theguardian--2020-11-26--Minnijean Brown-Trickey: the teenager who needed an armed guard to go to school

When Minnijean Brown-Trickey looks back at old pictures of 4 September 1957 , she remembers the day her courage kicked in .
“ I look at the photos of the nine of us , standing there , in contrast to those crazy people , ” she says .
“ And what I say is that they threw away their dignity and it landed on us.
” Brown-Trickey , now 79 , was one of the Little Rock Nine , the first group of African American children to go to the city ’ s Central high school in September 1957 – @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
On the teenagers ’ first day at the Arkansas school , white residents were so furious they amassed in a 1,000-strong mob at the gates .
In preparation , eight of the teenagers had been instructed by Daisy Bates , the leader of the Arkansas National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ( NAACP ) , to meet at her house , so they could travel to the school in a group .
But one of the nine , Elizabeth Eckford , had no telephone and so was not told of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ forced to run the gauntlet of the mob ’ s hatred alone .
The pictures of the young girl encountering the baying crowd is the enduring image of that day for many .
But to Brown-Trickey , despite its power , it can not completely capture all nine children ’ s fear .
“ Still photos can not show how we are shaking in our boots , sandwiched between the Arkansas National Guard and a mob of crazy white people , ” she says .
As they tried to walk into school , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , spat on and denied admission .
Three black journalists watching were also attacked .
One , L Alex Wilson , was hit on the head with a brick , developed a nervous condition and died three years later aged only 51 .
It took a further three weeks for the students to actually step inside the building , thanks to fierce resistance from the Arkansas governor Orval Faubus , who used the mob as a pretext for barring the nine , putting the state ’ s National Guard in their way .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ blood in the streets ” should the children be allowed to go to school .
Eventually the deadlock was broken by President Eisenhower , who sent in 1,200 troops from the army ’ s elite 101st Airborne division to take control .
They dispersed the crowd and quelled the general unrest in Little Rock that had left black citizens afraid to go out after dark .
The army unit then met the students at Bates ’ house every day to escort them into the building , and throughout the day each of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ classes .
It is estimated that this cost $ 3.4m in 1957 , three times what it had cost to build the actual school .
At the time , Brown-Trickey found it bewildering .
Yet it was only the latest front in the battle over school integration .
A landmark supreme court ruling , Brown v the Board of Education , had legally mandated desegregation in US schools in 1954 , after the NAACP had brought a class action lawsuit with the family of Linda Brown , a student in Topeka , Kansas @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an all-white school .
Smaller schools in rural districts in Arkansas integrated , but the pace of change was slow and southern states not only dragged their feet but went to extraordinary lengths in their resistance .
The Jim Crow laws in the south enforced strict racial apartheid , with segregated schools a key feature .
Because white schools had resources poured into them , integration became a rallying cry in the struggle for civil rights .
But many white parents were passionately keen not to “ pollute ” the education of their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ saw as inferior .
The year after Brown-Trickey started at Central high , the governor held a referendum in which 72 % of the Little Rock voting public chose to close all public high schools rather than continue with integration , a crisis that took a year – and a series of legal victories by the NAACP – to resolve .
When Brown-Trickey first saw Central high , it was known as “ the most beautiful high school in America ” , set on a sprawling campus and home to almost 2,000 students @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it was well equipped with labs , a gym and stadium .
Yet Brown-Trickey did not think black schools were inferior .
“ Our black teachers were more educated than the white teachers , ” she says .
“ Our principal had PhDs and we had teachers with advanced degrees.
” She wanted to go there because it was closer to her home than the all-black Horace Mann .
In fact , when she put her name down to attend Central high she had no idea of the storm she was entering .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ at the beginning , ” she points out .
As a 16-year-old , she was well aware that African Americans lived “ parallel lives to white people ” , and that the circumstances were devastatingly unequal .
Segregation in the south was so total it was like living “ in a complete bubble ” , she says .
She recalls going into shoe stores and seeing the “ plush seats at the front ” for white customers , while she was consigned to the “ wooden benches at the back ” .
Her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ made their clothes , calling it “ cheap ” .
But looking back , Brown-Trickey sees it as a form of everyday resistance , protecting them from the hurt of not being allowed into the changing rooms of “ white ” shops .
Yet , despite growing up under this vicious system , Brown-Trickey says she not only always felt safe , but was constantly told by her family that she was also “ beautiful , smart and talented ” .
Originally , 80 students signed up for Central , but they dropped @ @ @ @ @ @ @ barred from extracurricular activities and clubs .
But , with her strong personality and confidence , Brown-Trickey was sure she would overcome this restriction .
She says : “ I thought : ‘ Give me two weeks .
I ’ m talented , I ’ m smart , I have a smile to die for – that ’ s not going to last !
’ ” In reality , even the army ’ s protection could not keep her and her friends safe .
Shockingly , all nine of the teenagers had to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ because they were routinely spat on or showered with cafeteria food .
The N-word was normalised ; while walking the halls Brown-Trickey learned to “ walk close to the wall because some big bruiser would come and do a body slam ” .
Their legs were always bruised and heels bloody as other students would kick out and step on them .
When they were alone , the violence was worse .
“ Terrence [ Roberts ] was knocked unconscious , Jefferson [ Thomas ] beaten up in the basement , ” Brown-Trickey @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Melba Patillo , even had acid thrown in her face .
They gave up reporting the incidents because nothing was done .
How did she survive ?
Brown-Trickey said she chose to feel “ sorry for the white kids at that school ” .
She thought to herself they “ can ’ t even think ” , thus turning their efforts to make her feel inferior into a source of strength and pride that allowed her to persevere .
The nine were kept separate at school , only allowed to see one another @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of isolation , Brown-Trickey believes .
Instead , the worse the abuse became the more determined they felt .
She learned that “ sometimes the courage is not courage , it ’ s just being pissed off ; ‘ I ’ m not gon na let you scare me like this .
You can ’ t be this way .
And I will be back !
’ ” Home , however , was no longer a safe haven , either .
The “ punishment was total ” , she says ; her father @ @ @ @ @ @ @ work had dried up .
Their telephone constantly rung with threats that “ they were ‘ coming to burn your house down , we ’ re gon na kill you , grind your bones ’ ” .
Her parents would even get phone calls from people who said they worked at the morgue , asking them to identify the body of a child .
The nine pupils largely suffered in silence , telling their parents as little as possible about what went on at school .
Brown-Trickey understands how incredibly difficult it must @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to keep going back and calls their willingness a “ tribute to us ” .
She says her parents “ kept saying to themselves : ‘ They decided this , we must continue to support them.
’ ” So focused were the nine on protecting others , they did not even disclose to each other the full extent of their individual experiences .
Only at an NAACP commemoration , 30 years later , did Brown-Trickey learn the torture her fellow students endured .
Unsurprisingly , she never graduated from Central ; only three @ @ @ @ @ @ @ allotted time .
She was expelled , and when asked the reason , says simply that it was for “ being tall , beautiful and proud ” .
One day in the cafeteria boys were kicking and pushing chairs into her legs as she walked by with her tray .
In retaliation , she dropped her chilli on one of their heads .
When the teacher asked if she meant to spill it , in a small act of rebellion against their contempt , she told them it was “ accidentally on purpose @ @ @ @ @ @ @ she returned a “ gaggle of girls ” followed her for a week , hurling insults and stepping on her heels , until finally one of them hit her in the back of the head with a purse filled with six combination locks .
She spun round , knocked the bag from the girl and shouted : “ Leave me alone , white trash !
” The teacher and her National Guard escort said they only witnessed the end of the incident , and she was expelled in February 1958 .
White students @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , eight to go ” , and looking back she reflects how powerful the pupils “ just turning up ” every day was .
“ It must have freaked them out , ” she says , remembering rumours they were communists because “ they just couldn ’ t accept we were regular kids ” .
After her expulsion , Brown-Trickey went to live in New York with Drs Kenneth and Mamie Clark , two renowned African American psychologists , who conducted the classic 1940 study that showed black children had a preference for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the nine pupils ’ mental health during the school year to make sure they were coping .
Arriving in New York , Brown-Trickey was greeted by a huge crowd and wondered which celebrity everyone was waiting for .
But the Little Rock Nine had become a source of international inspiration , receiving letters from around the world .
The Clarks arranged for her to study at a prestigious private school and her eyes light up as she remembers being part of the “ New York intelligentsia , and never knowing which author would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as a student activist , Brown-Trickey met her future husband Roy Trickey .
The pair were conscientious objectors , and when he was called up to fight in Vietnam in 1967 , they left for Canada .
They settled and had six children , while Brown-Trickey continued her life of work as an anti-racist educator and environmental campaigner .
For years she could not bring herself to tell her children what she had done or gone through as a teenager .
She was , she says , at a loss how to communicate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ images to back up her story she didn ’ t believe they would be able to comprehend it .
“ It just didn ’ t make sense.
” When her eldest daughter was 15 , she finally gave her the film Crisis at Central High to watch .
The resulting conversations , according to one of her younger daughters , Spirit Tawfiq , were difficult : “ Sometimes my mother would be excited , and sometimes she would burst into tears.
” Spirit went on to work at the visitor centre in Little @ @ @ @ @ @ @ play based on conversations with her grandmother , Imogene Brown , about the impact of the ordeal on the family .
Surprisingly , Brown-Trickey also kept her past a secret from her friends and colleagues .
In fact , it was only when she appeared on Oprah in 1992 that she revealed her identity to her shocked social circle .
The show had tracked her down using Canadian phonebooks , and she thought it time to share her experiences .
Later , she returned to the US to work for the Clinton administration @ @ @ @ @ @ @ secretary for workforce diversity at the Department of the Interior .
Today , Brown-Trickey works extensively with young people , jokingly telling me “ old people are a waste of time ” .
She also finds inspiration in young activists , especially Malala Yousafzai , whose experiences she sees as a mirror to her own .
While Brown-Trickey was not shot , she assures me that was not for lack of murderous intent , and she sees her story as proof that the US does not need to look overseas for evidence of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ US presidential election was “ triggering ” for her in many ways .
Watching mobs of Trump supporters “ losing their heads ” , not “ conscious of what they ’ re doing ” was like “ watching a kind of madness ” .
The police killing of George Floyd earlier this year meanwhile “ felt like the 1960s , even worse because it was 50 years later [ and ] it ’ s still not a better time ” .
The current state of the nation provokes a deep sense of sadness @ @ @ @ @ @ @ she “ wasted my life ” in her struggles for justice .
Perhaps this is no surprise .
The response to desegregation of education was white flight from the public school system , especially in the inner cities , which means that US public schools are more segregated today than they were in the late 60s .
And African American girls remain far more likely to be suspended .
Brown-Trickey laments that the “ US has two values : violence and segregation , and they do them both really well ” .
Making @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ profound intentional ignorance ” induced by the “ training ” that Americans receive in schools .
In Central high she challenged her history teacher , who was telling the class that slavery was good for black people and that they were more than happy on plantations .
As much as we would like things to have changed , she highlights Trump as the “ definitive example of an American education ” .
Trump ’ s administration went further than just defending the Eurocentric curriculum currently in schools .
It also banned federal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ diversity training – any training that used critical race theory and the idea of white privilege .
This is not just a symbolic move – as an anti-racist educator , Brown-Trickey has seen multiple engagements cancelled .
Yet she is far from drowning in despair .
She is very proud of the way young people are taking up the fight for racial justice through Black Lives Matter .
And when speaking to young people she reminds them that it was only due to her and eight fellow students ’ refusal to back down @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and broke the barricade around Central high school .
People may feel powerless , she says , but with organisation , strength and commitment , “ you can make presidents act ” .

