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OpinionDonald TrumpIt’s been easy to forget about Trump, but rightwing America has yet to shake him offEmma BrockesThe former president’s conspiracy theories have found a sympathetic audience on the internet Fri 24 Sep 2021 10.21 EDTLast modified on Fri 24 Sep 2021 16.00 EDTNo one showed up, relatively speaking, to the rally in Washington DC last weekend, an event organised in support of the 6 January “martyrs”. Riot fences went up; the national guard was on standby. The gathering, styled “Justice for J6” by organisers, was intended, they said, to draw attention to the plight of those who, after storming the Capitol building earlier this year, had been arrested but “not been charged with violence, not been accused of assaulting a police officer or destroying property”. The idea of “peacefully” tailgating on a violent insurrection is a conceptual stretch, but in any case, only about 200 demonstrators turned up. They were easily outnumbered by journalists and police.These numbers might have been more reassuring had they not been accompanied online by support from the man widely blamed for inciting them. In a statement on his website, Donald Trump – who is still banned from Twitter – referred to the 6 January rioters as “being persecuted so unfairly” for protesting at “the Rigged Presidential Election”. (The page has since been removed.) It was one of a flurry of statements made last week by the former president, now entirely unrestrained by the dignities of office, and in frank support of the people who stormed the US Capitol. “The Big Lie is the Presidential Election 2020,” he went on, before pivoting to blame the “Fake News Media” for destroying “our Country, both inside and out”.There was a time – millennia ago in political years – when Trump’s wacky syntax and random capitalisation might have been cause for, if not for amusement, exactly, then at least some degree of dismissal. Since the inauguration of President Biden in January, it has been relatively easy to convince oneself that his predecessor has gone away. Sealed up in Mar-a-Lago with various family members, Trump has remained largely absent from public life, surfacing on the 20th anniversary of September 11 this month to commentate on a novelty pay-per-view boxing match with Don Jr in Florida, but otherwise, for those not seeking him out, gone.The discovery that he has not in fact gone, but is still lurking on the internet disseminating conspiracy theories about the election, brings on the sick feeling you get two-thirds of the way into a horror movie, when a sense of calm is introduced prior to the biggest jump scare. Unlike the first time around, there is no possibility of laughing Trump off or assuming his idiocies won’t find a sympathetic audience. At the rally last week, two Republican congressional candidates addressed the group. A recent CNN poll found that 78% of Republicans didn’t believe that Biden legitimately won the presidency. Rightwing America, and therefore America as a whole, has yet to shake this guy off.And so a conversation is starting to take shape, in which the possibility – strengthening daily towards probability – that Trump will stand in the 2024 presidential election is being discussed with real alarm. Yet again, with Trump, there is a sense of surprise about the man that somehow persisted for the duration of his four years in office. In spite of all evidence to the contrary, I think I assumed when Trump lost that he might in large part be relieved to be out of a job he was so unqualified to do. But that assumes the workings of a more or less regular psychology, on the basis of which he would never have become president in the first place.Instead, he is creeping back into the spotlight unchastened. On Tuesday, Trump filed a lawsuit against the New York Times and Mary Trump, his niece, for leaking details of his tax returns. (His niece, knowing better than anyone how to hurt him, perhaps, released a statement in which she said “I think he is a loser, and he is going to throw anything against the wall he can. It’s desperation. As is always the case with Donald, he’ll try and change the subject.”) Meanwhile, a court date has been set in late August or early September 2022 for a hearing in the tax fraud trial of Allen Weisselberg, chief financial officer of Trump’s family business.These stains and public disputes would be enough to finish any other politician, but it has never been so with Trump. I have heard, this week, gloomy assessments from those on the left that the combination of Biden’s handling of troop withdrawals in Afghanistan, the lingering disaster of the pandemic, and even Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wearing that dress to the Met Ball – “liberal hypocrisy” – will usher in a return of the man so many of us hoped never to hear from again. It doesn’t matter how credible the charge, or whether Trump caused the very problem he seeks to pin on opponents. He has a successful playbook, and given, among other things, his extremely poor impulse control, it seems highly possible he’ll use it again.
