Concern for US democracy amid deep national polarization has prompted the entities supporting 13 presidential libraries dating back to Herbert Hoover to call for a recommitment to principles including the rule of law and respecting diverse beliefs.
In a statement, the first such public declaration, the libraries said Americans have a strong interest in supporting democratic movements and human rights around the world because “free societies elsewhere contribute to our own security and prosperity here at home”.
“But that interest is undermined when others see our own house in disarray.”
The message emphasized the need for compassion, tolerance and pluralism while urging Americans to respect democratic institutions and uphold secure and accessible elections. Noting that “debate and disagreement” are central to democracy, the libraries also alluded to the coarsening of dialogue in an era when officials and their families are receiving death threats.
“Civility and respect in political discourse, whether in an election year or otherwise, are essential,” the statement said.
Polls show many Republicans still believe the lie perpetuated by Donald Trump that the 2020 election was stolen. Trump has also lashed out at the justice system as he faces indictments in four criminal cases, including two related to his efforts to overturn his loss to Joe Biden.
The libraries’ statement did not name individuals.
“I think there’s great concern about the state of our democracy at this time,” said Mark Updegrove, president and chief executive of the LBJ Foundation, which supports the Lyndon B Johnson library in Austin, Texas.
“We don’t have to go much farther than January 6” – when Trump supporters attacked Congress – “to realize that we are in a perilous state.”
Efforts to suppress or weaken voter turnout were of special interest, Updegrove said, given Johnson considered the Voting Rights Act his “proudest legislative accomplishment”.
The bipartisan statement was signed by the Hoover Presidential Foundation, the Roosevelt Institute, the Truman Library Institute, the John F Kennedy Library Foundation, the LBJ Foundation, the Richard Nixon Foundation, the Gerald R Ford Presidential Foundation, the Carter Center, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, the George & Barbara Bush Foundation, the Clinton Foundation, the George W Bush Presidential Center and the Obama Presidential Center.
Those organizations all support libraries created under the Presidential Library Act of 1955, along with the Eisenhower Foundation. That group said it “respectfully declined to sign this statement … we have had no collective discussion about it, only an invitation to sign”. The foundation also said each presidential entity had its own programs related to democracy.
The push for the statement was spearheaded by David Kramer, executive director of the George W Bush Institute. Kramer said the former president “did see and signed off on this statement”.
He said the aim was to send “a positive message reminding us of who we are and also reminding us that when we are in disarray, when we’re at loggerheads, people overseas are also looking at us and wondering what’s going on”. He also said it was necessary to remind Americans that democracy cannot be taken for granted.
Kramer said he hoped the statement would generate wide support, but added: “It’s hard to say whether it will or not in these polarized times.”
Melissa Giller, chief marketing officer at the Ronald Reagan Foundation and Institute, said the statement represented “everything our center will stand for”.
“We need to help put an end to the serious discord and division in our society,” Giller said. “America is experiencing a decline in trust, social cohesion and personal interaction.”
Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to Barack Obama now the chief executive of the Obama Foundation, said the former president supported the statement.
Saying Obama has led a democracy forum and is planning another this year in Chicago, Jarrett added: “I think part of it is recognizing that we are very fragile … the wheels on our democracy bus feel a little wobbly right now.”
Source: US Politics - theguardian.com