When Minnijean Brown-Trickey looks back at old pictures of 4 September 1957, she remembers the day her courage kicked in. “I look at the photos of the nine of us, standing there, in contrast to those crazy people,” she says. “And what I say is that they threw away their dignity and it landed on us.”
Brown-Trickey, now 79, was one of the Little Rock Nine, the first group of African American children to go to the city’s Central high school in September 1957 – and in doing so, desegregate it. On the teenagers’ first day at the Arkansas school, white residents were so furious they amassed in a 1,000-strong mob at the gates. In preparation, eight of the teenagers had been instructed by Daisy Bates, the leader of the Arkansas National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), to meet at her house, so they could travel to the school in a group. But one of the nine, Elizabeth Eckford, had no telephone and so was not told of the safety plan. Instead she was forced to run the gauntlet of the mob’s hatred alone. The pictures of the young girl encountering the baying crowd is the enduring image of that day for many. But to Brown-Trickey, despite its power, it cannot completely capture all nine children’s fear. “Still photos cannot show how we are shaking in our boots, sandwiched between the Arkansas National Guard and a mob of crazy white people,” she says.
As they tried to walk into school, the children were subject to verbal abuse, spat on and denied admission. Three black journalists watching were also attacked. One, L Alex Wilson, was hit on the head with a brick, developed a nervous condition and died three years later aged only 51.
It took a further three weeks for the students to actually step inside the building, thanks to fierce resistance from the Arkansas governor Orval Faubus, who used the mob as a pretext for barring the nine, putting the state’s National Guard in their way. Brown-Trickey recalls how he warned of “blood in the streets” should the children be allowed to go to school.
Minnijean Brown-Trickey and six other other black students are denied entrance to Central high school by the AK National Guard. Photograph: Francis Miller/Life Picture Collection/Getty
Eventually the deadlock was broken by President Eisenhower, who sent in 1,200 troops from the army’s elite 101st Airborne division to take control. They dispersed the crowd and quelled the general unrest in Little Rock that had left black citizens afraid to go out after dark. The army unit then met the students at Bates’ house every day to escort them into the building, and throughout the day each of the nine would have an armed guard between classes.
It is estimated that this cost $3.4m in 1957, three times what it had cost to build the actual school. At the time, Brown-Trickey found it bewildering. Yet it was only the latest front in the battle over school integration. A landmark supreme court ruling, Brown v the Board of Education, had legally mandated desegregation in US schools in 1954, after the NAACP had brought a class action lawsuit with the family of Linda Brown, a student in Topeka, Kansas, who was prevented from enrolling in an all-white school. Smaller schools in rural districts in Arkansas integrated, but the pace of change was slow and southern states not only dragged their feet but went to extraordinary lengths in their resistance.
The Jim Crow laws in the south enforced strict racial apartheid, with segregated schools a key feature. Because white schools had resources poured into them, integration became a rallying cry in the struggle for civil rights. But many white parents were passionately keen not to “pollute” the education of their children with African Americans, whom they saw as inferior. The year after Brown-Trickey started at Central high, the governor held a referendum in which 72% of the Little Rock voting public chose to close all public high schools rather than continue with integration, a crisis that took a year – and a series of legal victories by the NAACP – to resolve.
Sometimes courage is not courage, it’s just being pissed off: ‘I’m not gonna let you scare me like this. I will be back' Minnijean Brown-Twickey
When Brown-Trickey first saw Central high, it was known as “the most beautiful high school in America”, set on a sprawling campus and home to almost 2,000 students. Unlike schools for African Americans, it was well equipped with labs, a gym and stadium. Yet Brown-Trickey did not think black schools were inferior. “Our black teachers were more educated than the white teachers,” she says. “Our principal had PhDs and we had teachers with advanced degrees.” She wanted to go there because it was closer to her home than the all-black Horace Mann. In fact, when she put her name down to attend Central high she had no idea of the storm she was entering. “The bravery doesn’t come at the beginning,” she points out.
As a 16-year-old, she was well aware that African Americans lived “parallel lives to white people”, and that the circumstances were devastatingly unequal. Segregation in the south was so total it was like living “in a complete bubble”, she says. She recalls going into shoe stores and seeing the “plush seats at the front” for white customers, while she was consigned to the “wooden benches at the back”. Her sister was often cross that their mother made their clothes, calling it “cheap”. But looking back, Brown-Trickey sees it as a form of everyday resistance, protecting them from the hurt of not being allowed into the changing rooms of “white” shops.
Yet, despite growing up under this vicious system, Brown-Trickey says she not only always felt safe, but was constantly told by her family that she was also “beautiful, smart and talented”. Originally, 80 students signed up for Central, but they dropped out after being told they would be barred from extracurricular activities and clubs. But, with her strong personality and confidence, Brown-Trickey was sure she would overcome this restriction. She says: “I thought: ‘Give me two weeks. I’m talented, I’m smart, I have a smile to die for – that’s not going to last!’”
Minnijean Brown-Trickey leads her white schoolmates in a school cheer after being allowed in and given protection by 101st Airborne Command by order of the President. Photograph: George Silk/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
In reality, even the army’s protection could not keep her and her friends safe. Shockingly, all nine of the teenagers had to keep spare sets of clothes at school because they were routinely spat on or showered with cafeteria food. The N-word was normalised; while walking the halls Brown-Trickey learned to “walk close to the wall because some big bruiser would come and do a body slam”. Their legs were always bruised and heels bloody as other students would kick out and step on them. When they were alone, the violence was worse.
“Terrence [Roberts] was knocked unconscious, Jefferson [Thomas] beaten up in the basement,” Brown-Trickey recalls. Another of the nine, Melba Patillo, even had acid thrown in her face. They gave up reporting the incidents because nothing was done. How did she survive? Brown-Trickey said she chose to feel “sorry for the white kids at that school”. She thought to herself they “can’t even think”, thus turning their efforts to make her feel inferior into a source of strength and pride that allowed her to persevere.
The nine were kept separate at school, only allowed to see one another at lunchtime, to maximise their feelings of isolation, Brown-Trickey believes. Instead, the worse the abuse became the more determined they felt. She learned that “sometimes the courage is not courage, it’s just being pissed off; ‘I’m not gonna let you scare me like this. You can’t be this way. And I will be back!’”
Home, however, was no longer a safe haven, either. The “punishment was total”, she says; her father, a landscaper, found all his work had dried up. Their telephone constantly rung with threats that “they were ‘coming to burn your house down, we’re gonna kill you, grind your bones’”. Her parents would even get phone calls from people who said they worked at the morgue, asking them to identify the body of a child.
It must have freaked them out, they just couldn’t accept we were regular kids Minnijean Brown-Trickey
The nine pupils largely suffered in silence, telling their parents as little as possible about what went on at school. Brown-Trickey understands how incredibly difficult it must have been for them to allow her to keep going back and calls their willingness a “tribute to us”. She says her parents “kept saying to themselves: ‘They decided this, we must continue to support them.’”
So focused were the nine on protecting others, they did not even disclose to each other the full extent of their individual experiences. Only at an NAACP commemoration, 30 years later, did Brown-Trickey learn the torture her fellow students endured. Unsurprisingly, she never graduated from Central; only three of the original nine pupils completed their allotted time. She was expelled, and when asked the reason, says simply that it was for “being tall, beautiful and proud”.
One day in the cafeteria boys were kicking and pushing chairs into her legs as she walked by with her tray. In retaliation, she dropped her chilli on one of their heads. When the teacher asked if she meant to spill it, in a small act of rebellion against their contempt, she told them it was “accidentally on purpose”.
She was suspended and when she returned a “gaggle of girls” followed her for a week, hurling insults and stepping on her heels, until finally one of them hit her in the back of the head with a purse filled with six combination locks. She spun round, knocked the bag from the girl and shouted: “Leave me alone, white trash!” The teacher and her National Guard escort said they only witnessed the end of the incident, and she was expelled in February 1958.
White students passed around notes saying “one down, eight to go”, and looking back she reflects how powerful the pupils “just turning up” every day was. “It must have freaked them out,” she says, remembering rumours they were communists because “they just couldn’t accept we were regular kids”.
After her expulsion, Brown-Trickey went to live in New York with Drs Kenneth and Mamie Clark, two renowned African American psychologists, who conducted the classic 1940 study that showed black children had a preference for white dolls. Kenneth Clark had assessed the nine pupils’ mental health during the school year to make sure they were coping. Arriving in New York, Brown-Trickey was greeted by a huge crowd and wondered which celebrity everyone was waiting for. But the Little Rock Nine had become a source of international inspiration, receiving letters from around the world. The Clarks arranged for her to study at a prestigious private school and her eyes light up as she remembers being part of the “New York intelligentsia, and never knowing which author would come to dinner”.
Brown-Trickey receives the 2014 Liberty medal for advocating for people denied their human rights. Photograph: Zuma Press, Inc/Alamy Stock Photo
Later, as a student activist, Brown-Trickey met her future husband Roy Trickey. The pair were conscientious objectors, and when he was called up to fight in Vietnam in 1967, they left for Canada. They settled and had six children, while Brown-Trickey continued her life of work as an anti-racist educator and environmental campaigner.
For years she could not bring herself to tell her children what she had done or gone through as a teenager. She was, she says, at a loss how to communicate the violence and anger. Without the images to back up her story she didn’t believe they would be able to comprehend it. “It just didn’t make sense.” When her eldest daughter was 15, she finally gave her the film Crisis at Central High to watch. The resulting conversations, according to one of her younger daughters, Spirit Tawfiq, were difficult: “Sometimes my mother would be excited, and sometimes she would burst into tears.” Spirit went on to work at the visitor centre in Little Rock and wrote One Ninth, a play based on conversations with her grandmother, Imogene Brown, about the impact of the ordeal on the family.
Surprisingly, Brown-Trickey also kept her past a secret from her friends and colleagues. In fact, it was only when she appeared on Oprah in 1992 that she revealed her identity to her shocked social circle. The show had tracked her down using Canadian phonebooks, and she thought it time to share her experiences. Later, she returned to the US to work for the Clinton administration from 1999 to 2001 as deputy assistant secretary for workforce diversity at the Department of the Interior.
Today, Brown-Trickey works extensively with young people, jokingly telling me “old people are a waste of time”. She also finds inspiration in young activists, especially Malala Yousafzai, whose experiences she sees as a mirror to her own. While Brown-Trickey was not shot, she assures me that was not for lack of murderous intent, and she sees her story as proof that the US does not need to look overseas for evidence of terrorism.
The chaos of the recent US presidential election was “triggering” for her in many ways. Watching mobs of Trump supporters “losing their heads”, not “conscious of what they’re doing” was like “watching a kind of madness”. The police killing of George Floyd earlier this year meanwhile “felt like the 1960s, even worse because it was 50 years later [and] it’s still not a better time”. The current state of the nation provokes a deep sense of sadness, leading her to genuinely consider if she “wasted my life” in her struggles for justice.
Perhaps this is no surprise. The response to desegregation of education was white flight from the public school system, especially in the inner cities, which means that US public schools are more segregated today than they were in the late 60s. And African American girls remain far more likely to be suspended. Brown-Trickey laments that the “US has two values: violence and segregation, and they do them both really well”.
Making matters worse is what she calls a “profound intentional ignorance” induced by the “training” that Americans receive in schools. In Central high she challenged her history teacher, who was telling the class that slavery was good for black people and that they were more than happy on plantations. As much as we would like things to have changed, she highlights Trump as the “definitive example of an American education”. Trump’s administration went further than just defending the Eurocentric curriculum currently in schools. It also banned federal money being spent on “anti-American” diversity training – any training that used critical race theory and the idea of white privilege. This is not just a symbolic move – as an anti-racist educator, Brown-Trickey has seen multiple engagements cancelled.
Yet she is far from drowning in despair. She is very proud of the way young people are taking up the fight for racial justice through Black Lives Matter. And when speaking to young people she reminds them that it was only due to her and eight fellow students’ refusal to back down that Eisenhower sent in the 101st Airborne and broke the barricade around Central high school. People may feel powerless, she says, but with organisation, strength and commitment, “you can make presidents act”.