Emma Brockes is a Guardian columnist
TopicsDonald TrumpOpinionUS politicscommentReuse this content More
Key events
Show
5.38pm EDT
17:38
Federal Reserve hints it will end pandemic stimulus programs
5.00pm EDT
17:00
Today so far
4.29pm EDT
16:29
Biden to consider ‘potential further executive actions’ after police reform talks fail
1.53pm EDT
13:53
Police reform negotiations come to a formal close, Bass says
12.54pm EDT
12:54
France to send ambassador back to US after Macron-Biden call
12.03pm EDT
12:03
Today so far
11.00am EDT
11:00
Biden to announce US will donate another 500m vaccine doses to other countries
Live feed
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5.44pm EDT
17:44
Dominic Rushe
The latest Fed statement also showed that more members of the Fed committee now believe that interest rates should rise in the near future. Nine of the 18 officials expect to raise interest rates by the end of 2022, up from seven officials in June when a majority said they thought rates would rise in 2023.
US stock markets reacted favorably to the news, which suggests the economy is still recovering from the pandemic, albeit with uncertainties remaining. Investors have been spooked in recent days by news that troubled Chinese property developer Evergrande could default on its $300bn debts. The company’s woes could drag in investors worldwide, but on Tuesday the company said it would be able to meet some of its obligations.
Powell said the situation “seems particular to China which has very high debt for an emerging market economy.
“In terms of the implications for us, there is not a lot of direct United States exposure,” he said.
5.38pm EDT
17:38
Federal Reserve hints it will end pandemic stimulus programs
Dominic Rushe
The Federal Reserve signaled on Wednesday that it may start cutting its enormous pandemic stimulus programs as soon as November and could raise interest rates next year.
The US central bank left interest rates unchanged at near zero after its latest meeting. Rates were cut in March 2020 as the US economy reeled from the impact of the pandemic. But the Fed also indicated it may soon start pulling back on the $120bn in monthly asset purchases program that it started when the coronavirus hit the US.
“If progress continues broadly as expected, the Committee judges that a moderation in the pace of asset purchases may soon be warranted,” the Fed’s post-meeting statement said.
At a press conference Fed chair Jerome Powell said the jobs market was “very strong” and that while the central bank was trimming its forecasts for economic growth it still foresees “rapid growth” in the economy.
Powell said the pandemic was still having an impact and that bottlenecks and shortages were driving price inflation but he expected that situation to ease as long as the coronavirus pandemic is contained. “The path of the economy still continues to depend on the course of the virus,” he said.
Read more:
5.17pm EDT
17:17
Florida’s surgeon general Joseph Ladapo has issued a new emergency rule that parents can decide whether or not their children should quarantine after being exposed to someone who tested positive for Covid-19.
Governor Ron DeSantis announced that Lapado, who has been skeptical of research-backed public health measures like mask-wearing, lockdowns and vaccines to curb the spread of coronavirus, would be the state’s new surgeon general on Tuesday. The Republican governor has tried to ban schools from enforcing mask mandates.
The new rule states that parents rather than school administrations, must be the ones to decide asymptomatic kids who have been exposed to the virus should quarantine.
It was “important to respect the rights of parents”, Ladapo said.
The new emergency rule will replace a previous rule requiring students to quarantine for four days after being exposed.
Updated
at 5.33pm EDT
5.00pm EDT
17:00
Today so far
That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
Joe Biden announced the US will donate another 500 million Pfizer coronavirus vaccine doses to other countries. The announcement means the Biden administration has now committed to sending more than 1.1 billion vaccine doses abroad. “Put another way, for every one shot we’ve administered to date in America, we have now committed to do three shots to the rest of the world,” Biden said at a virtual Covid summit today.
Emmanuel Macron is sending the French ambassador to the US back to Washington, after he and Biden had a conversation today about France’s outrage over the Aukus defense deal. The French president also plans to meet with Biden in Europe next month.
Bipartisan talks over a police reform bill have officially collapsed, after months of back-and-back between the negotiators. Democratic congresswoman Karen Bass blamed the failure on Republicans involved in the negotiations, saying in a statement, “Every time, more was demanded to the point that there would be no progress made in the bill that we were left discussing.” Biden said he would consider “potential further executive actions” to address police reform after the talks collapsed.
House Democrats passed their spending bill to keep the government funded and suspend the debt ceiling until December. However, the legislation faces bleak prospects in the evenly divided Senate, where Republican leader Mitch McConnell has pledged to oppose any effort to raise the debt ceiling.
The select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection is considering issuing a number of subpoenas to former Trump administration officials. Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino and former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale are among those who are likely to get subpoenaed by the committee.
Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
4.44pm EDT
16:44
House speaker Nancy Pelosi said the chamber is “on schedule” to hold a vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill on Monday.
Asked whether the House will also be ready to vote on the reconciliation package by Monday, as progressive lawmakers have demanded, Pelosi did not give a concrete answer.
Zak Hudak
(@cbszak)
“We’re on schedule, let’s put it that way,” Speaker Pelosi says of the bipartisan infrastructure deal slated to reach the floor next wk. She wouldn’t say when the reconciliation package would be considered but said, “We’re calm and everybody’s good.” pic.twitter.com/H6hZa8sigz
September 22, 2021
“We’re calm, and everybody’s good, and our work’s almost done,” Pelosi told reporters on Capitol Hill.
The Democratic speaker met with Joe Biden at the White House this afternoon, as progressives threaten to block the infrastructure bill over their concerns about the reconciliation package.
4.29pm EDT
16:29
Biden to consider ‘potential further executive actions’ after police reform talks fail
Joe Biden said he will consider “potential further executive actions” to address police reform after the bipartisan team of congressional negotiators failed to reach a deal on a bill.
“The murder of George Floyd is a stain on the soul of America,” the president said in a new statement addressing the collapse of the negotiations. “It spurred the nation to collectively demand justice, and we will be remembered for how we responded to the call.”
Biden said he was “deeply grateful” to congresswoman Karen Bass and Senator Cory Booker for working to reach an agreement over the past several months.
“Regrettably, Senate Republicans rejected enacting modest reforms, which even the previous president had supported, while refusing to take action on key issues that many in law enforcement were willing to address,” Biden said.
The president noted he still hoped to sign police reform legislation, but he said he would soon explore additional steps to determine what executive action he may be able to take on the issue.
“In the coming weeks, we will continue to work with Senator Booker, Congresswoman Bass, and other members of Congress who are serious about meaningful police reform,” Biden said.
“The White House will continue to consult with the civil rights and law enforcement and civil rights communities, as well as victims’ families to define a path forward, including through potential further executive actions I can take to advance our efforts to live up to the American ideal of equal justice under law.”
4.11pm EDT
16:11
The White House shared a photo from Joe Biden’s phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron earlier today.
“Today I spoke with President Emmanuel Macron of France, and reaffirmed the importance of French and European engagement in the Indo-Pacific region,” Biden said in a tweet that included the photo.
“I look forward to a process of in-depth consultations and to meeting with him in October.”
President Biden
(@POTUS)
Today I spoke with President Emmanuel Macron of France, and reaffirmed the importance of French and European engagement in the Indo-Pacific region. I look forward to a process of in-depth consultations and to meeting with him in October. pic.twitter.com/MouVMCBgDR
September 22, 2021
Asked about the two leaders’ conversation during the White House press briefing, Jen Psaki said the call was “friendly” and lasted around 30 minutes.
“It was one where we’re hopeful and the president is hopeful this is a step in returning to normal,” Psaki said of the phone call.
Psaki did not explicitly say whether Biden apologized to Macron for failing to give him advance notice about the Aukus defense deal, instead telling reporters, “He acknowledged that there could have been greater consultation.”
3.55pm EDT
15:55
Civil rights attorneys Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, who have represented the family of George Floyd, expressed “extreme disappointment” over the collapse of police reform talks in Congress.
“In the last year and a half, we have witnessed hundreds of thousands of Americans urging lawmakers to bring desperately needed change to policing in this country so there can be greater accountability, transparency, and ultimately trust in policing,” the lawyers said in a statement.
“We can not let this be a tragic, lost opportunity to regain trust between citizens and police.”
Crump and Romanucci urged Senate Democrats to bring the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which passed the House in March, to the floor “so Americans can see who is looking out for their communities’ best interests”.
3.39pm EDT
15:39
In his own statement on the collapse of the police reform negotiations, Democratic Senator Cory Booker said the talks failed because there was “too wide a gulf with our negotiating partners”.
“We made it clear from the beginning of our negotiations that a bill must ensure true accountability, transparency, and the policing standards necessary to bring an end to horrific incidents of violence Americans are routinely seeing — like the murder of George Floyd,” Booker said.
“After months of exhausting every possible pathway to a bipartisan deal, it remains out of reach right now, even after working collaboratively with and securing the support of policing groups like the Fraternal Order of Police and International Association of Chiefs of Police for our proposals.”
