result of structural problems, and that many of those problems are fixable. Voters should pick their politicians, not the other way around. We must fix this undemocratic problem.

Our ability to elect a president and vice president fairly and peacefully every four years is

a hallmark of our democratic system. For over a century, the Electoral Count Act has governed this process and Congress role. But the 19th century law is outdated and rife with arcane language and ambiguities, opening the door to misinterpretations and exploitation.

Its time for Congress to modernize this law, clarify the role of the vice president, rein in the objection process and prevent one party from attempting to overturn the will of the people.

We cannot leave this to chance. Both parties should work together to get this done and restore Americans trust in our democratic process.

Disinformation permeates every corner of our society. It fueled an attack on our nations Capitol and continues to run rampant across all forms of media, perpetuating lies about the election and other falsehoods.

Until we confront the harm disinformation is causing, it will be extremely difficult to accomplish any of the important reforms outlined above. We cannot hand the future of our country over to algorithms that distort the truth and allow lies to spread faster than real journalism.

Congress cannot let these platforms off the hook. Members from both parties have already expressed interest in bipartisan solutions following disturbing reports about the dangers facing young people. It is crucial that legislation also addresses the destructive power of disinformation.

Our broken political system fueled by big money has created an environment in which the vast majority of ordinary citizens today no longer have a seat at the table. 2022 must be the year we change course and fix this. The American people must have confidence in our democracy.

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Six things we must do to save our democracy and protect our elections in 2022 - The Fulcrum

Chile has become the global capital of resurgent opposition to neoliberalism and resistance to fascism, electing the worlds youngest president, Gabriel Boric, a 35-year-old former student protest leader. Boric, a member of Chiles congress since 2014 and law school graduate, will lead the countrys first left unity government since the bloody United States-backed military coup which overthrew democratically elected leader Salvador Allende on September 11, 1973 (the other September 11).

The lefts decisive victory in Chile, with about 55 percent of the vote, came amid a large turnout of women and youth. This included a 1-million vote margin over his far right opponent, Jos Antonio Kast, who positioned himself as an heir to the legacy of the Gen. Augusto Pinochet dictatorship. Borics mandate simultaneously embodies the hopes awakened by Chiles national popular uprising in October and November 2019, and a rejection of Kasts embrace of, and personal connections to, the Pinochet regime. These included his older brothers strategic roles as head of the countrys central bank and labor minister. Kast waged a campaign characterized by racist, xenophobic and patriarchal appeals to the need to restore national security and order, and to defend traditional family values in the wake of the 2019 protests.

The result marks a historic shift which has widespread implications for the U.S., for the Latin American and Caribbean region, and globally. Similar hopes were awakened 50 years ago by President Allendes Popular Unity government in Chile, which was targeted by the U.S. during the Richard Nixon administration and specifically by Henry Kissinger, first as national security adviser and then as secretary of state, and eventually overthrown with U.S. encouragement.

Thousands of victims were killed, disappeared, tortured and exiled throughout 17 years of dictatorship under Pinochet, who turned Chile into a global model for the neoliberal orthodoxy associated with the disciples of Milton Friedman and the Chicago Boys. The so-called Chilean Miracle was closely aligned with the politics of President Ronald Reagan in the U.S. and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom. This model was soon emulated regionally, with disastrous results, in countries such as Peru, Ecuador, Argentina, Colombia and Mexico, and globally through the so-called Washington Consensus promoted by the U.S. through the International Monetary Fund and World Bank.

Many in Chile and Latin America are waiting to see how the U.S. will react to a Boric administration and a governing coalition that includes Chiles Communist Party as a partner. As more people around the world view the U.S. and the European Union as threats to global democracy, social movements throughout Latin America and beyond are mobilizing to defend the democratic result of Chiles elections, as they did during Pinochets dictatorship.

Borics victory reflects a new alignment of political forces in Chile which displaces the center-left and center-right blocs which have dominated the spectrum and alternated in power since Pinochets ouster in 1990. Borics new left leadership first emerged while he was a student activist within the context of national student protests in 2006, 2009 and 2011, which laid the foundation for the 2019 uprising. The massive 2019 protests led to a November 2019 civic pact which initiated Chiles current constitutional reform process as well as the emergence of the broad left coalition that eventually backed his presidential candidacy.