theguardian--2020-11-26--Strongmen review: a chilling history for one nation no longer under Trump

This terrific history of strongmen since Mussolini makes it clear that despite a horrific pandemic and massive economic disruption , ordinary democratic Americans have more to be thankful for this Thanksgiving than ever before .
Comparing the gruesome , granular details of the reigns of Mussolini , Franco , Hitler , Gaddafi , Pinochet , Mobuto , Berlusconi and Erdoğan to the acts and aspirations of Donald Trump , New York University professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat makes a powerful argument that on the scary road to fascism , America just came perilously close to the point of no return .
Almost @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from the authoritarian playbook .
Every dictator , for example , has built on the accomplishments of his predecessors .
“ Just as Hitler watched Mussolini ’ s actions carefully , ” Ben-Ghiat writes , “ so did Gaddafi learn from Lt Col Gamal Abdul Nasser ’ s 1952 overthrow of the monarchy in Egypt.
” Then in the 1980s and 90s , Ronald Reagan and Newt Gingrich served as models for Europeans looking for “ a more radical form of conservatism ” .
Gingrich ’ s 1994 Contract with America was echoed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , with its “ contract for France with the French ” .
Berlusconi ’ s Contract with Italians followed six years later .
In Egypt , Nasser hired “ former Nazi propagandists for their expertise in antisemitic messaging ” .
In Zaire , from 1965 , Mobutu Sese Seko ’ s media handlers reimagined Leni Riefenstahl ’ s image of Hitler descending from the sky by opening the television news each night with a picture of the dictator ’ s face , hovering up in the clouds .
The parallels between Trump and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ writes of “ watching Trump retweet neo-Nazi propaganda , call for the imprisonment [ of Hillary Clinton ] and lead his followers in loyalty oaths at rallies seemed all too familiar ” – and how it filled her “ with dread ” .
Before the Putin-Trump bromance there was Putin and Berlusconi , grinning at each other from Zavidovo to Sardinia .
The way Trump talked about Mexicans was hardly different from Hitler ’ s words about the Jews or Berlusconi ’ s about Africans .
The Italian media mogul and prime minister @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Mussolini .
In the pre-war period , he was responsible for the deaths of 700,000 Libyans , Eritreans , Somalis and Ethiopians .
Every authoritarian regime has seen a crucial alliance between big business and the dictator , from Putin and his oligarchs to Hitler and German industrialists and Trump and the Wall Street elite .
The German businessman Ernst von Hanfstaengl , Ben-Ghiat writes , introduced a “ cleaned-up Hitler to the moneyed social circles that mattered ” – just as Blackstone chief executive Stephen Schwarzman helped legitimize Trump with tens of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his Republican allies .
Like all his role models , Ben-Ghiat sees in Trump a “ drive to control and exploit everyone and everything for personal gain .
The men , women and children he governs have value in his eyes only insofar as they … fight his enemies and adulate him publicly .
Propaganda lets him monopolize the nation ’ s attention , and virility comes into play as he poses as the ideal take-charge man.
” The US has done so much to promote authoritarianism abroad during the last 100 years @ @ @ @ @ @ @ took so long before we had to confront it at home .
When Mussolini desperately needed international legitimacy and economic aid in 1926 , it was a fascist proselytizer and JP Morgan partner Thomas Lamont who rescued him , brokering a $ 100m US government loan .
Fifty years later , Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger told CIA director Richard Helms to make Chile ’ s “ economy scream ” , so Gen Augusto Pinochet could overthrow the socialist Salvador Allende .
Kissinger and William F Buckley became fervent Pinochet apologists , even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In our own time , Trump has never criticized Putin for poisoning his enemies or even putting bounties on US soldiers in Afghanistan .
He has privately boasted about saving the skin of Mohammed bin Salman , after the CIA concluded the Saudi prince had ordered the murder of Jamal Khashoggi , a columnist for the Washington Post .
To Ben-Ghiat , the forced separation of nearly 70,000 children from their parents at the Mexican border “ brings Trump ’ s practices in line with states like Hitler ’ s Germany and Pinochet @ @ @ @ @ @ @ taken from Jewish , leftist and indigenous parents to be raised by more ‘ appropriate ’ individuals … Citing freezing temperatures , 24-hour lights , and lack of hygiene and medical care , Dr Dolly Lucio Sevier compared conditions ” in camps in Texas “ to those of ‘ torture facilities ’ .
” We can be grateful that the assorted criminals and white supremacists Trump chose to fill so many of the highest positions were too incompetent to keep this descent into fascism going any longer .
But most of all we @ @ @ @ @ @ @ decent Americans who voted for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris .
It is because of their courage and determination that our badly corroded but still functioning democratic apparatus has proved able to survive .
As Ruth Ben-Ghiat makes all too clear , if we had gone any deeper into this four-year tunnel of doom , none might have escaped it .