Echoing fellow Democratic negotiator Karen Bass, Booker said the time had come to “explore all other options to achieve meaningful and common sense policing reform”.
“I will not stop fighting until we achieve change that keeps our communities and police officers safe,” Booker concluded.
3.20pm EDT
15:20
Jen Psaki said Joe Biden was “disappointed” that the bipartisan negotiations over the police reform bill collapsed without a deal today.
“Unfortunately, Republicans rejected reforms that even the previous president had supported and refused to engage on key issues that many in law enforcement were willing to address,” Psaki said.
The press secretary noted Biden was “greatly appreciative” for congresswoman Karen Bass and senator Cory Booker’s efforts in the negotiations.
Psaki said Biden would be meeting with members of Congress, law enforcement groups and civil rights advocates in the weeks to come to discuss a path forward, “including potential executive actions” that he can take on police reform.
3.03pm EDT
15:03
Jen Psaki said the White House is “certainly” concerned about the possibility of the government shutting down next week if a funding bill is not approved.
“Until a [continuing resolution] has passed that funds the government, we’ll certainly have a concern,” the White House press secretary said. “But our goal and our focus is on preventing that from happening.”
Noting that the House has already passed a bill to fund the government and suspend the debt ceiling until December, the press secretary expressed hope of the situation being resolved soon.
However, the House-passed bill faces dim prospects in the evenly divided Senate, where Republican leader Mitch McConnell has vowed to block any effort to raise the debt ceiling.
2.48pm EDT
14:48
Jen Psaki was asked about Joe Biden’s meetings today with members of Congress to discuss the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the $3.5tn reconciliation package.
One reporter pressed Psaki on whether this marks a “make or break” moment for the two bills, which encompass much of the president’s economic agenda.
The press secretary declined to characterize the meetings in that way, instead saying, “This is an important moment. We are in a pivotal period in our negotiations and discussions.”
2.32pm EDT
14:32
One reporter asked Jen Psaki whether Joe Biden apologized to Emmanuel Macron for how the Aukus deal was announced.
“He acknowledged that there could have been greater consultation,” the White House press secretary said. “There was agreement that we wanted to move forward in our relationship.”
Asked if Biden held national security adviser Jake Sullivan responsible for the dust-up with France, Psaki replied, “He holds himself responsible.”
Updated
at 4.38pm EDT More
Analysis: Joe Biden has cleared the decks to focus on China. But how imminent is the danger?by More
US Congress‘It remains out of reach’: bipartisan talks on US police reform bill collapseNegotiators could not agree on a few crucial issues as talks dragged on for months Joan E Greve in Washington@ More
Biden administrationBiden’s UN speech will try to convince member states that ‘America is back’But president will contend with skepticism in wake of Aukus, disagreements over Israel and the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal Julian Borger in WashingtonMon 20 Sep 2021 16.25 EDTFirst published on Mon 20 Sep 2021 15.13 EDTJoe Biden will make his first speech to the United Nations as president on Tuesday, seeking to “close the chapter on 20 years of war” and begin an era of intensive diplomacy.Biden will however have to contend with hostility from China, an open rift with France and widespread scepticism among UN member states over his commitment to multilateralism following disagreements over Israel, a chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, and a nuclear submarine deal that took adversaries and allies by surprise.The White House sees the speech to the UN general assembly as a chance to reclaim the global initiative and convince UN member states that “America is back”, as Biden promised when he took office.It will be followed by a week of bilateral meetings, a US-hosted Covid summit on Wednesday aimed at drumming up more funding for global vaccine distribution, a meeting of leaders of the Pacific-oriented Quad group– India, Australia and Japan – on Wednesday, and a UN security council meeting on climate insecurity on Thursday.“It’s an important, consequential week for President Biden and his leadership on the world stage,” a senior administration official said.Tuesday’s speech, the official added, will “center on the proposition that we are closing the chapter on 20 years of war, and opening a chapter of intensive diplomacy, by rallying allies and partners and institutions to deal with the major challenges of our time.”However, Biden is arriving in New York just days after the disclosure of a new security agreement between Australia, the UK and US, which will involve helping Australia build a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines.The announcement of the Aukus deal has deepened tensions with China, which portrayed it as a hostile act, and with France, which had a contract to supply Australia with French vessels and which was blindsided by Aukus.In his speech, Biden will say he wants to avoid a new cold war with the world divided into blocks.