Thread by @jennycohn1

“Biden’s Global Democracy Summit Raises an Awkward Question: Can Ours Endure? In the past year, the prospects for improving American democracy have dimmed considerably.” By @suehalpernVT, 11/30/21 1/ newyorker.com/news/daily-com… via @NewYorker

2/ “In March, …, Freedom House, a democracy-watchdog group, ranked the state of democracy in the US well below that in Chile, Costa Rica, & Slovakia, citing gerrymandering, the influence of money in politics, and the disenfranchisement of people of color…”

“‘A change of president is not gonna make [these issues] go away,’ Sarah Repucci, the group’s VP for research and analysis, told the Guardian at the time.” Indeed, in the months since Biden took office, the prospects for improving American democracy have dimmed considerably.” 3/

“Nineteen states have enacted thirty-three laws that make it more difficult for citizens to vote; a number of states have replaced nonpartisan election administrators with partisan ideologues; … 4/

…and Republican legislatures in states that have begun to swing toward the Democrats, such as NC and Texas, have redrawn electoral maps to favor Republicans and effectively disenfranchise communities of color.” 5/

“Given the conservative composition of the federal courts, legal challenges to the new maps are likely to be unsuccessful.” 6/

“It’s against this gloomy backdrop that the Biden Administration will be hosting a virtual Summit for Democracy in early December, with invitees from more than a hundred countries.” 7/

“When Biden announced the summit, back in August, the goal seemed to be to reëstablish America’s standing in the world by championing human rights and democratic practices in the wake of the retrograde foreign policy of the Trump Administration.” 8/

But “[t]his month, for the first time, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, a think tank based in Stockholm, added the United States to its list of “backsliding” democracies.” 9/

“The U.S. received this designation, according to a report issued by the group, in part because of Trump’s insistence that the 2020 election was fraudulent.” 10/

“‘The visible deterioration of democracy in the US, as seen in the increasing tendency to contest credible election results, the efforts to suppress participation (in elections), & the runaway polarisation,” is “one of the most concerning developments,’ … 11/

… the group’s secretary-general, Kevin Casas-Zamora, said.” 12/

“He also noted that ‘the violent contestation of the 2020 election without any evidence of fraud has been replicated, in different ways, in places as diverse as Myanmar, Peru and Israel.” 13/

“This, of course, is not the kind of sharing envisioned by the architects of Biden’s Summit for Democracy.” 14/

“This, of course, is not the kind of sharing envisioned by the architects of Biden’s Summit for Democracy.” 15/

The State Dept. site “states that they ‘aim to show how democracies can deliver on the issues that matter most to people: strengthening accountable governance, expanding economic opportunities, protecting human rights and fundamental freedoms, & enabling lives of dignity.” 16/

“It continues, ‘The US…will announce commitments…such as bolstering free & independent media; fighting corruption; defending free & fair elections; strengthening civic capacity; advancing the civic & political leadership of women, girls, & marginalized community members…” 17/

“‘The United States will also hold itself accountable to these commitments on a global public stage.’” 18/

“If the Administration is serious, the President and his supporters in Congress must now mount a sufficient defense of democratic norms to counter the Republicans’ anti-democratic machinations. Otherwise, a year from now, that stage will be dark.” 19/