The United States of Authoritarianism – Palm Beach Post

Heather Cox Richardson| Letters from an American

On Nov. 22, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, based in Stockholm, Sweden, released its 2021 report on The Global State of Democracy.

Democracy is at risk, the reports introduction begins. Its survival is endangered by a perfect storm of threats, both from within and from a rising tide of authoritarianism. The world is becoming more authoritarian as nondemocratic regimes become even more brazen in their repression and many democratic governments suffer from backsliding by adopting their tactics of restricting free speech and weakening the rule of law.

The report identifies the United States as one of the democracies that is backsliding, meaning that it has experienced gradual but significant weakening of Checks on Government and Civil Liberties, such as Freedom of Expression and Freedom of Association and Assembly, over time.

The United States, the bastion of global democracy, fell victim to authoritarian tendencies itself, and was knocked down a significant number of steps on the democratic scale, the report says.

That fall continues to be pushed by malign foreign actors. An investigation by Jordan Liles ofSnopes.comshows that foreign social media accounts are magnifying right-wing voices. In the wake of the Rittenhouse acquittal, for example, foreign accounts posing as Americans appeared to celebrate the jurys decision.

FrankFigliuzzi, the former assistant director for counterintelligence at the FBI, tweeted that of 32,315 pro-Rittenhouse hashtag tweets from Nov.19-20, 29,609 had disabled geolocation. Of them, 17,701 were listed as foreign, and most of those were in Russia, China, and the EU.

Plenty of Americans are along for the authoritarian ride, too. A story by David A. Fahrenthold, Josh Dawsey, Isaac Stanley-Becker, and Shayna Jacobs in theWashington Postthis week reveals that the Republican National Committee (RNC) is using party funds to pay some of former president Donald Trumps legal bills. Allies of RNC chair Ronna McDaniel note that since Trump is the biggest draw the party has for fundraising, it is important to cultivate his goodwill.

This dumps the RNC into the Jan.6 insurrection mess by aligning the partys central organization with Trump.

That mess is deepening. Today the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol issued five new subpoenas to people involved in planning the rallies in Washington, D.C., on Jan.6 and the subsequent march to the Capitol.

Committee chair Bennie Thompson (D-MS) said: We need to know who organized, planned, paid for, and received funds related to those events, as well as what communications organizers had with officials in the White House and Congress.

Two days ago, Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), who sits on the committee, toldCNNthat many of the people theyve interviewed so far more than 200 have been Trump officials who testified voluntarily and wanted to be subpoenaed for cover.

In Washington, D.C., today, at a hearing for one of those charged in the riot at the Capitol that day, U.S. District Court Judge Carl Nichols, a Trump appointee, sought to define what it means to interfere with an official federal government proceeding. About a third of those charged in the attack on the Capitol have been charged with this crime, which carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison. Nichols asked a prosecutor today whether calling Vice President Pence to seek to have him adjudge the certification in a particular way would be obstruction.

Thats a key question.

Trumps influence took some hits today. Sean Parnell, the Trump-backed candidate for Pennsylvania senator, suspended his campaign after losing a custody battle with his ex-wife. She accused him of physical and emotional abuse of her and their children.

Today, conservative columnist Max Boot called out Republican lawmakers for fomenting violent extremism and noted that they have also become hostage to the extremists in their ranks because they fear for their safety should they stand up to the Trump loyalists. Right-wing extremists have threatened the lives of the 13 Republicans who voted for the bipartisan infrastructure bill.

Two long-standingFox News Channelcontributors, Steve Hayes and Jonah Goldberg, quit the enterprise today over Tucker Carlsons three-part seriesPatriot Purge. That series, they wrote, is presented in the style of an expos, a hard-hitting piece of investigative journalism. In reality, it is a collection of incoherent conspiracy-mongering, riddled with factual inaccuracies, half-truths, deceptive imagery, and damning omissions.

They say they could no longer work at theFox News Channelbecause we sincerely believe that all people of good will and good judgment regardless of their ideological or partisan commitments can agree that a cavalier and even contemptuous attitude toward facts, truth-seeking, and truth-telling, lies at the heart of so much that plagues our country.

Heather Cox Richardson is a professor of American History at Boston College and author of the blog, Letters from an American.

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The United States of Authoritarianism - Palm Beach Post