Borics election also reflects an emergent regional trend, coinciding with Xiomara Castros November election in Honduras and Luis Arces October 2020 election in Bolivia, which in each case effectively reversed coups in 2009 and 2019, respectively, that sought to shift both countries back into closer alignment with the U.S. This left trend also includes the victory of Pedro Castillo in Peru.

The president-elects four-year term will coincide with Chiles promulgation of a new constitution, intended to dismantle almost 50 years of authoritarian hegemony. The Boric presidency thus has a historic opportunity to complete Chiles prolonged democratic transition and process of transitional justice.

The new leader pledged in his first address as president-elect that his approach would be focused explicitly on the promotion of truth, justice, reparations and guarantees of non-repetition as guiding threads for his administrations policies. Boric also prioritized satisfaction of the demands of Chiles powerful womens and Indigenous movements as central driving forces in his agenda. This will likely include redefinition of Chile as a pluri-national and pluri-cultural state, as Bolivia did in its 2008 constitution, and new guarantees for reproductive rights and LGBT rights in a country where they have been traditionally restricted.

Borics campaign was notable for taking an eco-socialist approach to environmental issues. His election night speech included an explicit rejection of the controversial $2.5 billion Dominga iron, copper and gold mining project promoted by the Andes Iron company in the Atacama desert, 500 miles north of Santiago and near a conservation area that is home to 80 percent of the worlds Humboldt penguins. Destroying the world is destroying ourselves. We do not want more sacrifice zones. We do not want projects that destroy our country, that destroy communities, and we exemplify this in a case that has been symbolic: No to Dominga, he said. Outgoing conservative Chilean President Sebastian Piera recently had to fight off an impeachment process based on his familys role as investors in the Dominga project, as revealed in the release of the Pandora Papers by the International Consortium for Investigative Journalism.

The new administrations approach will be centered around an overall commitment to advancing human rights, and is specifically focused on the implementation of economic and social rights to lay the foundation for a dignified life for all Chileans, including rights to health, education and housing. The emphasis here is on reversing the impact of neoliberal policies which have deepened poverty and inequality and undermined the rights of pensioners. This approach is being combined with an emphasis on promoting a care economy centered around reinforced state public health guarantees in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Difficult tests lie ahead for the Boric presidency, as it navigates contending visions of left politics in Latin America in the current historical moment. Boric identifies with certain dimensions of the most progressive currents in European-style social democracy. This is reflected in his campaigns emphasis on state guarantees of economic, social and cultural rights, and climate justice. But these characteristics are combined with the bottom-up politics that characterize Latin Americas most powerful social movements for human rights, grounded in the demands of the poor and other marginalized sectors. These are also shaped by feminist demands for equality and against sexual and gender violence; by Indigenous peoples for autonomy and self-determination and against extractivist mega-development policies and paradigms; and in defense of migrant rights. This is a more complex mix than is suggested by analyses that reduce Latin Americas left to polarized camps that are either statist or anti-state (or autonomist), and thus necessarily in conflict with each other. Borics trajectory and horizons suggest a much more fluid relationship between the state and social movements. But the question in practice will be the extent to which Borics administration is directly accountable to the social movements which made his victory possible.

He will face key tests as the constitutional reform process evolves, which is intended to culminate in a referendum on approval of a new text sometime after July 2022. It is likely that the new constitution will take historic steps in recognizing the rights of women, and for the first time, of Indigenous peoples, among other important reforms. Measures of this kind will generate pressures on Boric to reaffirm or retreat from his campaign platform. The elected assembly which is drafting the text the first in the world of its kind to have gender parity is significantly to the left of Chiles congress, and of Borics second round campaign, which successfully contended for a decisive slice of a bloc of centrist voters.

But Borics mandate was also spurred by a significant increase in turnout that was concentrated among women and younger voters, and overall by those who supported the massive 2019 protests. The balance struck in governance and implementation between these sectors will shape the new governing coalitions aspirations and their limits.