“He believes in vigorous, intensive, principled competition that does not tip over into conflict,” a senior US official said.However, at the start of UN general assembly’s summit week, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, expressed concern that US-Chinese rivalry was stopping progress on urgent global issues.Guterres told CNN that the efforts of US climate envoy John Kerry to reach a compromise with China have “largely failed because the Chinese have said … we cannot have cooperation on climate or anything else”.“I believe that we need to avoid a new cold war, because the old cold war was more easy to manage. It was clear. Now things are more complex,” the secretary general said.Biden starts the week with the added burden of a serious fracture in western cohesion. France is still furious at being taken by surprise by the Aukus agreement and warning there will be further diplomatic fallout.On Monday, Biden was trying to set up a phone call with French president Emmanuel Macron, and US secretary of state, Tony Blinken, was seeking a meeting with his counterpart, Jean-Yves Le Drian, in New York, but the French were being elusive.The state department said the schedules of Blinken and Le Drian were “dynamic”. A French official said no bilateral meeting was planned.Richard Gowan, the UN director for the International Crisis Group, said that the Aukus row “will fit in with a narrative that has emerged around Biden that he talks a good multilateral game, but when it comes to the crunch on a lot of issues he is still a bit of an America First-er.”In May, the US blocked the UN security council from making a statement calling for an end to Israeli-Palestinian violence, while Israel was conducting a bombing campaign aimed at Hamas in Gaza, with heavy civilian casualties.Sherine Tadros, the head of the New York office of Amnesty International, said that Biden will benefit from the comparison with Donald Trump, who was openly hostile to the UN, and delivered bellicose speeches from the lectern.“The bar is low,” Tadros said. “There is no doubt there is reengagement … But when you look at Afghanistan, when you look at the Gaza war, the UN was circumvented by the Biden administration and treated as a Plan B.”In normal times, Biden would have found it easier to smooth over cracks by schmoozing with fellow leaders, but Covid-19 and New York City rules for preventing its spread have made that difficult.He is due to hold only one bilateral meeting in New York on Tuesday, with Australian prime minister Scott Morrison, before returning to Washington, where he will meet Britain’s Boris Johnson.TopicsBiden administrationJoe BidenUnited NationsAukusUS politicsnewsReuse this content More
Politics booksTrump may be gone, but Covid has not seen off populism It is liberal fantasy to imagine that poor handing of the pandemic has lessened the allure of Modi and Bolsonaro. They are learning fast how to subvert votingJan-Werner MüllerMon 20 Sep 2021 05.00 EDTWhen the pandemic struck, newspaper opinion pages were full of pieces predicting the end of authoritarian populism. Surely Donald Trump, Narendra Modi and Jair Bolsonaro couldn’t survive their mishandling of Covid-19? Finally, people were waking up to the reality of what these leaders represented.Trump may not have lasted, but the expectation that the pandemic might see off populism is mistaken. Liberal observers have long assumed that populists are by definition incompetent demagogues. But populism is not all about promising simplistic solutions in a complex world and, contrary to a complacent liberal narrative, populist leaders are not incapable of correcting failed policies. The threat of authoritarian populism is compounded by the fact that these leaders are learning from each other – though what they are copying are not more effective strategies to combat the pandemic, but techniques for disabling democracy.When despairing about the rise of populism, liberals have been eager to identify underlying causes. And indeed, there are striking similarities in the way far-right populist leaders govern in different parts of the globe: Bolsonaro, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Jarosław Kaczyński, Viktor Orbán, Modi, and, as a hopefully historical example, Trump. But similar outcomes do not prove similar causes. Rather, the reason for the emergence of what we might as well call a far-right populist art of governance is that leaders can copy each other’s best (or worst) practices. They are busy perfecting the art of faking democracy: ballot boxes are not stuffed on election day, but between them we see voting rules manipulated, media outlets taken over by business leaders friendly to the government, and civil society systematically intimidated and therefore election outcomes are rarely in doubt. Liberals, meanwhile, are drastically underestimating their adversaries.Populist leaders are not all nearly as incompetent and irresponsible as Trump and Bolsonaro’s handling of Covid would suggest. Their core characteristic is not that they criticise elites or are angry with the establishment. Rather, what distinguishes them is the claim that they, and only they, represent what they often refer to as the “real people” or also the “silent majority”.At first sight, this might not sound particularly nefarious. And yet this claim has two consequences deeply damaging for democracy: rather obviously, populists assert that all other contenders for office are fundamentally illegitimate. This is never just a matter of disputes about