This terrific history of strongmen since Mussolini makes it clear that despite a horrific pandemic and massive economic disruption, ordinary democratic Americans have more to be thankful for this Thanksgiving than ever before.
Comparing the gruesome, granular details of the reigns of Mussolini, Franco, Hitler, Gaddafi, Pinochet, Mobuto, Berlusconi and Erdoğan to the acts and aspirations of Donald Trump, New York University professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat makes a powerful argument that on the scary road to fascism, America just came perilously close to the point of no return.
Almost everything Trump has done has come straight from the authoritarian playbook. Every dictator, for example, has built on the accomplishments of his predecessors.
“Just as Hitler watched Mussolini’s actions carefully,” Ben-Ghiat writes, “so did Gaddafi learn from Lt Col Gamal Abdul Nasser’s 1952 overthrow of the monarchy in Egypt.” Then in the 1980s and 90s, Ronald Reagan and Newt Gingrich served as models for Europeans looking for “a more radical form of conservatism”. Gingrich’s 1994 Contract with America was echoed a year later by the Front National, with its “contract for France with the French”. Berlusconi’s Contract with Italians followed six years later.
In Egypt, Nasser hired “former Nazi propagandists for their expertise in antisemitic messaging”. In Zaire, from 1965, Mobutu Sese Seko’s media handlers reimagined Leni Riefenstahl’s image of Hitler descending from the sky by opening the television news each night with a picture of the dictator’s face, hovering up in the clouds.
The parallels between Trump and his role models are endless. Ben-Ghiat writes of “watching Trump retweet neo-Nazi propaganda, call for the imprisonment [of Hillary Clinton] and lead his followers in loyalty oaths at rallies seemed all too familiar”– and how it filled her “with dread”.
Before the Putin-Trump bromance there was Putin and Berlusconi, grinning at each other from Zavidovo to Sardinia. The way Trump talked about Mexicans was hardly different from Hitler’s words about the Jews or Berlusconi’s about Africans. The Italian media mogul and prime minister was himself just a pale imitation of Mussolini. In the pre-war period, he was responsible for the deaths of 700,000 Libyans, Eritreans, Somalis and Ethiopians.
Every authoritarian regime has seen a crucial alliance between big business and the dictator, from Putin and his oligarchs to Hitler and German industrialists and Trump and the Wall Street elite. The German businessman Ernst von Hanfstaengl, Ben-Ghiat writes, introduced a “cleaned-up Hitler to the moneyed social circles that mattered” – just as Blackstone chief executive Stephen Schwarzman helped legitimize Trump with tens of millions in campaign contributions to him and his Republican allies.
Like all his role models, Ben-Ghiat sees in Trump a “drive to control and exploit everyone and everything for personal gain. The men, women and children he governs have value in his eyes only insofar as they … fight his enemies and adulate him publicly. Propaganda lets him monopolize the nation’s attention, and virility comes into play as he poses as the ideal take-charge man.”
The US has done so much to promote authoritarianism abroad during the last 100 years, it’s actually surprising it took so long before we had to confront it at home.
When Mussolini desperately needed international legitimacy and economic aid in 1926, it was a fascist proselytizer and JP Morgan partner Thomas Lamont who rescued him, brokering a $100m US government loan. Fifty years later, Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger told CIA director Richard Helms to make Chile’s “economy scream”, so Gen Augusto Pinochet could overthrow the socialist Salvador Allende. Kissinger and William F Buckley became fervent Pinochet apologists, even as thousands were tortured and disappeared.
Benito Mussolini tests a new type of gas bomb, in Rome in 1935. Photograph: Keystone/Getty Images
In our own time, Trump has never criticized Putin for poisoning his enemies or even putting bounties on US soldiers in Afghanistan. He has privately boasted about saving the skin of Mohammed bin Salman, after the CIA concluded the Saudi prince had ordered the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a columnist for the Washington Post.
To Ben-Ghiat, the forced separation of nearly 70,000 children from their parents at the Mexican border “brings Trump’s practices in line with states like Hitler’s Germany and Pinochet’s Chile, where children were taken from Jewish, leftist and indigenous parents to be raised by more ‘appropriate’ individuals … Citing freezing temperatures, 24-hour lights, and lack of hygiene and medical care, Dr Dolly Lucio Sevier compared conditions” in camps in Texas “to those of ‘torture facilities’”.
We can be grateful that the assorted criminals and white supremacists Trump chose to fill so many of the highest positions were too incompetent to keep this descent into fascism going any longer.
But most of all we owe gigantic thanks to the 80 million decent Americans who voted for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. It is because of their courage and determination that our badly corroded but still functioning democratic apparatus has proved able to survive. As Ruth Ben-Ghiat makes all too clear, if we had gone any deeper into this four-year tunnel of doom, none might have escaped it.


theguardian--2020-11-26--Racial segregation on US  inter-state transport to end – archive, 26 Nov 1955

Washington , November 25 The Inter-state Commerce Commission ruled to-day that racial segregation on inter-state trains and passenger buses must end by January 10 , 1956 .
It also ruled that segregation of inter-state travellers in public waiting-rooms is unlawful .
These two rulings put an end to the “ separate but equal ” doctrine which had guided the commission ’ s rulings for many years .
Two months after the commission was established in 1887 it had its first case on racial discrimination .
It then held that segregation would be most likely to produce peace and order and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the United States .
In to-day ’ s opinion the commission said that “ it is hardly open to question that much progress in improved race relations has been made since then.
” When the Supreme Court outlawed compulsory segregation in state schools it ruled that segregation in itself excluded the concept of equality and imposed an inferior status on these American citizens .
It is this new concept which has now prevailed with the commission .
In to-day ’ s ruling the commission said : “ The disadvantage to a traveller @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so designated as to imply his inherent inferiority solely because of his race , must be regarded under present conditions as unreasonable .
Also , he is entitled to be free of annoyances , some petty and some substantial , which almost inevitably accompany segregation even though the rail carriers , as most of the defendants have done here , sincerely try to provide both races with equally convenient and comfortable cars and waiting rooms.
” Commissioner Johnson , of South Carolina , in a dissenting opinion , said “ It is my @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to anticipate the Supreme Court and itself become a pioneer in the sociological field.
” Precautions in Georgia It should be understood that to-day ’ s rulings apply only to travel between states .
The rulings have no effect on travel within a Southern state .
Mr Eugene Cook , Attorney-General for Georgia , said he would try to use all legal procedures to maintain racial segregation “ on travel within Georgia itself.
” He conceded the difficulties because it is often hard to separate inter-state travellers from those travelling within the state @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his legal staff to study this problem while giving first priority to Georgia ’ s continued resistance to a unified public school system in the state .
The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People also tried to have the commission end segregation in the lunch room at the Union Station in Richmond , Virginia .
The commission said that this room was operated under lease by the Union News Company , which is not itself engaged in transportation , and therefore does not come within the commission ’ s jurisdiction .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Texas and Pacific Railway Company because the evidence failed to show that the case involved inter-state travel .
Ten years ago , the commission authorised Southern Railways to serve Negro passengers in the dining-car behind a curtain in seats reserved exclusively for them .
This method of segregation aroused intense public criticism and it was finally outlawed by the Supreme Court in 1950 .
To-day ’ s rulings are a notable advance of those started by the Court in 1950 .

