QOTD -- The Summit For Democracy

 

"Unfortunately for him and the rest of us, the world Biden longs for has collapsed — which is one reason the Summit for Democracy is necessary. Trumpism is a species of right-wing authoritarianism that haunts nearly all of the traditional democracies, with autocrats in Russia and China pointing to distemper in democratic nations as a sign of their decay.

"The United States is, to put matters charitably, in a very poor position to paint itself as a democratic model. The rest of the world has taken note of Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, the violence of Jan. 6 aimed at preventing a peaceful transition of power, Republican reticence to confront the anti-democratic cancer in their party, and the ongoing efforts to roll back voting rights in many states.

"This means there is no apolitical, nonpartisan approach to advancing democracy and defending it from the threats it now confronts. It means that Biden must fully engage in the Senate battle for voting rights and uncorrupted election administration, including bypassing the filibuster if necessary.

"Yes, there is certainly room for cooperation between the democratic left and the democratic right. In fact, the efforts of conservative friends of democracy — abroad as well as in the United States — are more important now than ever. For if the most prominent threat to democracy during the Cold War came from communism, the central danger now, as in the 1930s, arises from a far-right preaching nationalism, intolerance and strongman rule."-- E.J. Dionne, Jr., in the Washington Post, discussing the Summit for Democracy, which starts today.  We await whether the results of the summit will be akin to what Greta Thunberg said of the Cop26 climate summit: "Blah, blah, blah."

BONUS:  Here's one more example of how American democracy is under attack by anti-democratic Republicans.