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TEHRAN Hours after Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro departed Tehran, a senior Iranian diplomat announced that Tehran will be hosting a number of other high-level delegations in the coming days.

Saeed Khatibzadeh, spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said three foreign officials including a president, will soon arrive in Tehran for diplomatic talks.

He said Pakistans foreign minister is due in Tehran on Tuesday. And the president of Turkmenistan will also be in Tehran in the coming days. In addition, the speaker of the Armenian Parliament is also traveling to Tehran this week.

These visits show Iran is not isolated. Following the adoption of a censure resolution against Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agencys Board of Governors last week, some Western media outlets and analysts claimed that Iran is facing growing isolation due to the pause in talks in Vienna over reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The resolution mustered support from 30 member states. It was opposed by Russia and China while the three remaining countries Pakistan, India, and Libya abstained from voting.

The resolution was vehemently rejected by Iran as politically-motivated and influenced by Israel.

The Islamic Republic of Iran deplores the approval of a resolution drafted by the U.S., Britain, France and Germany at the IAEA Board of Governors as a political, wrong and unconstructive move, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement in reaction to the resolution.

But even the voting numbers in the Board of Governors showed the effectiveness of Iranian diplomacy. Interestingly, India and Pakistan both abstained from voting despite the fact that the two nuclear states rarely agree on certain things. That wasnt a fluke of nature. Instead, it was a result of intensive diplomacy with both states.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian traveled to India last week and held high-level talks with the Indian leaders. In his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Amir Abdollahian underlined the shared views of Iran and India in the talks. On the other hand, the Indian premier pointed to the existing bilateral agreements in various fields. Modi announced his countrys readiness to strengthen cooperation with Iran, especially with regard to transit routes.

In addition to the flurry of diplomatic visits to Tehran expected to take place in the coming days, the Iranian foreign minister also plans to resume his trips next week, according to Khatibzadeh. Amir Abdollahian will pay visits to a number of African countries.

The spokesman said several meetings will be held in Iran in the next Iranian calendar month, which starts on June 22.

In addition, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is also expected to visit Iran. Khatibzadeh said this visit will take place and its date will be announced in time. Russia confirmed that such a visit is under consideration. The Russian Foreign Ministry said preparations are underway for the visit, according to Russian media.Earlier this month, Amir Abdollahian and Lavrov spoke over the phone and exchanged views on the most important bilateral, regional and international issues.

Amir Abdollahian and Lavrov discussed the latest state of ties between Tehran and Moscow and followed up various issues resulting from talks between the presidents of the two countries.

In the telephone conversation, Lavrov said he was pleased with his future official visit to Iran and noted that relations and cooperation between Tehran and Moscow are expanding in all spheres.

Amir Abdollahian and Lavrov held consultations over the inclusive document of the Iran-Russia cooperation, ways of boosting economic cooperation between the private and public sectors of the two countries, the forthcoming summit of the Caspian Sea states, the upcoming visit of the top Russian diplomat to Tehran, and the latest developments in the Ukraine crisis, according to the Iranian Foreign Ministry.

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Iran boosts diplomatic ties amid tensions with the West - Tehran Times

With the outset of the 13th government and special emphasis of President Raeisi on enhancing relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and all countries, especially neighboring countries, the visit of high-ranking officials of Iran and Qatar to Doha in March 2022 paved suitable ways for broadening mutual ties within the framework of joint economic commissions.

The two countries of Iran and Qatar enjoy high potential particularly in trade and economic fields so setting up the 8th meeting of the Iran-Qatar Joint Economic Commission would further boost bilateral cooperation in the fields.

The 8th meeting of the Iran-Qatar Joint Economic Commission, which was held on June 7 in the Qatari capital of Doha, discussed the two sides' bilateral cooperation in the form of five committees including "Economic, Commercial and Industrial", "Banking and Finance", "Transportation and Information Technology", "Scientific, Health, Culture, Sports and Tourism" and "Water and Energy" and practical steps will be taken in this regard to implement the agreements approved at the previous meetings.

At the 8th meeting of the Iran-Qatar Joint Economic Commission between Iran and Qatar, Iranian Energy Minister Ali Akbar Mehrabian, Head of Irans Trade Promotion Organization Alireza Peymanpak, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Diplomacy Mehdi Safari, along with officials from the Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture of Iran, and the most significant trade delegation, including private businessmen and representatives of 70 companies traveled to Qatar, indicating the Iranian government's full support for cooperation of the private sectors of the two countries.