Washington, November 25
The Inter-state Commerce Commission ruled to-day that racial segregation on inter-state trains and passenger buses must end by January 10, 1956. It also ruled that segregation of inter-state travellers in public waiting-rooms is unlawful.
These two rulings put an end to the “separate but equal” doctrine which had guided the commission’s rulings for many years. Two months after the commission was established in 1887 it had its first case on racial discrimination. It then held that segregation would be most likely to produce peace and order and to promote “dignity of citizenship” in the United States.
In to-day’s opinion the commission said that “it is hardly open to question that much progress in improved race relations has been made since then.” When the Supreme Court outlawed compulsory segregation in state schools it ruled that segregation in itself excluded the concept of equality and imposed an inferior status on these American citizens. It is this new concept which has now prevailed with the commission.
In to-day’s ruling the commission said:
“The disadvantage to a traveller, who is assigned accommodations or facilities so designated as to imply his inherent inferiority solely because of his race, must be regarded under present conditions as unreasonable. Also, he is entitled to be free of annoyances, some petty and some substantial, which almost inevitably accompany segregation even though the rail carriers, as most of the defendants have done here, sincerely try to provide both races with equally convenient and comfortable cars and waiting rooms.”
Commissioner Johnson, of South Carolina, in a dissenting opinion, said “It is my opinion that the commission should not undertake to anticipate the Supreme Court and itself become a pioneer in the sociological field.”
Precautions in Georgia
It should be understood that to-day’s rulings apply only to travel between states. The rulings have no effect on travel within a Southern state. Mr Eugene Cook, Attorney-General for Georgia, said he would try to use all legal procedures to maintain racial segregation “on travel within Georgia itself.” He conceded the difficulties because it is often hard to separate inter-state travellers from those travelling within the state alone. However, he had asked his legal staff to study this problem while giving first priority to Georgia’s continued resistance to a unified public school system in the state.
The National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People also tried to have the commission end segregation in the lunch room at the Union Station in Richmond, Virginia. The commission said that this room was operated under lease by the Union News Company, which is not itself engaged in transportation, and therefore does not come within the commission’s jurisdiction. The commission also dismissed a complaint against the Texas and Pacific Railway Company because the evidence failed to show that the case involved inter-state travel.
Ten years ago, the commission authorised Southern Railways to serve Negro passengers in the dining-car behind a curtain in seats reserved exclusively for them. This method of segregation aroused intense public criticism and it was finally outlawed by the Supreme Court in 1950. To-day’s rulings are a notable advance of those started by the Court in 1950.


theguardian--2020-11-26--The toxic polarisation of our politics can be reversed, but it will take humility | Martin Kettle

After Dwight Eisenhower had been sworn in as United States president on Capitol Hill in January 1953 , he recited a prayer to the watching crowd that he had written himself that same morning .
The words embodied how Eisenhower hoped to govern .
“ Especially we pray , ” he told them , “ that our concern shall be for all the people regardless of station , race or calling .
May cooperation be permitted and be the mutual aim of those who … hold to differing political beliefs.
” To a 2020s audience those words may now seem @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s guff that we barely listen to .
Race , in particular , would remain an unhealed wound through Eisenhower ’ s eight years in the White House .
Nevertheless , the prayer truthfully embodies an approach to politics that actually worked for much of 1950s America .
Those years are widely seen – the unignorable exception of race apart – as marking , amid a certain mom-and-pop dullness , a high tide of shared national values , prosperity and political depolarisation .
As Robert D Putnam and Shaylyn Romney Garrett have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Upswing , the 1950s are at the swelling summit in the middle of the “ I-we-I ” bell curve of American life between the economic free-for-all of the 1890s , the era of greater cooperation in the mid-20th century , and the turbocharged renewal of individualism , inequality and hyperpartisanship of the 2020s .
Donald Trump and Eisenhower are both Republican presidents .
Yet as leaders , and in the lives they have led , they could hardly be more different in every way .
It is completely impossible to imagine Trump uttering @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1953 .
It is , though , possible to imagine Joe Biden speaking them .
Indeed , it would be a surprise if Biden does not make a commitment to cooperation of this kind when he himself swears the oath , in less than two months ’ time .
Yet is there the slightest possibility that such an approach would have any effect today , or that it would endure ?
The question of whether governments in advanced capitalist democracies can bring entrenched and bitterly divided polities together is now the single most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is by far the most urgent and important example of this .
But it is true of countries beyond the US too – Britain undoubtedly included .
The odds on Biden – or other consensual leaders in other countries – achieving this are long .
Today we are not at the summit of The Upswing ’ s 130-year-long “ I-we-I ” curve of economic equality , political cooperation , social cohesion and public altruism , as Eisenhower was in the 1950s .
We are instead heading rapidly down the curve to new depths @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and selfishness .
We may even have passed a point of no return .
Many therefore assert that those more unified and civil days are simply over .
Some on all sides actually welcome this , thinking that the downward descent of the old , unified , liberal capitalist state in the early 21st century presents a cathartic opportunity to clear the debris and failures of the past and create a ground zero for a different kind of brave new future .
My answer to those zealots is to be very careful indeed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s book speaks for the many millions who don ’ t think the way the zealots do .
It speaks for those who want the tide of the last decade to be slowed , stopped and turned – and who want to believe the restoration of a “ we ” society , based on liberal democratic managed capitalism , can happen , although in a less unequal and less rancorous way .
One good reason for saying this is that something like it has happened before .
The upward trajectory of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ years of the 20th century did not descend from out of a clear blue sky , in the US or anywhere else .
Instead , it was built on , among other things , economic innovation and greater equality ( including for women ) , laws that broke up monopolies , political leadership that was not afraid of taxing the super-rich , the creation of effective nation state and private-sector institutions , high-quality education , a boom in charity and philanthropy and a media that people broadly trusted to tell them the truth @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the destroyers have not yet triumphed .
Much of what sustained the earlier , more cooperative era endures .
What the EU might call the acquis of liberal democracy and internationalism – the body of principles , institutions and civic habits that the present day has inherited from the not-so-distant past – is actually more resilient than the shocks inflicted on it may suggest .
The transition from Trump to Biden illustrates this .
Trump ’ s assault on the electoral process and its credibility has been epochal and terrible , but in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ happening .
The electoral process was tested to the limits , but it proved robust and decisive .
Its institutions and principles have survived .
Something a little similar may now be happening in Britain over Brexit ’ s disregard of laws and treaties too .
And yet the divides remain .
How can these embittered certainties be eased and eventually bridged ?
Changing people ’ s minds may seem to be the answer , but changing a mind is a very long-term process .
Opening one ’ s own mind is more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on all sides .
Denunciation , lecturing , labelling , and obsessing over language all make things worse , not better .
The key is to prioritise listening and then talking to others .
Michael Sandel ’ s recent book The Tyranny of Merit argues that humility must be central to the reconstruction of the notion of the common good , without which no “ we ” society can prosper .
People don ’ t need to be humiliated or denied a voice by being told they are bad , stupid , bigoted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to find things we can all agree about , perhaps including such things as fairness , patriotism , helping one another and trying to agree about facts .
Respect for the truth is indispensable .
Social media are the chief accelerator in this area of catastrophic decline .
Much stronger control over online untruth will be a precondition for rebuilding the common good .
This is as true of politics in general as of ensuring a full take-up of any Covid vaccine .
But there is material to work with .
Public trust @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Mori reported this week that more than 80 % of us trust what nurses , doctors , engineers , teachers , judges , professors and scientists tell us .
By contrast , around 80 % mistrust journalists , government ministers , politicians generally and advertising executives .
The problem lies with politics and media .
Perhaps the Bidens of the world have it in them to change this .
Let us hope so .
But they need the help of thousands of local citizens if so , meeting at local level to rebuild @ @ @ @ @ @ @ matters very much indeed .
But the way we treat each other matters just as much .
We don ’ t just need to build up herd immunity to viruses .
We need to build up herd immunity to untruth , and to glib easy answers too , and to all those who purvey them , in whatever form .

