Frontlines of Freedom
I’ll keep this one brief. I just returned home from a trip to D.C. to attend the Renew Democracy Initiatives (RDI.org) Frontlines of Freedom Conference. I’m on the executive board of RDI and have been working with the organization to sound the alarm and rally the troops to defend democracy in the U.S. and abroad. The Front Lines of Freedom (FOF) are established democracies like the U.S. dealing with a nationalist (MAGA) movement, they are struggling democracies contending with democratic backsliding and the rise of illiberalism like Hungary, and they are undemocratic states where civil-society fights to establish institutions where individual liberties are protected and the Rule of Law applies to all.
If I had any doubts, the dissidents and political refugees from dozens of autocratic states presented a clear illustration of how autocrats collaborate and cross pollinate best practices to maintain power, suppress dissent, and undermine democracies around them. Eventually they become a threat throughout the world because the existence of democracy anywhere is a threat to their regimes. Likewise, the impunity of autocrats anywhere is a breeding ground for impunity everywhere.
Why It Matters: Threats to democracies — threats to our democracy — are proliferating due to the lack of accountability against unchecked power and the concerted efforts of our enemies to collaborate to attack democracy. We are watching live examples of that in Ukraine and Israel where the desire is to undermine a rules-based international order.
We can do something about it. We can shed our complacency about the health of our democracy and any lingering fanciful thinking that it will always be there and be strong even without our active engagement. We can shed our apathy that our voices don’t matter. The dissidents from around the world who shared their stories at FOF have faced the threat violence and even death (many are only safe while living abroad). Their courage to stand on principal despite the consequences was tremendously inspiring and we should be just as bold in defending our democracy.
If our voices and our votes were not effective and did not matter, no one would be trying to take them away.
While you were working to save our democracy, Ted Leiu was dealing with this cluster of madness:
Rewritten in my snark style from Ted Lieu’s Twitter account this evening.
“In the uproarious realm of Republican leadership, we find ourselves in the dead of night, gearing up for a vote on the most ludicrous matters imaginable. Brace yourselves for the impending ballot, where we'll be deciding on:
1. Slashing the EPA Administrator's salary to a measly $1.
2. Chopping down the Director of the Bureau of Land Management's salary to a paltry $1.
3. Bringing the Secretary of the Interior's salary down to an astounding $1.
But why stop there? Since we're on a roll with these grand salary reductions, let's throw in a vote for the House Republicans' salaries to plummet to a humble dollar as well.
Judging by the baffling displays of incompetence exhibited by some of these appointees when queried about the most rudimentary aspects of their authority, I'd argue that even $1 might be too generous a payment for their services!”
Thank you Alex for your efforts to protect our democracy. We need you now more than ever!