An Iranian delegation headed by energy minister Ali Akbar Mehrabian attended the eighth meeting of the Joint Commission for Economic Cooperation between Iran and Qatar in Doha.

At the end of the joint commission meeting, Iran and Qatar inked a memorandum of understanding.

The MoU between Iran and Qatar is in the fields of transit, transportation, industry and trade, energy, customs, free zones, tourism, cultural heritage, agriculture, sports, etc.

The Iranian energy minister, who chaired the meeting of the joint commission, said that the 13th administration in Iran has focused on expanding relations with the world and regional countries and expressed hope to see a significant increase in bilateral relations between Tehran and Doha after the meeting.

"One of the most important goals of the meeting is to support the Iranian and Qatari private sectors, and we are happy to see that a large conference with the participation of Iranian businessmen is being held in Doha at the same time as the meeting of the joint commission," Mehrabian said

"During the day, eight very important memoranda of understanding on food, medical industry, knowledge-based companies, etc. have been signed between businessmen of the two countries, which indicates the existence of a suitable market for the two countries," he added.

The Iranian energy minister continued that Iran and Qatar have set financial goals for 2023 and hope to see doubled economic relations and trade balance between the two countries.

Referring to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, Mehrabian said that the Qatar World Cup is definitely one of the golden opportunities for business people, which can enhance economic and trade relations between the two countries in various ways.

Head of the Trade Promotion Organization of Iran (TPOI) Alireza Peyman-Pak announced the launch of the Iran Trade Center in Qatar in near future.

Referring to the Iranian administration's plan to boost trade, especially with neighboring countries, he said that holding an exhibition and introducing Iran's industrial and commercial capabilities to Qatari traders is on the agenda.

An exhibition of Qatar's trade capabilities will also be held in Iran, he added.

The Iran Trade Center in Qatar will be opened soon, and the Iranian Trade Advisor in Qatar will start working, Peyman-Pak said.

He noted that $1 billion in trade with the neighboring country of Qatar is on Iran's agenda.

With regards to the upcoming visit of the Iranian President to Qatar, he said, participating in Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) and holding bilateral talks with senior Qatari officials have been cited as the two main aims behind the upcoming visit of Iranian President Raeisi to Qatar.

He put the current trade volume exchanged between Iran and Qatar at about $300 and $400 million which is very negligible and stated, With the planning made in this regard, it is expected that bilateral trade between the two countries will increase to $1 billion next year.

Cooperating in the field of industrial development for exporting products to third countries and using high capacities and capabilities of Qatar for the development of value chain and transit are the other issues with regards to expanding trade ties between the two countries, he added.

Considering the good political relations between Iran and Qatar, putting the next step in supporting the private sector for the development of trade relations is one of the most important goals of the two countries, which is possible by removing barriers and developing infrastructure, on the other hand, the private sector also plays a pivotal role, which by doing it properly, we will see a big development in trade between Iran and Qatar.

Ayatollah Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi received the visiting Qatari Foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani for a meeting in Tehran, Iran.

In the meeting, Raeisi referred to the importance of regional cooperation and said, "Deepening relations and further synergy among neighboring countries can create security."

Emphasizing the importance of multilateral mechanisms in ensuring security, especially in the field of energy, Raeisi stated, "It is necessary to maintain and strengthen coordination and synergy in the energy policies of producing countries."

The Qatari foreign minister extended an official invitation to the president of Iran to take part in the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) on the part of the Emir of Qatar and said "Qatar is determined to make utmost efforts to increase relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran in various political and economic fields, and the Emir of Qatar is personally following up on the development of relations between the two countries.

Iran's President Ebrahim Raeisi departed for Qatar to meet Qatari Emir and attend a Summit Meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF).

Before leaving Tehran for Doha, President Raeisi told reporters that he is traveling to Qatar at the official invitation of Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

Improving friendly and brotherly relations between Iran and neighboring Qatar and attending the Summit Meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) are the goals of this visit to Doha, he explained.

Referring to the Summit Meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF), he said that Iran is one of the founders of the forum and the country is one of the important exporters and producers of gas in the region.

He also expressed hope that the trip will bring positive effects on the promotion of political, economic, and trade relations between regional countries, especially the countries of the Persian Gulf.