After Dwight Eisenhower had been sworn in as United States president on Capitol Hill in January 1953, he recited a prayer to the watching crowd that he had written himself that same morning. The words embodied how Eisenhower hoped to govern. “Especially we pray,” he told them, “that our concern shall be for all the people regardless of station, race or calling. May cooperation be permitted and be the mutual aim of those who … hold to differing political beliefs.”
To a 2020s audience those words may now seem anodyne and pious, the usual politician’s guff that we barely listen to. Race, in particular, would remain an unhealed wound through Eisenhower’s eight years in the White House. Nevertheless, the prayer truthfully embodies an approach to politics that actually worked for much of 1950s America.
Those years are widely seen – the unignorable exception of race apart – as marking, amid a certain mom-and-pop dullness, a high tide of shared national values, prosperity and political depolarisation. As Robert D Putnam and Shaylyn Romney Garrett have put it in their recent book The Upswing, the 1950s are at the swelling summit in the middle of the “I-we-I” bell curve of American life between the economic free-for-all of the 1890s, the era of greater cooperation in the mid-20th century, and the turbocharged renewal of individualism, inequality and hyperpartisanship of the 2020s.
Donald Trump and Eisenhower are both Republican presidents. Yet as leaders, and in the lives they have led, they could hardly be more different in every way. It is completely impossible to imagine Trump uttering the kind of words Eisenhower used in 1953. It is, though, possible to imagine Joe Biden speaking them. Indeed, it would be a surprise if Biden does not make a commitment to cooperation of this kind when he himself swears the oath, in less than two months’ time.
Yet is there the slightest possibility that such an approach would have any effect today, or that it would endure? The question of whether governments in advanced capitalist democracies can bring entrenched and bitterly divided polities together is now the single most important issue facing our politics. America is by far the most urgent and important example of this. But it is true of countries beyond the US too – Britain undoubtedly included.
The odds on Biden – or other consensual leaders in other countries – achieving this are long. Today we are not at the summit of The Upswing’s 130-year-long “I-we-I” curve of economic equality, political cooperation, social cohesion and public altruism, as Eisenhower was in the 1950s. We are instead heading rapidly down the curve to new depths of inequality, partisan intransigence, individualism and selfishness. We may even have passed a point of no return.
Many therefore assert that those more unified and civil days are simply over. Some on all sides actually welcome this, thinking that the downward descent of the old, unified, liberal capitalist state in the early 21st century presents a cathartic opportunity to clear the debris and failures of the past and create a ground zero for a different kind of brave new future.
My answer to those zealots is to be very careful indeed about what they wish for. Putnam’s book speaks for the many millions who don’t think the way the zealots do. It speaks for those who want the tide of the last decade to be slowed, stopped and turned – and who want to believe the restoration of a “we” society, based on liberal democratic managed capitalism, can happen, although in a less unequal and less rancorous way.
One good reason for saying this is that something like it has happened before. The upward trajectory of the “I-we-I” curve in the early years of the 20th century did not descend from out of a clear blue sky, in the US or anywhere else. Instead, it was built on, among other things, economic innovation and greater equality (including for women), laws that broke up monopolies, political leadership that was not afraid of taxing the super-rich, the creation of effective nation state and private-sector institutions, high-quality education, a boom in charity and philanthropy and a media that people broadly trusted to tell them the truth.
Another reason for confidence is that the destroyers have not yet triumphed. Much of what sustained the earlier, more cooperative era endures. What the EU might call the acquis of liberal democracy and internationalism – the body of principles, institutions and civic habits that the present day has inherited from the not-so-distant past – is actually more resilient than the shocks inflicted on it may suggest.
The transition from Trump to Biden illustrates this. Trump’s assault on the electoral process and its credibility has been epochal and terrible, but in the end the transition seems to be happening. The electoral process was tested to the limits, but it proved robust and decisive. Its institutions and principles have survived. Something a little similar may now be happening in Britain over Brexit’s disregard of laws and treaties too.
And yet the divides remain. How can these embittered certainties be eased and eventually bridged? Changing people’s minds may seem to be the answer, but changing a mind is a very long-term process. Opening one’s own mind is more important. And this needs to apply on all sides. Denunciation, lecturing, labelling, and obsessing over language all make things worse, not better.
The key is to prioritise listening and then talking to others. Michael Sandel’s recent book The Tyranny of Merit argues that humility must be central to the reconstruction of the notion of the common good, without which no “we” society can prosper. People don’t need to be humiliated or denied a voice by being told they are bad, stupid, bigoted or unsuccessful. The aim should be to find things we can all agree about, perhaps including such things as fairness, patriotism, helping one another and trying to agree about facts.
Respect for the truth is indispensable. Social media are the chief accelerator in this area of catastrophic decline. Much stronger control over online untruth will be a precondition for rebuilding the common good. This is as true of politics in general as of ensuring a full take-up of any Covid vaccine. But there is material to work with. Public trust has survived in many places. Ipsos Mori reported this week that more than 80% of us trust what nurses, doctors, engineers, teachers, judges, professors and scientists tell us. By contrast, around 80% mistrust journalists, government ministers, politicians generally and advertising executives. The problem lies with politics and media.
Perhaps the Bidens of the world have it in them to change this. Let us hope so. But they need the help of thousands of local citizens if so, meeting at local level to rebuild confidence in the common good. Government matters very much indeed. But the way we treat each other matters just as much. We don’t just need to build up herd immunity to viruses. We need to build up herd immunity to untruth, and to glib easy answers too, and to all those who purvey them, in whatever form.


theguardian--2020-11-26--Republicans are right: democracy is rigged. But they are the beneficiaries | Stephen Holmes

The Republican establishment , despite being unfairly advantaged by the skewed composition of the electoral college , by over-representation in the House due to partisan gerrymandering and in the Senate due to equal State suffrage , has been in no hurry to reject Donald Trump ’ s ludicrous allegation that the American electoral system is rigged to favor Democrats .
Sweating the make-or-break Georgia runoffs , the party ’ s leaders are apparently frightened to cross the mad king , who owns their voters , lest he cause their ratings to plummet as he is doing with Fox News .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ on American democracy is not a matter of short-term expediency or fear of reprisals .
It is much worse than that .
Mitch McConnell and the others are not merely humoring the president until his mania subsides .
Trump ’ s voters are the Republicans ’ voters and the Republican party can not easily cut them , and their deranged conspiracy theories , loose even after 20 January .
This has important implications for how Biden should respond to the incalculable damage Trump has inflicted on the country , including how his Department @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rule of law .
The Republican party is deeply committed to the outrageously tilted playing field that allows a minority of voters to choose a majority of senators and , indirectly , a majority of supreme court justices , not to mention the occasional president as in 2000 and 2016 .
They are an unabashedly anti-democratic party in that sense alone , even if we set aside their brazen efforts at voter suppression and voter intimidation .
This is perhaps the main reason why its leaders have proved so reluctant to dissociate themselves @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the 2020 presidential election was “ rigged ” .
They know that the system is rigged .
It is rigged to favor Republicans .
And they relish not only the irony of Trump ’ s audacious reversal of the truth , but also the way it distracts attention from the genuinely unconscionable rigging that gives an American minority the power to impose its will on the American majority .
Republican officials are slowly distancing themselves from the embarrassingly delusional president ’ s refusal to accept the reality of his defeat .
But the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ long reflects a deep truth about the country ’ s politics , namely that Americans are still fighting the civil war .
When Trump and his madcap surrogates cry “ voter fraud ” , they do not mean fraud in the technical sense of ballot stuffing or the miscounting of legal votes .
What they mean is that Democrats have debased the composition of the electorate by making it easier for African Americans in Detroit , Atlanta , Philadelphia and Milwaukee , the most reliably Democratic voters in the country , to register @ @ @ @ @ @ @ elected in a landslide , they imply , if only “ real Americans ” , meaning exactly who you think , had been allowed to vote .
Nixon ’ s famous “ southern strategy ” , crafted with the support of Strom Thurmond , the infamous South Carolina segregationist , suffices to remind us that Republican pandering to white fears of demographic inundation did not begin , and will not end , with Donald Trump .
Key to the historical origins of Republican acquiescence in Trump ’ s efforts to wreck American democracy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ convince Republican controlled state legislatures in Wisconsin , Michigan and Pennsylvania to replace the pro-Biden delegates to their state ’ s electoral college with a pro-Trump slate of electors .
Trump ’ s advisers evidently believe that this anti-democratic maneuver is perfectly constitutional since article II , section 1 , clause 2 of the US constitution declares that “ each state shall appoint ” presidential electors “ in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct ” .
That clause seems straightforward enough until we recall , as Republicans are apparently loath to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was radically revised by the civil war amendments .
In particular , section 2 of the 14th amendment of 1868 was designed to penalize any state that attempted to deny any American citizen “ the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for president and vice-president of the United States ” .
Allowing Republican-controlled state legislatures to appoint the electors would run grievously afoul of this all-important clause .
It was bitterly contested in the states of the former Confederacy for the same reason that Trump ’ s diehard @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Section 2 of the 14th amendment was seen at the time , and is apparently still seen today , as a betrayal of the racial solidarity of the white majority because crafted to reshape the American electorate by enfranchising African Americans .
Shamelessly echoing the South ’ s post-civil war howls of betrayal , Trump shows why he should forever be remembered as the second president of the Confederacy .
While none of this implies that Joe Biden ’ s well-meaning appetite for some measure of bipartisanship is completely hopeless , it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about it in the wrong way .
The Republican establishment , as mentioned , is panicked by the prospect of alienating Trump ’ s voters .
But they also have strong reasons , after 20 January , to consign Trump himself to political oblivion .
This is the wedge that the president-elect should exploit .
After all , the presidential hopes of Nikki Haley , Marco Rubio , Ted Cruz and even Mike Pompeo depend on the current darling of their electorate being swept from the scene .
And if his strident voice @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hope to retreat into its pre-Trump habits of making only the kind of discreet appeals to white resentment acceptable in polite company .
Although Biden says that he wants to restore the rule of law that has been desecrated by the outgoing attorney general , William Barr , he may imagine that the best way to convince at least some Republicans to cooperate with his administration is to close the books on the past by directing his new justice department to let bygones be bygones .
But attempting to “ heal the soul @ @ @ @ @ @ @ thorough inquiry into Trump ’ s potential violations of federal law recalls Robert Frost ’ s definition of a liberal as “ a man who can ’ t take his own side in an argument ” .
If retreat from confrontation is what Biden has in mind , he may be underestimating the tacit desire of the Republican leadership to rid themselves of the rabble-rouser who is keeping their electorate hostage .
They may well silently but heartily approve if Biden keeps his promise to abstain from interfering with his new attorney general @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Trump ’ s malfeasance in office .
Even criminal prosecution , if it comes to that , might be an act of bipartisanship since , by publicly disgracing Trump , it would free a few more Republicans to be occasionally cooperative .
This possibility should appeal to a president-elect who , with 80 million voters at his back , is not only willing to reach across the aisle but eager to take his own side ’ s side in an argument .
• None Stephen Holmes is professor of law at NYU @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Krastev of The Light that Failed : A Reckoning ( Penguin 2019 )

