Новости за 12.11.2020

“The Electoral College is a disaster for a democracy.”—Donald Trump, November 6, 2012

Up until five years ago, the criminalization of one’s political opponents was patently taboo in the United States. Presidential candidates did not haphazardly accuse their rivals of criminal behavior; incumbents did not threaten to jail their opposition or try to wield the Justice Department as a cudgel against their foes. Such rhetoric and tactics smacked of authoritarian nations overseas, not a mature, functional democracy.

Joe Biden, while running for president, suggested he was aiming for a Rooseveltian presidency. Progressives who voted for him now want to hold him to that and make sure he presides over a recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic and carries out his $2 trillion climate and economic stimulus plan. The circumstances for that aren’t ideal, given that Republicans will likely retain control of the Senate. And the signals his team has sent out so far on climate offer a blurry picture of how he hopes to spend his all-important first hundred days. Читать дальше...

No one should feel ashamed for being worried about the state of America’s electoral democracy right now. This weekend, candidate Joe Biden became President-elect Joe Biden after securing the Electoral College votes needed to win the 2020 presidential election. Ever since that moment, President Donald Trump and his enablers have endeavored to undermine the nation’s faith in those results by piling up a portfolio of quixotic legal challenges and undertaking a series of illiberal stunts to suggest he may not yield power. Читать дальше...