The president's visit to Qatar comes at a time when the last time an Iranian president visited Qatar was eleven years ago. Before leaving Tehran for Doha, President Raeisi told reporters that his visit to Qatar is a step towards activating neighborhood diplomacy, especially with the Persian Gulf states, and using the capacities of these states to develop political and economic relations.

In recent years, Tehran-Doha relations have witnessed tangible progress in all areas of economic, political, cultural, energy, and border cooperation. This is the result of the attention of the officials of the two countries, who are working to expand and develop bilateral relations and strive to enhance cooperation to the highest levels.

During the first day of the visit of the Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi to Qatar, contracts in the different political, economic, cultural, and sports fields were signed by the Iranian and Qatari ministers in the presence of the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and the Iranian president Ebrahim Raeisi.

The 14 signed cooperation documents are in the fields of aviation, trade, shipping, radio and television, visa cancellation, electricity, standards, culture, and education.

Iran is one of the few countries in the world that has more than a dozen maritime and land neighbors. Iran has a total of 15 neighbors of which seven share land borders while the remaining shares maritime borders with Iran.

So far, the foreign policy record of Raeisi and Amir Abdollahian has been a success. The first achievement in this regard was Irans permanent membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (ECO) which was achieved during the first foreign visit by Raeisi to Tajikistan.

The president himself described the membership as a diplomatic success in line with his neighborhood policy.

Earlier in March of that year, the president had said that ECO constitutes a priority in the paradigm governing Irans regional and neighborhood policies.

Raeisi similarly assessed his trip to Qatar. He said the visit was in line with the neighborhood policy.

He said that his administration has put a lot of energy and effort into developing Irans relations with its neighbors. According to Raeisi, shoring up ties with neighbors is at the center of his plan to develop foreign relations.

In the months since the beginning of the Popular Administration, relations with neighbors have tripled with some countries, indicating that little attention was paid to these capacities in the past, the president said, taking a jab at derelictions that occurred during the previous administrations.

Iranian President Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi said that setting up the Iranian trade and business center in Qatar will cause the introduction of high capability and capacity of the country to Qatari entrepreneurs and traders.

President Raeisi made the remarks in his meeting with Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani, Prime Minister of Qatar in Doha, and emphasized that today, the Islamic Republic of Iran has gained salient achievements in various fields in international arenas.

During the meeting, President Raeisi described relations between the two countries of Iran and Qatar as very deep, friendly and amicable.

He went on to say that there are good political, economic, cultural, and social ties between the two nations but this level of relations is not commensurate with the existing capacities of the two countries.

Qatari prime minister, for his turn, termed the visit of the President of Iran to Qatar historic and significant and added that the two countries enjoy high capabilities and potential to expand their relations in all fields.

Iran and Qatar signed a bilateral operational agreement to link Doha aviation information with Iran's aviation information territory.

An agreement was also signed to increase the number of flights between Qatar and Iran, in the presence of the Qatari Minister of transport & communications, Jassim bin Saif Al-Sulaiti and the Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development Rostam Ghasemi.

Ghasemi revealed his talk with his Qatari counterpart to set up regular shipping lines between the two countries' ports.

In addition, the two sides agreed to make more use of Qatari commercial airlines over the Iranian sky, he noted.

During the meeting of the Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development with his Qatari counterpart and with the presence of the Qatari Emir, four agreements in the fields of transit, shipping, and air transport were signed.

Rostam Ghasemi discussed establishing regular shipping lines and transit transportation, as well as increasing flights between Iran and Qatar with his Qatari counterpart.

Four agreements were also signed between Iran and Qatar with the presence of the Qatari President Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and the Emir of Qatar.

Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and his Qatari counterpart Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani held a meeting in Doha.

In this meeting, the two top diplomats discussed the latest developments in the relations between the two countries in various political, and economic fields as well as the issues related to Iranians living in Qatar.

The Iranian minister thanked Qatar for their hospitality and the good hosting of the 6th GECF Summit and described the visit of President Raieis to Doha and the meeting with the Emir of Qatar as an accelerator to bilateral relations.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, for his part, attached great importance to the meeting between Raeisi and the Emir of Qatar and stressed the need to implement the decisions of high-ranking officials of the two countries.

The Foreign Ministers of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Qatar also discussed important issues and developments related to the Vienna talks, as well as regional issues, including Afghanistan and Yemen.

Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar paid a one-day visit to Tehran at the invitation of Iranian President Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi.

The Qatari Emir and a high-ranking political-economic delegation who accompanied him on his trip were officially welcomed by Iranian First Vice President Mohmmad Mokhber upon their arrival at Mehrabad International Airport.

In a meeting with the Emir of Qatar, Mokhber referred to the level of relations between Tehran and Doha, and appreciated Qatar's position on regional and international issues, especially towards the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Referring to the meetings of senior officials of the two countries and the agreements reached for joint cooperation in holding the World Cup Qatar 2022, Mokhber announced the readiness of the Islamic Republic of Iran to cooperate with Qatar in holding these competitions.

The relations between Iran and Qatar are strong and stable and based on a sense of neighborliness, Qatari Emir said, calling for the expansion of relations between Tehran and Doha.

Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani made the remarks in a joint press conference with Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi.

"Today, we discussed various issues, and during the talks, we emphasized that resolving disputes in the region is possible only through dialogue," he said referring to his meeting with the Iranian President.

To make a long story short, when Raeisi took over as president in August 2021, Irans relations with most neighbors were either politically tense or economically stagnant. And that had to change. The new president and his foreign policy team assumed power with a clear foreign policy vision in mind: Neighborhood Policy. Now, every single Iranian acknowledges that the Neighborhood Policy has paid off. Today, between Iran and Qatar. The story of the Policy will be continued!

Compiled and translated by Amin Mohammadzadegan Khoyi

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High level of cooperation with Qatar in Iran's 13th govt. - Mehr News Agency - English Version

Esmaili made the remarks in a joint press conference with the Iraqi Minister of Culture, Tourism and Antiquities Hassan Nazim on Sunday night in Tehran.

"In the talks with the Iraqi delegation, we tried to increase the level of interaction in various fields of culture and art," the Iranian minister stressed, adding that currently,there is a good level of mutual understanding between the two sides.

He also expressed hope that the visit of the Iraqi minister of culture will lead to boosting cultural interactions between Tehran and Baghdad.

The Iraqi minister of culture, for his part, assessed Iran-Iraq cultural ties as favorable.

He expressed his country's willingness on expanding relations and cooperation with the Iranian side, adding thatBaghdad will host the Iranian cinema film week.

Nazim said that Iran and Iraq have discussed having a more prominent presence in the joint book fairs of the two countries and that Baghdad is readyfor any cooperation in this field.

Elsewhere in his remarks, the Iraqi minister stated that the Iraqi government is determined to provide more facilities to the Iranian pilgrims during the Arbaeen march.

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Iran, Iraq to expand cultural ties, cooperation - Mehr News Agency - English Version

But for journalists, not every story is as black and white as a mob storming the United States Capitol to try to overturn a free election. Often, there are areas of gray.

Gerrymandering is a classic example. Its not always easy to identify heroes and villains when writing about the redrawing of district boundaries. Republicans have had more success with redistricting lately, and theyve often run afoul of voting rights laws, but both parties manipulate political maps for their own ends. In New York, for instance, Democratic legislators sought to maximize their number of House seats, only to run into a court order throwing out their maps.

So is gerrymandering a fundamental threat to democracy, as some would argue? Is it a tool politicians use to protect their jobs or gain an edge over rivals? Something in between? The details matter.

Journalists run into difficult questions like these every day:

How to calibrate a headline on a big story like the assault of Jan. 6, 2021.

How to correct misinformation when repeating it could amplify lies.

How seriously to take fringe groups that might seem inconsequential now, but could prove dangerous in the future.

Whether and how to quote politicians who make outlandish comments for the very purpose of generating a backlash.

How to cover campaigns that exclude reporters from their events or refuse to respond to basic questions.

Theres no handbook for any of this, but a group of activists and academics is trying to help.

A new 28-page report by Protect Democracy, a nonpartisan, nonprofit group, proposes guidelines for news outlets to help them distinguish between normal political jockeying and truly dangerous conduct. Its primary author was Jennifer Dresden, a former scholar at Georgetown University who has studied democracy around the world.

In an interview, Dresden said she was driven by the conviction, backed by decades of research, that authoritarianism doesnt happen overnight. Like a stalagmite, it develops from the slow drip of infringements on freedoms and breaches of longstanding democratic rules and traditions. That process is now well underway in the United States, she worries.