The Republican establishment, despite being unfairly advantaged by the skewed composition of the electoral college, by over-representation in the House due to partisan gerrymandering and in the Senate due to equal State suffrage, has been in no hurry to reject Donald Trump’s ludicrous allegation that the American electoral system is rigged to favor Democrats. Sweating the make-or-break Georgia runoffs, the party’s leaders are apparently frightened to cross the mad king, who owns their voters, lest he cause their ratings to plummet as he is doing with Fox News. But Republican complicity with this unprecedented attack on American democracy is not a matter of short-term expediency or fear of reprisals. It is much worse than that. Mitch McConnell and the others are not merely humoring the president until his mania subsides. Trump’s voters are the Republicans’ voters and the Republican party cannot easily cut them, and their deranged conspiracy theories, loose even after 20 January.
This has important implications for how Biden should respond to the incalculable damage Trump has inflicted on the country, including how his Department of Justice approaches the restoration of the rule of law.
The Republican party is deeply committed to the outrageously tilted playing field that allows a minority of voters to choose a majority of senators and, indirectly, a majority of supreme court justices, not to mention the occasional president as in 2000 and 2016. They are an unabashedly anti-democratic party in that sense alone, even if we set aside their brazen efforts at voter suppression and voter intimidation. This is perhaps the main reason why its leaders have proved so reluctant to dissociate themselves from Trump’s specious allegation that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged”. They know that the system is rigged. It is rigged to favor Republicans. And they relish not only the irony of Trump’s audacious reversal of the truth, but also the way it distracts attention from the genuinely unconscionable rigging that gives an American minority the power to impose its will on the American majority.
Republican officials are slowly distancing themselves from the embarrassingly delusional president’s refusal to accept the reality of his defeat. But the fact that it is taking them so long reflects a deep truth about the country’s politics, namely that Americans are still fighting the civil war. When Trump and his madcap surrogates cry “voter fraud”, they do not mean fraud in the technical sense of ballot stuffing or the miscounting of legal votes. What they mean is that Democrats have debased the composition of the electorate by making it easier for African Americans in Detroit, Atlanta, Philadelphia and Milwaukee, the most reliably Democratic voters in the country, to register and vote. Trump would have been elected in a landslide, they imply, if only “real Americans”, meaning exactly who you think, had been allowed to vote.
Nixon’s famous “southern strategy”, crafted with the support of Strom Thurmond, the infamous South Carolina segregationist, suffices to remind us that Republican pandering to white fears of demographic inundation did not begin, and will not end, with Donald Trump. Key to the historical origins of Republican acquiescence in Trump’s efforts to wreck American democracy is his last-ditch and doomed gambit to convince Republican controlled state legislatures in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania to replace the pro-Biden delegates to their state’s electoral college with a pro-Trump slate of electors.
Trump’s advisers evidently believe that this anti-democratic maneuver is perfectly constitutional since article II, section 1, clause 2 of the US constitution declares that “each state shall appoint” presidential electors “in such manner as the legislature thereof may direct”. That clause seems straightforward enough until we recall, as Republicans are apparently loath to do, that the framers’ constitution was radically revised by the civil war amendments. In particular, section 2 of the 14th amendment of 1868 was designed to penalize any state that attempted to deny any American citizen “the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for president and vice-president of the United States”. Allowing Republican-controlled state legislatures to appoint the electors would run grievously afoul of this all-important clause. It was bitterly contested in the states of the former Confederacy for the same reason that Trump’s diehard supporters are refusing to accept his defeat. Section 2 of the 14th amendment was seen at the time, and is apparently still seen today, as a betrayal of the racial solidarity of the white majority because crafted to reshape the American electorate by enfranchising African Americans. Shamelessly echoing the South’s post-civil war howls of betrayal, Trump shows why he should forever be remembered as the second president of the Confederacy.
While none of this implies that Joe Biden’s well-meaning appetite for some measure of bipartisanship is completely hopeless, it does suggest that he may be thinking about it in the wrong way. The Republican establishment, as mentioned, is panicked by the prospect of alienating Trump’s voters. But they also have strong reasons, after 20 January, to consign Trump himself to political oblivion. This is the wedge that the president-elect should exploit. After all, the presidential hopes of Nikki Haley, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and even Mike Pompeo depend on the current darling of their electorate being swept from the scene. And if his strident voice can be silenced, the party can hope to retreat into its pre-Trump habits of making only the kind of discreet appeals to white resentment acceptable in polite company.
Although Biden says that he wants to restore the rule of law that has been desecrated by the outgoing attorney general, William Barr, he may imagine that the best way to convince at least some Republicans to cooperate with his administration is to close the books on the past by directing his new justice department to let bygones be bygones. But attempting to “heal the soul of the nation” by discouraging a thorough inquiry into Trump’s potential violations of federal law recalls Robert Frost’s definition of a liberal as “a man who can’t take his own side in an argument”.
If retreat from confrontation is what Biden has in mind, he may be underestimating the tacit desire of the Republican leadership to rid themselves of the rabble-rouser who is keeping their electorate hostage. They may well silently but heartily approve if Biden keeps his promise to abstain from interfering with his new attorney general’s efforts to uncover the extent of Trump’s malfeasance in office. Even criminal prosecution, if it comes to that, might be an act of bipartisanship since, by publicly disgracing Trump, it would free a few more Republicans to be occasionally cooperative. This possibility should appeal to a president-elect who, with 80 million voters at his back, is not only willing to reach across the aisle but eager to take his own side’s side in an argument.


theguardian--2020-11-25--Trump's coup failed – but US democracy has been given a scare

