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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAmerican Democracy Is in Crisis - By Hillary Rodham Clinton
Our democratic institutions and traditions are under siege. We need to do everything we can to fight back.
HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON SEP 16, 2018
Its been nearly two years since Donald Trump won enough Electoral College votes to become president of the United States. On the day after, in my concession speech, I said, We owe him an open mind and the chance to lead. I hoped that my fears for our future were overblown.
They were not.
In the roughly 21 months since he took the oath of office, Trump has sunk far below the already-low bar he set for himself in his ugly campaign. Exhibit A is the unspeakable cruelty that his administration has inflicted on undocumented families arriving at the border, including separating children, some as young as eight months, from their parents. According to The New York Times, the administration continues to detain 12,800 children right now, despite all the outcry and court orders. Then theres the presidents monstrous neglect of Puerto Rico: After Hurricane Maria ravaged the island, his administration barely responded. Some 3,000 Americans died. Now Trump flatly denies those deaths were caused by the storm. And, of course, despite the recent indictments of several Russian military intelligence officers for hacking the Democratic National Committee in 2016, he continues to dismiss a serious attack on our country by a foreign power as a hoax.
Trump and his cronies do so many despicable things that it can be hard to keep track. I think that may be the pointto confound us, so its harder to keep our eye on the ball. The ball, of course, is protecting American democracy. As citizens, thats our most important charge. And right now, our democracy is in crisis.
I dont use the word crisis lightly. There are no tanks in the streets. The administrations malevolence may be constrained on some frontsfor nowby its incompetence. But our democratic institutions and traditions are under siege. We need to do everything we can to fight back. Theres not a moment to lose.
more
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/09/american-democracy-is-in-crisis/570394/
dalton99a
(81,683 posts)olegramps
(8,200 posts)Botany
(70,635 posts)You are so right Madame President. It was a coup and you should be in
White House right now.
calimary
(81,566 posts)Dear God, what we could have had...
It almost literally makes me ache.
Botany
(70,635 posts)... to the '16 election,* and the idea that Russia launched hundreds of thousands of cyber
attacks on our voter d-bases** and election systems but they had no effect is laughable.
* https://thinkprogress.org/states-purged-16-million-voters-from-the-rolls-before-the-2016-election-1c5688dcaad7/
** https://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/story/news/2017/01/23/russians-suspected-hacking-local-dems/96965824/
(Russia was into Wisconsin @ the county level in 2016)
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)ffr
(22,676 posts)Hermit-The-Prog
(33,544 posts)I know it's not fair to expect her to endure even more of the irrational, hate-filled spotlight, but I'm damned glad she hasn't given up on us.