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Zócalo Public Square

4 Nov, 8 tweets, 4 min read

This election season, we’ve been focusing on stories that bring perspective to the state of American democracy. From takes on India to El Salvador, Machiavelli to “American Horror Story,” these pieces offer a fresh lens on tonight.

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@joemmathews

Last Tuesday, @joemmathews processed how “peculiar and personal” the stakes of this election are for him—in that the results may determine which of his two old friends ends up on the U.S. Supreme Court:

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@monstersamerica

On Thursday, historian W. Scott Poole (@monstersamerica) wrote about how the horror genre is experiencing a “global renaissance” thanks to the “politics of wounded rage” propelling the real world.

Art by @IllustratedBe

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@USCDA

Friday, playwright & @USCDA prof Oliver Mayer described why he finds himself asking for guidance from his mousepad—which is adorned with an image of Niccolò Machiavelli and “Cosa farebbe Machieavelli?”: What would Machiavelli do?

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(We also published a poem on Friday, and it has nothing to do with the election but we really like it. It’s about William Burnside’s hometown, Belfast, and is his first poetry publication so is extra special to us.)

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@ACLU_NorCal

Yesterday, author and longtime @ACLU_NorCal staffer Elaine Elinson recalled volunteering as an international election observer in El Salvador in 1994, as the nation emerged from a 12-year civil war.

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https://twitter.com/ThePublicSquare/status/1323426794444267521

@sandipr

Today, @sandipr explained how elections work in India, where they have 911 million registered voters and an election “process” instead of election “day.”

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https://twitter.com/ThePublicSquare/status/1323784346981949440

@AshaRangappa_

Finally, we’re looking forward to thinking this all through out loud next Thursday, when @AshaRangappa_ and @julianbarnes join us to discuss “What Do We Do Now?”

8/8 Register: zps.la/3jd8vEH

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More from @ThePublicSquare

Zócalo Public Square

@ThePublicSquare

4 Nov

@sandipr

Americans may be used to knowing the results of a presidential race by bedtime on Election Day, but that’s not the norm in many nations.

Author @sandipr explains how India’s election “schedule” works—and what America can learn from it on this day:

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In India, there is no such thing as Election Day. “Democracy, unlike candy, does not come out of a vending machine delivering instant gratification,” Roy contends.

It took 11 million election officials over a month to conduct the 7 phases of India’s 2019 general election.

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The stages allow security and electoral officials to follow the election around the country as different regions vote. Even when it takes a week for the winner to be announced after the last polling day, Roy writes, Indian voters don’t lose faith in the value of their vote.

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Read 7 tweets

Zócalo Public Square

@ThePublicSquare

3 Nov

When author and editor Elaine Elinson heard Trump Jr. urge supporters to “join the Army for Trump’s election security operation” and “help us watch them,” her mind went back to 1994, when she was an election observer in El Salvador.

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@ACLU_NorCal

That March, after a 12-year civil war left more than 75,000 dead or disappeared, Salvadorans headed to the polls for the first democratic election in a generation. Elinson, then a @ACLU_NorCal staffer, was one of hundreds of international observers sent by the United Nations.

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Their role at the polling booths was to “create a visible presence so that the voters would feel safe,” writes Elinson. The idea was that by showing up, anyone who “tried to menace voters would be deterred.” Elinson was issued a blue shirt labeled “Misión Observadora.”

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Read 6 tweets

Zócalo Public Square

@ThePublicSquare

11 Jun

Today we published two stories about the experience of “distance learning.”

One is from Alizé Basulto Ibarra, a senior about to graduate from Coalinga High School. One is from Brian Crosby, a retiring English/journalism teacher at Herbert Hoover High School in Glendale.

1/16

At the start of spring semester, everything was going according to plan for class president Alizé. She’d been accepted to her dream school, UCLA.

But then the pandemic hit, and “school just ended in the middle of the sentence.”

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At first, Alizé “responded like a teenager, treating this as a vacation from schoolwork and an excuse to stay up late.”

As the virus spread, she realized that she needed to keep studying—and so did her four younger siblings, ages 15, 10, 9, and 8.

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Read 16 tweets

Zócalo Public Square

@ThePublicSquare

20 May

@william_sturkey

TONIGHT at 5 PM PDT, Pulitzer Prize winner David W. Blight will interview fellow historian @william_sturkey, winner of Zócalo’s 10th annual Book Prize for “Hattiesburg: An American City in Black and White.”

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Here’s a look back at the last time Blight visited Zócalo.

In an event titled “What Does the Life of Frederick Douglass Tell Us About America?”, Blight discussed his biography of #FrederickDouglass with author/comedian Baratunde Thurston.

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@Baratunde

@Baratunde pointed out that the tension between patriotism and not-patriotism is a theme repeated through leadership across generations. “Love America or damn America … How do you understand [Douglass’s] holding of that space?” he asked @davidwblight.

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