In the end , the coup did not take place .
In the most grudging manner possible , Donald Trump signalled on Monday night that the transition of power could begin .
That , a White House official told reporters , was as close as Trump will probably ever come to concession , but the machinery of transition has gathered momentum .
Joe Biden ’ s incoming administration now has a government internet domain , is being briefed by government agencies and is due to receive federal funding .
The Pentagon quickly announced it would be providing support for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one , senior Republicans – an especially timid category – are recognising the election result .
But there is no doubt US democracy has been given a scare .
As the sense of imminent threat begins to fade , the convoluted inner workings of the electoral system are coming under scrutiny to determine whether it was as robust as its advocates had hoped – or whether the nation simply got lucky this time .
“ I had long been in the camp of people who believed that the guardrails of democracy were working @ @ @ @ @ @ @ senior official in the justice department ’ s national security division .
“ But my view has actually shifted in the last few weeks as I watched some of this stuff play out .
Now I actually think that we are depending far too much on fragile parts of our democracy , and expecting individuals , rather than institutions , to do the work the institution should be doing.
” Trump made no secret of his gameplan even before the election , and it has come into sharper focus with every madcap day @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of postal ballots , claim victory on election night before most of them were counted , and then sow enough confusion with allegations , justice department investigations and street mayhem with far-right militias to delay certification of the results .
Such a delay would create an opportunity for Republican-run state legislatures to step in and select their own electors to send to the electoral college , which formally decides who becomes president .
That would produce a constitutional crisis that would ultimately be settled by the supreme court , which has a 6-3 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the plan to work it required political fealty to trump actual votes but , at several crucial decision points , that did not happen .
The key ingredient for a classic coup – a politically motivated military – was absent from the start , though not for want of Trump ’ s efforts .
He tried to bring active duty troops on to the streets to quell the Black Lives Matter protests in the summer , but the defence secretary , Mark Esper , refused to cooperate .
After Esper was fired in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump loyalists were installed in senior decision-making positions , the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff , General Mark Milley , used a planned public appearance at the dedication of an army museum to send a pointed message .
“ We take an oath to the constitution , ” Milley said .
“ We do not take an oath to a king or a queen , a tyrant or a dictator.
” The statement was greeted with some relief – but what was most striking was that it needed to be said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ power that Trump tried to yank was the justice department and the FBI .
The attorney general , William Barr , authorised US attorneys to conduct investigations into alleged voter fraud if there are “ clear and apparently-credible allegations of irregularities ” .
The opening of such investigations would have supercharged conspiracy theories and given more cover for state-level Republicans to delay certification of the votes .
But justice department prosecutors rebelled .
The official in charge of investigating electoral crimes , Richard Pilger , resigned and others made their objections public .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ most institutions , is staffed by people who have a real healthy understanding of what democracy is and why it ’ s worth saving , ” Mulligan , now national director for national security at the Center for American Progress , said .
She added that the clarity of Biden ’ s win made it even less likely justice department officials would go along with such a dubious enterprise .
The next line of defence was state-level Republican officials involved in the machinery of certifying results .
They came under intense pressure , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ direct call from the president .
In some cases , notably in Michigan , they buckled , but in most states they held firm , as in the case of the Georgia secretary of state , Brad Raffensperger , who confirmed Biden ’ s slim majority of victory and consequently became a pariah in his own party .
“ Some folks here deserve medals and some simply met an extremely low bar , ” said Rebecca Ingber , a former state department legal counsel , now professor at Cardozo law school .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but it ’ s also a reminder about the fragility of those guardrails .
At the end of the day , we are talking about humans , not robots.
” Similarly , even the most conservative judges turned away the fanciful claims of election fraud pursued by the Trump legal team , whose current score in the courts is one win and 35 losses .
It is possible more competent plotters could have done more damage .
Trump appears to have left it until after the election to assemble a legal team @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fiercely loyal , but erratic and hapless personal lawyer , Rudy Giuliani .
Ultimately Biden ’ s margin of victory ( over 6 million nationwide and tens of thousands in most of the battlegrounds ) was so clear , and evidence of fraud so slight , that even with better lawyers , the legal channel would have been near impossible .
But the 2020 experience has raised concerns about how US democracy would weather a closer election , and a more disciplined group determined to wield the power of the state to steal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not coordinated enough to emerge as the intimidatory force Trump hoped for , could be stronger on the next occasion .
“ President Trump ’ s rhetoric appealing to these groups has been dangerous from day one of his campaign , giving these groups tacit support for their illegal activities .
And the lacklustre law enforcement response to public violence committed by these groups has exacerbated that problem , ” said Michael German , a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice and who as an FBI special agent was tasked with infiltrating @ @ @ @ @ @ @ organise and recruit and test tactics and networks has been strengthened .
So once there is an effort to police them , they will be much more difficult a problem.
” The 2020 election has also exposed a rapidly spreading rot in the foundation of the system – public confidence that it is fair .
Some 70 % of Republicans , despite the clear certified results , believe the vote was rigged .
“ I do think we got lucky , ” said Susan Hennessey , a former lawyer at the National Security @ @ @ @ @ @ @ blog .
“ The dog didn ’ t bark but this was not for lack of trying and had circumstances been a little bit different , and had the margin been a little bit closer , I think we have a really clear demonstration that normative constraints are not going to prevent people from taking profoundly undemocratic measures .
”

In the end, the coup did not take place. In the most grudging manner possible, Donald Trump signalled on Monday night that the transition of power could begin.
That, a White House official told reporters, was as close as Trump will probably ever come to concession, but the machinery of transition has gathered momentum. Joe Biden’s incoming administration now has a government internet domain, is being briefed by government agencies and is due to receive federal funding.
The Pentagon quickly announced it would be providing support for the transfer of power. And one by one, senior Republicans – an especially timid category – are recognising the election result.
But there is no doubt US democracy has been given a scare. As the sense of imminent threat begins to fade, the convoluted inner workings of the electoral system are coming under scrutiny to determine whether it was as robust as its advocates had hoped – or whether the nation simply got lucky this time.
“I had long been in the camp of people who believed that the guardrails of democracy were working,” Katrina Mulligan, a former senior official in the justice department’s national security division. “But my view has actually shifted in the last few weeks as I watched some of this stuff play out. Now I actually think that we are depending far too much on fragile parts of our democracy, and expecting individuals, rather than institutions, to do the work the institution should be doing.”
Trump made no secret of his gameplan even before the election, and it has come into sharper focus with every madcap day since: cast doubt on the reliability of postal ballots, claim victory on election night before most of them were counted, and then sow enough confusion with allegations, justice department investigations and street mayhem with far-right militias to delay certification of the results.
Such a delay would create an opportunity for Republican-run state legislatures to step in and select their own electors to send to the electoral college, which formally decides who becomes president. That would produce a constitutional crisis that would ultimately be settled by the supreme court, which has a 6-3 Republican majority and has become increasingly politicised.For the plan to work it required political fealty to trump actual votes but, at several crucial decision points, that did not happen.
The key ingredient for a classic coup – a politically motivated military – was absent from the start, though not for want of Trump’s efforts. He tried to bring active duty troops on to the streets to quell the Black Lives Matter protests in the summer, but the defence secretary, Mark Esper, refused to cooperate.
After Esper was fired in the wake of the election, and Trump loyalists were installed in senior decision-making positions, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Mark Milley, used a planned public appearance at the dedication of an army museum to send a pointed message.
Former US secretary of defense Mark Esper (L) and chairman of the joint chiefs of staff US army general Mark Milley (R) standing beside US secretary of state Mike Pompeo (C) in 2019. Photograph: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images
“We take an oath to the constitution,” Milley said. “We do not take an oath to a king or a queen, a tyrant or a dictator.”
The statement was greeted with some relief – but what was most striking was that it needed to be said at all.
The next lever of power that Trump tried to yank was the justice department and the FBI. The attorney general, William Barr, authorised US attorneys to conduct investigations into alleged voter fraud if there are “clear and apparently-credible allegations of irregularities”.
The opening of such investigations would have supercharged conspiracy theories and given more cover for state-level Republicans to delay certification of the votes. But justice department prosecutors rebelled. The official in charge of investigating electoral crimes, Richard Pilger, resigned and others made their objections public.
“The justice department, more than most institutions, is staffed by people who have a real healthy understanding of what democracy is and why it’s worth saving,” Mulligan, now national director for national security at the Center for American Progress, said. She added that the clarity of Biden’s win made it even less likely justice department officials would go along with such a dubious enterprise.
The next line of defence was state-level Republican officials involved in the machinery of certifying results. They came under intense pressure, including in a couple of cases a direct call from the president. In some cases, notably in Michigan, they buckled, but in most states they held firm, as in the case of the Georgia secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, who confirmed Biden’s slim majority of victory and consequently became a pariah in his own party.
“Some folks here deserve medals and some simply met an extremely low bar,” said Rebecca Ingber, a former state department legal counsel, now professor at Cardozo law school. “This is a story about guardrails working, but it’s also a reminder about the fragility of those guardrails. At the end of the day, we are talking about humans, not robots.”
Similarly, even the most conservative judges turned away the fanciful claims of election fraud pursued by the Trump legal team, whose current score in the courts is one win and 35 losses.
It is possible more competent plotters could have done more damage. Trump appears to have left it until after the election to assemble a legal team, and ultimately handed control to his fiercely loyal, but erratic and hapless personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.
Ultimately Biden’s margin of victory (over 6 million nationwide and tens of thousands in most of the battlegrounds) was so clear, and evidence of fraud so slight, that even with better lawyers, the legal channel would have been near impossible.
But the 2020 experience has raised concerns about how US democracy would weather a closer election, and a more disciplined group determined to wield the power of the state to steal it. The militias, who were not coordinated enough to emerge as the intimidatory force Trump hoped for, could be stronger on the next occasion.
“President Trump’s rhetoric appealing to these groups has been dangerous from day one of his campaign, giving these groups tacit support for their illegal activities. And the lacklustre law enforcement response to public violence committed by these groups has exacerbated that problem,” said Michael German, a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice and who as an FBI special agent was tasked with infiltrating extremist groups. “Their ability to organise and recruit and test tactics and networks has been strengthened. So once there is an effort to police them, they will be much more difficult a problem.”
The 2020 election has also exposed a rapidly spreading rot in the foundation of the system – public confidence that it is fair. Some 70% of Republicans, despite the clear certified results, believe the vote was rigged.
“I do think we got lucky,” said Susan Hennessey, a former lawyer at the National Security Agency and executive editor of the Lawfare blog. “The dog didn’t bark but this was not for lack of trying and had circumstances been a little bit different, and had the margin been a little bit closer, I think we have a really clear demonstration that normative constraints are not going to prevent people from taking profoundly undemocratic measures.”