policy, or even about values. Rather, populists allege that their rivals are simply corrupt, or “crooked” characters. More insidiously, the suggestion that there exists a “real people” implies that there are some who are not quite real – figures who just pretend to belong, who might undermine the polity in some form, or who are at best second-rate citizens.Obvious examples are minorities and, in particular, recent immigrants, who are suspected of not being truly loyal to the polity. Think of Modi’s policy of creating a register of genuine citizens. Ostensibly, this is about identifying illegal immigrants; but especially in combination with new refugee policies that effectively discriminate against Muslims, its actual message is all too clear to Hindu nationalists. Or think of Trumpists who would never really engage in argument with critics, but simply denounce the latter as “un-American”.Populists reduce political issues to questions of belonging, and then attack those who are said not to belong. That is not a matter of mere rhetoric. Sooner or later, the appeal to the real people – and the exclusion of supposedly fake people – will have effects on streets and squares: Trump rallies have been associated with a local increase in assaults. The concept of “trickle-down aggression” – coined by the feminist philosopher Kate Manne – captures this dynamic.Populist leaders present themselves as the great champions of empowering the people, and yet always exclude particular people. The shameless attempts by US Republicans to suppress the vote (and subvert election outcomes) are playing on the sense that the “real America” is white and Christian – and that black and brown people should not really be participating in politics in the first place. Meanwhile, Bolsonaro is gearing up to repeat Trump-style claims about a stolen election, should he lose the vote next year; he will have learned that, beyond casting doubt on the legitimacy of those not casting a ballot for you, bringing at least parts of the military to your side might be decisive.In Hungary, Orbán has long provided a model from which others can learn how to stretch laws to the limit in order to create pliable courts and media organisations. They can also study subtle tactics of how to mislead the EU and the Council of Europe long enough to entrench partisan advantages.When Poland’s Law and Justice Party returned to power in 2015, it could reach for Orbán’s manual of how to build an autocracy under the eyes of the EU. Like the Hungarian leader, it learned the lesson that, during its first time in office, it had wasted political capital on culture wars, instead of capturing independent institutions. To keep oneself in power, one must control the judiciary, the election system and TV in particular – once that has happened, one can wage culture wars and incite hatred against minorities to one’s heart’s content.None of this is to say that the new authoritarian systems are invincible, but we need to better understand their innovative techniques. Some are so dangerous because they are getting technologically more sophisticated: Pegasus spyware, the use of private companies to spread misinformation, or the extensive use of social media by leaders such as Modi (the world’s most tech-savvy populist) are only the most obvious instances. Still more dangerous than digital autocracy, though, is the ability of authoritarians to disable democracy, while at the same time advancing democratic-sounding justifications for their actions.What is happening in the US and the UK is a prime example. The push by the Johnson government to make the presentation of voter ID mandatory can look reasonable on paper: nobody is against the prevention of voter fraud. Northern Ireland already has such measures in place, as do countries on the continent. But, as we should have appreciated by now, legal measures can be deployed to, in effect, shrink the demos, the political body, for partisan purposes: minorities, the unemployed and especially the poor – lacking drivers’ licences and passports for travel abroad – are most likely not to have the time and resources to secure the required forms of ID. We have also learned the hard way that the staffing of election commissions is not some bureaucratic trifle (as Tom Stoppard observed long ago, “It’s not the voting that’s democracy, it’s the counting”), but can make the difference between keeping and losing democracy.‘We the people’: the battle to define populismRead moreWhy do populists so often get away with these kinds of measures? We have not grasped the extent to which they have succeeded in imposing their distorted understanding of basic democratic practices. The vast majority of those identifying as Republicans regard voting as a “privilege” tied to responsibilities, while Democrats respect it as an unconditional right.It is not true that masses of people are longing for strongmen and are turning away from democracy. But it has become easier to fake democracy. That is partly because defenders of democracy have not argued for its basic principles well, and partly because they keep underestimating their adversaries.TopicsPolitics booksUS politicsViktor OrbánCoronavirusPolandHungaryBrazilfeaturesReuse this content More
TexasLincoln Project says ad attacking Greg Abbott pulled from Texas football gameAnti-Trump Republican group targets governor with ad showing border wall made of coffins of Covid victims Richard Luscombe@ More
