#democracy

#democracy

It's beautiful to see so many people all over the country standing up for democracy and against authoritarianism. This is no time for factions or political infighting; we face an existential emergency, and we all need to unite against that threat. I see signs all over supporting so many causes, and I love them all. But I want to take a moment to talk about why we are here.

We stand here on Boston Common, where 60 years ago, a different kind of king, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led 20,000 people for Roxbury down Columbus Ave to call for equal rights for all our neighbors. And we stand here today to tell the Trump Administration when it comes to our freedoms, when it comes to our families, Boston

Early Wednesday morning, a 3,000-pound ice sculpture spelling the word "DEMOCRACY" was transported from a New York studio to the National Mall by artists Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese, known as LigoranoReese. To deliver the metaphor, the artists had partnered with Up In Arms, an organization started by Ben & Jerry's co-founder Ben Cohen, who is known as much for his activism as his ice cream.

Americans in France, as well as other nationalities who want to express their solidarity, are invited to join the demonstration on Saturday afternoon - timed to coincide with thousands of events in the US and worldwide. The No Kings movement denounces Trump's government shutdown, plus his "demolition of Medicare and Medicaid, his attacks on workers and public services in favour of billionaire tax cuts, and his systematic violations of US and international law".

We are in a time of distress. We are in a time of total degradation of democracy. Orwell wrote that the degradation of language is the condition for the degradation.

Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado has been awarded the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, recognized for what the Norwegian Nobel Committee called her "tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela." But for many in the Bitcoin community, the win carries another layer of meaning - because Machado isn't just a democracy activist. She's also one of few (but growing) global political figures who has openly embraced Bitcoin as a tool of resistance against authoritarianism.

People have to understand our democracy is being taken away from us, and we only have about a year, Reiner said. He then told Velshi that he and many other pundits are doing a great job of covering Trump. But make no mistake, we have a year before this country becomes a full on autocracy and democracy completely leaves us, Reiner said.

No president has ever sent troops into the Democratic cities across the country saying full force. No president, as far as I know, has tried to control the Federal Reserve, the central bank. He is amassing power in a way that will destroy our democracy. And so were going to stand up. Were creatives. Were storytellers. We can do it creatively. We can have a good time while we do it.

Czech President and former chief of the General Staff of the Czech Armed Forces Petr Pavel is a level-headed man with strong nerves. Yet even though he almost never gets emotional in his capacity as head of state, he has seemed for quite some time to be deeply concerned about the state of democracy in the Czech Republic. On Tuesday evening, less than three days before the polls open in Czechia's parliamentary election, he spoke to the nation.

We live in an era where reasoned, thoughtful, rational, respectful discourse has been replaced by antagonistic, confrontational conversation, Kennedy, who was appointed to the supreme court during Ronald Reagan's presidency, remarked. It seems to me the idea of partisanship is becoming much more prevalent and more bitter. And my concern is that the court in its own opinions has to be asked to moderate and become much more respectful.

We must a sober look at the reality in order to choose the right path for our country, he says. He stresses that our freedom is under threat with growing sense of insecurity, with Germany's economic model also under pressure from a new form of protectionism. He also warns against political forces at home and abroad questioning social cohesion and undermining German democracy.

In a fight as important as the one to save American democracy from the grips of would-be autocrats and dictators, we must partner with people who would otherwise be our political opponents. We must welcome them to the cause and put aside other disagreements, at least for the time being. This is a lesson dissidents in unfree places understand well, but not one that comes easy to Americans. It is a lesson I hope to personally demonstrate in today's episode.

In a political manoeuvre of breathtaking cynicism, Simon Harris yesterday instructed Fine Gael councillors to block any Independent seeking a nomination in the presidential election. Under his leadership, the party's popularity sank to a 30-year low of 16pc in April, according to one opinion poll. As if to crystallise his unpopularity and detachment from the electorate after the disastrous family and care referendums last year, he now is impeding basic democracy.

In 1985, at the tender age of 22, I played against 32 chess computers at the same time in Hamburg, West Germany. Believe it or not, I beat all 32 of them. Those were the golden days for me. Computers were weak, and my hair was strong. Just 12 years later, in 1997, I was in New York City fighting for my chess life against just one machine: a $10 million IBM supercomputer nicknamed Deep Blue.

And here are the three sentences I've said over and over since 2016 when I first said it in Silicon Valley, backed by data and hard-fought experience. Without facts, you can't have truth. Without truth, you can't have trust. Without trust, we have no shared reality. We can't begin to solve any problems, let alone existential ones like climate change. We can't have journalism, we can't have democracy.

In many ways, the race for the Áras is unique. Ordinarily, positions in public life are swayed by political expediency and partisanship, but the representative role of the presidency is less about the machinations of power and more about offering a relevant societal voice, reflecting our interests and identity. The office-holder is not burdened with concerns about the next general election, and ought therefore to have more of an eye for the next generation.

It may be difficult for a real-estate mogul like Donald Trump to recognize, but Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine is not about slices of war-torn land in eastern Ukraine. It is about Ukraine's democracy. Putin fears that the Russian people will see that democracy as an enticing alternative to his stultifying autocratic rule. Trump is unlikely to secure a peace deal unless he acts on that reality and changes the cost-benefit analysis behind Putin's continuing war.

Trump's joke about potentially suspending elections during a war was met with backlash, highlighting concerns over his intentions regarding democracy and power.

"Republicans are implementing a blueprint to displace democracy with a government powered by Christian nationalism and techno-fascism. Conservative estimates count at least 10 million people having their healthcare ripped away."

"We're doing it in reaction to that act. We're doing it mindful of our higher angels, and better angels. We're doing it mindful that we want to model better behavior, as we've been doing for 15 years in the state of California," Newsom said, referring to the state's popular independent redistricting commission.

As democracy faced a significant test in the 2024 election, economic concerns emerged as the primary motivator for voter support, overshadowing fears of authoritarianism.

The end of martial law in the late 1980s coincided with a new freedom of expression in Taiwan, marked by a questioning identity and cultural exploration.

If we get through this period with our democracy intact rather than sliding into a Hungary-like competitive authoritarianism, it will be a significant achievement.

Enes Hocaogullari, a 23-year-old LGBTQ+ advocate, stressed in his speech that youth are fed up and are ready to take to the streets to reclaim their freedoms.

The recent parliamentary elections in Poland marked a significant turning point, as the national populists of the Law and Justice party were ousted from power with a record 75% voter turnout.

"Law firms, universities and now civil society groups are in Trump's sights for punitive action," noted the Associated Press in April, as the Trump administration moved to cut over $1 billion in federal funding to nonprofits from Meals on Wheels to Head Start.

A landmark article published last year by scholars Andrew Little and Rachel Meng shook the field of political science by demonstrating that most evidence for claims of a "crisis of democracy" comes from "democracy scores" based on subjective opinions.