The idea motivating the report, Dresden said, was to develop rules for thinking about how to evaluate whether something is a systemic risk to democracy and expose it as such or just one loose cannon doing things that are problematic.

Protect Democracy assembled a panel of academic luminaries for the project, including Sheri Berman, Larry Diamond, Timothy Snyder, Kim Lane Scheppele, Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt. The group also consulted editors at various news outlets, including The New York Times, to help gain insights into how newsrooms are approaching this task.

The panel reached a consensus on seven basic tactics authoritarian leaders and movements use to pursue and maintain power, which are listed verbatim below:

They attempt to politicize independent institutions.

They spread disinformation.

They aggrandize executive power at the expense of checks and balances.

They quash criticism and dissent.

They specifically target vulnerable or marginalized communities.

They work to corrupt elections.

They stoke violence.

Each bullet point comes with its own section, along with suggestions for journalists meant to influence their coverage. But the advice is all guided by the overarching question that animated the report: Whats politics as usual, and whats not?

Dresden says there ought to be clearer standards than the Potter Stewart test referring to the former Supreme Court justice, who famously said in a 1964 case that his method for identifying obscenity was I know it when I see it. Theres some wisdom in that trust-your-gut approach, but democracy is a lot more complicated than a pornographic film.

So the report contains advice like explain and contextualize the reasons why institutions were designed as independent and rely on experts familiar with each particular institutions history.

The Trump era prompted many mainstream news organizations to do exactly that. At one point, Slate, a left-leaning website that pioneered many aspects of early web journalism, ran a semiregular feature called Is This Normal? that aimed to answer readers questions about moves like Donald Trumps firing of James Comey, the F.B.I. director whose role in the Russia investigation agitated the former president. (Spoiler alert: That was not normal.)

But all of us in the journalism business, admittedly, are still figuring out how best to cover what the weight of evidence suggests is an authoritarian moment with few parallels in our lifetimes.

In one measure of the challenge, researchers with the Center for Media Engagement at the University of Texas at Austin studied the views of 56 people who believed Trump won the 2020 election. The results are sobering: Participants trusted unedited video content, personal experience, and their own research and judgment more than social media and news organizations, they found.

The Trump era has prompted The Times and other news outlets to take steps to better organize and invest in coverage of democracy and efforts to undermine it.

Its first editor is Griff Witte, a longtime foreign correspondent who said in an interview that his years abroad gave him fresh eyes in approaching the job.

From perches in London and Berlin, he covered the far rights reaction to an influx of migrants from Africa and the Middle East, and witnessed up close how Viktor Orban, the prime minister of Hungary, managed to use the mechanisms of democracy against democracy to entrench his power.

We have Jan. 6, which is highly visual and very dramatic, Witte said, but you also have a lot that is going on in a subterranean way that no one sees.

The Timess new executive editor, Joe Kahn, has been clear about his view of the papers responsibility to the public: that Times journalists cannot be impartial about whether the United States slides into autocracy. As he told David Folkenflik of NPR in a recent interview, You cant be committed to independent journalism and be agnostic about the state of democracy.

The Times approaches this mandate broadly, reflecting the papers size and the sprawling, global nature of the topic.

Coverage of democracy is woven across multiple parts of the newsroom, including the politics desk, which covers campaigns and elections; the enterprise and investigative teams, which dig deep into stories that require more than the usual elbow grease; national correspondents across the United States, who cover everything from hurricanes to school shootings to big societal trends; international correspondents, based in many instances in countries that dont have a free press; and the Washington bureau, which covers the White House, Congress and federal agencies.

We need your input, too.

The Times has asked readers to tell us their concerns about the state and future of American democracy, and On Politics will regularly round up stories on this topic from colleagues across the newsroom. Expect to see new guest authors contributing to the newsletter in the weeks to come. And please drop us a line with your thoughts.

In case you missed it, Peter Baker wrote about the House panels laserlike focus on Trumps culpability for the Jan. 6 riot. In the entire 246-year history of the United States, Baker writes, there was surely never a more damning indictment presented against an American president than outlined on Thursday night in a cavernous congressional hearing room where the future of democracy felt on the line.

States are spending millions to combat a deluge of unfounded rumors and lies around this years midterm elections, Cecilia Kang reports.

Matt Apuzzo and Benjamin Novak examine how Viktor Orban, the prime minister of Hungary, has not hesitated to use the levers of government power to erode democratic norms and cement one-party rule during a decade in power. Orban, as Elisabeth Zerofsky wrote for The New York Times magazine last year, has become a source of inspiration for some on the American right.