Global and national markets have already reacted negatively to Borics victory, which will accelerate pressures by global capital and its local allies to moderate his campaign pledges. Boric will have to navigate the increasingly intense regional and global rivalry between traditional U.S. hegemony and Chinas ascent, as a Latin American country which has positioned itself as a key player in the Pacific Basin. China and other Asian countries are by far Chiles most important trade partners (57.7 percent of exports in 2020), far outpacing North America (U.S. and Canada 15.2 percent), other Latin American countries (13.1 percent including Mexico) and the EU (12.2 percent).

Moreover, it is closer, deeply troubled U.S. allies such as Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia and Haiti that have much lower levels of democratic legitimacy and human rights compliance, compared to states that may become potentially more independent of U.S. domination, such as Chile and Peru. Honduras is a much more problematic case because of its greater vulnerability to more direct forms of U.S. intervention related to the drug war and longstanding processes of forced migration. The exercise of U.S. hegemony through sanctions tends to strengthen its targets rather than weaken them, and to harm the most vulnerable sectors in countries that have been singled out in this way. There is also extensive debate about the empirical evidence either way in terms of the impact of such measures on the supposed promotion of democracy.

This is further underlined by how U.S. sanctions against Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua, which violate international law and are deeply rooted in Cold War assumptions and methods, have themselves undermined democratic options within those contexts. Potential center-left victories that are on the horizon in 2022 in Colombia and Brazil will provide additional tests for these overall trends, as the U.S. scrambles to respond. The Biden administrations actual response to the lefts victory in Chile, and that of global and national capital, in practice, beyond the traditional rhetoric of welcoming messages, will be a crucial indicator.

See the article here:
Radical Democracy Is Resurgent in Latin America. How Will the US Respond? - Truthout

When I recently spoke in Parliament about the need for an independent judiciary, I did it because we still look up to the courts with great hope. Even when other powerful institutions appear to be faltering and floundering, people continue to have faith in the judiciary as the last post of justice.

During the winter session of Parliament, I spoke specifically about the challenges to the independence of the judiciary. The twin dangers that would inflict irreparable damage to the judiciary, I said, are the lack of diversity and the secrecy around the appointment of judges. The collegium has indeed found brilliant judges but the system needs an overhaul.

While it is true that senior judges with integrity, erudition and vision will certainly find suitable people who can occupy the high seats of justice, the selection process is fraught with inherent dangers. An executive that believes in excessive power will always find it expedient to have an individual-centric rather than system-centric apparatus. It is no surprise, therefore, that the former CJI Ranjan Gogoi made it clear in his memoirs that he wanted to avoid any confrontation with the Centre.

We have seen such tendencies play out in front of our eyes of the most senior judges appearing to yield to the Centre. It is imperative that we need to draw up a system that emulates the best practices from elsewhere. The executive, legislature, judiciary, the bar, the public must be represented in the judicial appointments commission. The general public should have a crystal-clear view of the people who are going to be the judges of our top courts. The resultant transparency will ward off growing suspicion over judicial appointments.

The social composition of the judiciary has always been a matter of concern. Its not that any particular caste can be blamed for this trend. Yet, a community that hardly accounts for 4 per cent of the population occupying more than 30 per cent posts in the higher judiciary is a cause for worry. The chief architect of our Constitution and the first law minister, B R Ambedkar, would certainly not have envisaged such a scenario. Out of 47 Chief Justices of India to date, at least 14 have been Brahmins. From 1950 to 1970, the maximum strength of the Supreme Court was 14 judges of whom 11 were Brahmins. From 1971 to 1989, the number saw a further spike, and 18 judges were Brahmins. Irrespective of who is in power, the average 30-40 per cent representation of Brahmins in the SC has remained constant. The situation is no different in the high courts. For example, out of 45 judges of the Karnataka High Court, 17 are Brahmins.

We have had brilliant judges with high levels of competence and social commitment from among them. No one can forget the contribution of luminaries such as V R Krishna Iyer, P N Bhagwati, Y V Chandrachud, P B Gajendragadkar and others whose judgments enriched the nation and armed millions in their aspirations to secure justice. But should we shut our eyes to the fact that our highest court didnt have a judge from the OBC, SC or ST communities until 1980? Merit and quality do not have anything to do with the massive under-representation of Dalits, OBCs, minorities and women.

