#democracy

#democracy

We are in a moment of crisis and potential. The promise of democracy, never fully realized, appears to be slipping away as rights are eroded and as people are disconnected from the civic sphere while living in a constant stream of misinformation. At the same time, organizations and people are gathering to determine how we can defend the democracy we know, and fight for one that's better. Masses of people mobilize for protests and small groups of neighbors fiercely protect one another, quickly developing new practices to keep each other safe in the face of government violence and repression.

On April 25, Israeli protesters marched to the Hungarian Embassy in Tel Aviv, carrying Hungarian flags and chanting slogans against the extreme right-wing government led by Netanyahu.

The list of electors is sacrosanct because it constitutes the political unit that elects a democratic government. It cannot be stated more forcefully than that, but it bears repeating for emphasis.

Freedom of expression is taken each time silence feels safer than speech, each time convenience outweighs conviction, each time we mistake the absence of punishment for the presence of freedom.

Machiavelli's political philosophy extends beyond The Prince, revealing a thinker who emphasizes the importance of civic leadership and the relationship between leaders and the people they govern.

The Roman republic did not survive him. The second Trump administration has revealed American Caesarism in nearly full bloom, governing by executive orders and emergency decrees.

I come on behalf of a hardworking, creative, and resilient people, but above all a deeply generous people-a people that has learned to resist without hatred, to defend its rights without ceasing to respect others.

In 1979 the revolution happened, and now Tehran looks like something from an earlier century. Sometimes I think that our whole world has become kind of like that-going backwards in time.