Danny Hakim and Alexandra Berzon take apart 2000 Mules, a new movie about the 2020 election that makes a host of misleading and outright false claims.

In The Washington Post, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein reflect on how, after covering Richard Nixons downfall, we believed with great conviction that never again would America have a president who would trample the national interest and undermine democracy through the audacious pursuit of personal and political self-interest. But then, they write, along came Trump.

viewfinder

On Politics regularly features work by Times photographers. Heres what Shuran Huang told us about capturing the image above:

It was a hot day at Union Square near Capitol Hill. Gun violence survivors and families of victims were waiting to hear from members of Congress at a gun control rally. Many wore red shirts bearing the words Moms Demand Action.

People were wiping sweat off their foreheads. Speaker Nancy Pelosi finally showed up. As she spoke, I noticed a woman in the crowd raising her hands and clapping to every line Pelosi said.

The speaker promised that Congress would pursue action on guns. Why would someone be against raising the age so that teenagers do not have AK-47s? she asked. Why would someone not want protection in their home so that children cannot have access dangerously to guns?

As Pelosi spoke, the womans hands appeared to hold both the speaker and the Capitol building in the center of the frame.

Thanks for reading. Well see you on Monday.

Blake

Is there anything you think were missing? Anything you want to see more of? Wed love to hear from you. Email us at onpolitics@nytimes.com.

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How Journalists Wrestle With Covering Threats to Democracy - The New York Times

During the 1930s, a beast called fascism stirred to life and began overwhelming societies across the world. Within 10 years, it was clear this had been one of historys worst ideas. But the unappealing reality is that during the fascist moment, many, many people thrilled to its appeal and not just in the places that would become the Axis powers in World War II.

Yetthe United States didnt go fascist. Why? In 1941, the journalist Dorothy Thompson wrote an unsettling article for Harpers Magazine which asked the question, Who Goes Nazi? Based on her time spent in Europe she was the first U.S. reporter expelled from Nazi Germany Thompson explained, Nazism has nothing to do with race and nationality. It appeals to a certain type ofmind. Moreover, Thompson wrote, huge swaths of Americans possessed this type of mind.

Looked at from a distance of nearly a century, the reason the U.S. evaded fascism seems clear. It wasnt that were nicer or better than other countries, thanks to our inherent sterling character. We just got lucky. The prolate spheroid-shaped football of history bounced the right way for the country. And a huge part of that luck was Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal.

We forgot the New Deal was not a mountain range created by nature but an extraordinary achievement that was erected by humans and could therefore eitherbe extended or destroyed.

Roosevelt was exactly the right president at the right time. The New Deal demonstrated that democracy could deliver unmistakable benefits, both material and emotional, to desperate people, and thereby drained away much of the psychological poison that powers fascism.

Then, over the next 30 years, something terrible happened: America forgot all this. We forgot how lucky we got. We forgot the New Deal was not a mountain range created by nature but an extraordinary achievement that was erected by humans and could therefore eitherbe extended or destroyed.

Robert Kuttner illustrates this eloquently in his new book Going Big: FDRs Legacy, Bidens New Deal, and the Struggle to Save Democracy. Kuttner, born in 1943, writes, I am a child of the New Deal. My parents bought their first home with a government-insured mortgage. When my father was stricken with cancer, the VA paid for excellent medical care. After he died, my mother was able to keep our house thanks to my dads veterans benefits and her widows pension from Social Security.

The problem, he says, is, My generation grew up thinking of the system wrought by the Roosevelt revolution as normal. But this seemingly permanent social contract was exceptional. Above all, it was fragile, built on circumstances and luck as much as enduring structural change.

Kuttner has been fighting for the New Deal, and against its ferocious enemies, for his entire life. He started as one of journalist I.F. Stones assistants, served as a congressional investigator, was general manager of Pacificas WBAI Radio in New York City, and has been a regular newspaper columnist. Perhaps most significantly, hes co-founded two enduring institutions: the Economic Policy Institute, a progressive think tank, and The American Prospect, one of the zestiest liberal publications in the U.S.