The omissions and commissions of constitutional courts have a huge impact on a democracy like ours. It was precisely because of this that there were raging debates on verdicts like Rafale, divesting the powers of CBI director Alok Verma and the silence over the abrogation of Article 370 and the conversion of a state into a Union Territory. Besides, despite the Election Commission expressing serious reservations about the anonymous electoral bonds schemes by describing it as a retrograde step, our judiciary has not thought it appropriate to adjudicate on it.

The legislature, judiciary and the media are crucial to ensure checks and balances in a democratic system. We all know how our legislature and media have turned out to be.

The judiciary remains the only flicker of hope. When Chief Justice N V Ramana commented about the way in which laws are made, they were considered to be words of wisdom. He lamented the sorry state of affairs on law-making and parliamentary debate in the country. After the conclusion of yet another chaotic Parliament session, his words must ring louder in our ears.

The Chief Justice also rued the demise of investigative journalism in the country. Courageous journalism makes democracy robust and, as a journalist, l have been closely watching how media exposs have influenced both the legislature and executive. These days, ministers interviews have replaced investigative stories and we can imagine how this metamorphosis leaves our democracy utterly deprived.

Justice Gautam Patel of the Bombay High Court said: History will not judge us by our highways or statues, it will judge us by how well we have preserved the constitutional idea of India and saved it from being undermined. Governments will come and go but the idea of India, the constitutional idea of India, parliamentary democracy must be protected. In the constitutional scheme of things, there is no such thing as too much noise or too much dissent. Indian democracy requires a vibrant judiciary to guide us through these dark hours of authoritarian excesses.

The writer is a CPI(M) member of the Rajya Sabha

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Judiciary is Indian democracys only flicker of hope - The Indian Express

In 2015, Saturday Night Live spoofed the rancorous political arguments besieging American social life.

Cast members seated around a dining table to celebrate Thanksgiving passed the side dishes and threw invective. The verbal heat rose and rose until a young girl pressed play on a cassette player and the Adele song Hello washed over the room. The combatants instantly ceased fire and began lip-synching the lyrics. Their rapture escalated until they physically entered a re-creation of the music video.

A Thanksgiving Miracle aired before the Trump presidency and its violent subversive conclusion. This holiday season, its hard to think of a song capable of transporting Americans into a state of blissful unity. Masks and vaccines have become a divisive issue and assault weapons have cropped up as accessories on congressional Christmas cards. But there is an alternative to mutually assured bad-mouthing. Americans can meet clandestinely among the like-minded, not just to commiserate but also to plan and participate in election campaigns.

Emily Van Duyn, a political communications scholar, embedded with one such group in Texas in 2017. Her book chronicles the journey of 136 liberal women living in a rural and thus predominantly conservative Texas town who, determined to resist Trump, organized themselves into what Van Duyn anonymizes as the Community Womens Group (CWG).

They were middle-aged and senior white women (save one who was Black), afraid to speak their minds and put up yard signs. The author interviewed 24 of them multiple times, attended their monthly meetings on a dozen occasions, and examined meeting minutes from November 2016, when they were in tears and shock, until December 2020, at which point their politicking had yielded higher vote totals for Democrats in the previous months election, though not enough to prevail anywhere on the ballot.

Van Duyn also conducted a national and statewide survey in 2018, from which she concluded that more than one in five American adults felt the need to hide their politics, and just under one in 10 operated in similarly self-obscured conversational settings.

The study explains how social, geographic and political causes shaped the communication practices of the CWG.

[T]he growing animosity between and within parties, the uncertainty about truth, the growing intersectional animosity around ideology, race, class, and gender, made for a political context that was not only unpleasant but risky.

Trump palpably threatened their sense of security as women. Locally, they feared ostracization, loss of business (especially the real estate agents), defacement of property and being run off the road by men in trucks with guns who noticed liberal bumper-stickers, as happened at least once and was talked about often.

Van Duyn excels at detailing the evolution of CWGs communications practices, a mix of private and public facing activities conducted through physical as well as digital channels. Many members had grown up deferring to men about matters political. But a week after Trumps victory one of them sent an email to eight neighbors: I would like to suggest that we get together for support and see where that takes us.

That got forwarded, and 50 showed up at the first meeting. In a remote location, with the blinds closed, they wrote a mission statement and formed committees by issue to educate themselves. That super-structure soon fell by the wayside. Their formalized confidentiality agreement held, however. Between meetings they relied on a listserv to communicate among themselves with a brief detour into a secret Facebook group.

In their darkened space (the book title inverts the slogan of the Washington Post) they opened each meeting with talk about their fears. A few started sending letters to the editor of the local newspaper using their individual identity, often to register dissent with and fact-check other letter writers. Over the two years of the study, about half emerged as open Democrats. They worked on mobilizing other Democrats (even though not all were registered or comfortable with the party), leaving the heavy labor of persuasion to formal campaigns. Their work shored up the party in their county: they ran phone banks, filled district chairs, updated voter files and raised money. The group had served as a safe harbor to develop political skills and confidence.

CWG falls into several political traditions, including the voluntary associations that De Tocqueville valorized, the hidden minorities who have suffered the weights of oppression and, for that matter, the collectives of oppressors and cultists.

Women are a demographic majority in America, and the political positions of CWG would fit in the national mainstream. But these women were neither in the contexts of their lives. Even so, by the end of the period Van Duyn examines, their politicking mirrored that of more open demographic counterparts such as the Liberal Women of Chesterfield County, a group that helped first-time candidate Abigail Spanberger turn a central Virginia seat Democratic in 2018 one that she now has to decamp for a newly re-drawn district.

Some Republicans at holiday gatherings this year will continue to relish the opportunity to bait liberals (a practice that goes both ways). They may emulate Trumps style of discourse, centered on a barrage of lies, exaggerations, accusations and taunts. Or they may not do any of these things; as Trump said about southern border-crossers in 2015 some, I assume, are good people. Indeed, some Republicans may feel intimidated by progressive majorities in workplaces and on campuses.

All told, the risks of escalated, energy draining crossfire between Americas political tribes have risen and intensified. So this holiday season is no time for engaging others in political matters, for disputing the veracity of their claims and integrity of their motives. Far better to smile wanly, deflect provocations, change the subject, and then join or form a political support group. As Van Duyns book shows, good things can follow from going underground.

Read more from the original source:
Democracy Lives in Darkness review: how to take politics off the holiday dinner table - The Guardian

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: Legendary poet, singer, author and activist Patti Smith has been awarded a key to New York City. Smiths music has inspired countless bands and helped earn her the title of queen of punk. Her song People Have the Power has become an anthem at protests across the globe. Patti Smith has also been a longtime activist, performing regularly at antiwar rallies and political benefits. She gave an emotional acceptance speech during a ceremony Monday with outgoing New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Patti Smith: I kept thinking of what New York City has given to me. I came here in 1967 from a rural area of South Jersey. I had just a few dollars in my pocket, nowhere to stay, no real prospects. But I came here to get a job and to see what I could to see what I was made of. And I found that the city, with all of its diversities and possibilities, if youre willing to work, if you maintain your enthusiasm, youll make it.

AMY GOODMAN: And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. Im Amy Goodman.

PATTI SMITH: [singing] Where there were deserts, I saw fountainsAnd like cream the waters riseAnd we strolled there togetherWith none to laugh or criticize

Well, the leopard and the lambLay together truly boundWell, I was hopin in my hopinTo recall what I had found

I was dreamin in my dreaminGod knows a pure viewAs I surrender into my sleepinI commit my dream with you

People have the power to dreamPeople have the power to votePeople have the power to strikePeople have the power to live

The power to dream, to ruleTo wrestle the world from foolsIts decreed the people ruleWell, its decreed the people rule

Listen, I believe everythin we dreamCan come to pass through our unionWe can turn the world aroundWe can turn the Earths revolution

People have the powerPeople have the powerThe people have the powerPeople have the power

Dont forget it! Use your voice! Democracy now!

AMY GOODMAN: Patti Smith performing People Have the Power with Michael Stipe of R.E.M. at Democracy Now!s 20th anniversary celebration five years ago at Riverside Church. She was awarded the key to New York City on Monday.

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People Have the Power: Poet & Singer Patti Smith Awarded Key to New York City - Democracy Now!