During much of this time, Kuttner has been trying to persuade the Democratic Party to care about its heritage and stop collaborating with the U.S. right in undermining the New Deal extended universe. But in Going Big, Kuttner makes a scary case that the stakes are now much larger than this. The books first words are Joe Bidens presidency will be either a historic pivot back to New Deal economics and forward to energized democracy, or heartbreaking interregnum between two bouts of deepening American fascism. The final chapter is titled Americas Last Chance.

Going Big is largely the story of how we got to this moment, starting with Roosevelt and ending inJanuary of this year, when it went to press. Its filled with peculiar and little-known history, such as the fact that at the 1932 Democratic Party convention, candidates required two-thirds of the delegate vote to secure the nomination. This rule was championed by the conservative white Democratic powerbrokers of the South whose ideological descendants are now Republicans to give them a veto over who would lead the party. Kuttner quotes a New Deal historian as saying, Roosevelt came within an eyelash of being denied the nomination thanks to this; he only squeaked through by allying with the extremely unpalatable Southerners.

Kuttner highlights examples of the 200-proof racism then at the commanding heights of the Democratic Party. At the 1936 convention, the invocation was delivered by Marshall Shepard, an African American pastor from Philadelphia. Cotton Ed Smith, a senator from South Carolina, called Shepard a slew-footed, blue-gummed, kinky-headed Senegambian, and that was the nicer part. Smith walked off the floor in outrage.

Kuttner identifies this type of racial insanity as one of two potent undertows that would hobble the New Deal and make it vulnerable to attacks in the future. But while racism remains pervasive, writes Kuttner, the U.S. is not the same place as it was in the 1930s. Nevertheless, the Democratic failure to deliver economic gains for ordinary people has allowed white racism once again to fill the political vacuum. This is thanks to the second factor undermining New Deal politics: the residual power of capitalists in a capitalist economy.

The books more recent history features the enjoyable intellectual dismantlement of some of the personifications of this power particularly two of Bill Clintons treasury secretaries, Robert Rubin and Larry Summers. The 2008 economic collapse can to a significant degree be laid at their feet. Kuttner takes deserved satisfaction in pointing out that they or their followers were regnant in the Obama administration but have largely been marginalized by Biden. Summers in particular was reduced to griping from the sidelines as the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Act Plan far larger than anything dreamed of by Obama was passed in March 2021.

And thats great. But that brings the book to the obvious, core problem of U.S. politics right now. Biden could try to makethe 2022 midterms and the 2024 election a referendum on his Build Back Better agenda, or the PRO Act (which would make union organizing much easer), or abortion rights, or expanding Social Security, or a crackdown on corporate villainy, or any and all of the many popular positions that Democrats theoretically hold.

Biden and the Democrats now seem intent on going small so smol and petite and inoffensive that no one notices or gets mad at them.

Roosevelt would have relished the fight and going big. But Biden and the Democrats now seem intent on going small so smol and petite and inoffensive that no one notices or gets mad at them. One especially dispiriting example of this that Kuttner does not address in the book, but has elsewhere, is inflation. The Biden administration could have gone on the offensive and made the case that inflation is being driven by supply chain issues, corporate price-gouging,and Saudi Arabias crown prince as opposed to rising wages and government spending but insteadhas largely settled into a silent defensive crouch. Now Jerome Powell, the chair of the Federal Reserve reappointed by Biden, is saying that the Feds policy is to get wages down, something Americans will enjoy even less than inflation.

The novel Love in the Ruins by Walker Percy was published in 1971, just as the energy of the New Deal was quietly dissipating. It begins:

Now in these dread latter days of the old violent beloved U.S.A. and of the Christ-forgetting Christ-haunted death-dealing Western world I came to myself in a grove of young pines and the question came to me: has it happened at last?

Is it that God has at last removed his blessing from the U.S.A. and what we feel now is just the clank of the old historical machinery, the sudden jerking ahead of the roller-coaster cars as the chain catches hold and carries us back into history with its ordinary catastrophes, carries us out and up toward the brink from that felicitous and privileged siding where even unbelievers admitted that if it was not God who blessed the U.S.A., then at least some great good luck had befallen us, and that now the blessing or the luck is over, the machinery clanks, the chain catches hold, and the cars jerk forward?

Were about to find out whether that luck in fact is over. But part of that charmed existence has always been people like Kuttner. Were fortunate to have him, and now its up to everyone else to take his warning seriously, and try to make our own luck.

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History Says Democracy Will Die if Democrats Don't Try Going Big - The Intercept