Table Of Content
For most of the past 75 years, despite many mistakes, the United States has aspired to a foreign policy based on democratic principles and support for human rights. When adhered to, these guiding lights have enabled the United States to act as a leader on the global stage, pressuring offenders to reform, encouraging activists to continue their fight, and rallying partners to act in concert. After four years of neglect, contradiction, or outright abandonment under Trump, President Biden has indicated that his administration will return to that tradition. But to rebuild credibility in such an endeavor and garner the domestic support necessary to sustain it, the United States needs to improve its own democracy. It must strengthen institutions enough to survive another assault, protect the electoral system from foreign and domestic interference, address the structural roots of extremism and polarization, and uphold the rights and freedoms of all people, not just a privileged few. Judges appointed by presidents from both parties ruled impartially, including the three Supreme Court justices Trump himself had nominated, upholding the rule of law and confirming that there were no serious irregularities in the voting or counting processes.
Download Report PDF
After Democrats gained a majority in the House of Representatives in the 2018 elections, the Trump administration frequently clashed with Congress in ways that challenged the legislature’s constitutional authority. For example, in 2019 the president declared a national emergency so as to redirect congressionally appropriated funds to pay for the construction of a wall along the border with Mexico, a project that he had prioritized during his presidential campaign but which had failed to win sufficient financing from lawmakers. Later that year, Trump’s irregular obstruction of appropriated military aid to Ukraine and his orders to defy subpoenas culminated in the House impeachment inquiry. During 2020 the administration continued its refusal to comply with a host of congressional reporting requirements, information requests, and subpoenas on various oversight matters. Critics have argued that the Electoral College system for presidential elections is undemocratic, as it violates the principle that each citizen’s vote should carry equal weight.
Watch: Chief John Moon Speaks about Freedom House at NAEMSP - JEMS (Journal of Emergency Medical Services)
Watch: Chief John Moon Speaks about Freedom House at NAEMSP.
Posted: Tue, 06 Feb 2024 15:04:21 GMT [source]
Paramedics found guilty in Elijah McClain’s death following ketamine injection
Other authoritarian states have joined China in these efforts, even as key democracies abandoned allies and their own values in foreign policy matters. The United States is a federal republic whose people benefit from a vibrant political system, a strong rule-of-law tradition, robust freedoms of expression and religious belief, and a wide array of other civil liberties. However, in recent years its democratic institutions have suffered erosion, as reflected in partisan pressure on the electoral process, bias and dysfunction in the criminal justice system, harmful policies on immigration and asylum seekers, and growing disparities in wealth, economic opportunity, and political influence. Electoral Democracy – Freedom in the World assigns the designation “electoral democracy” to countries that have met certain minimum standards for political rights and civil liberties; territories are not included in the list of electoral democracies.
Review: ‘Illinoise,’ based on Sufjan Stevens’ concept album, clears a fresh Broadway path
The president, who serves as both head of state and head of government, is elected for up to two four-year terms. Presidential elections are decided by an Electoral College, with electors apportioned to each state based on the size of its congressional representation. In most cases, all of the electors in a particular state cast their ballots for the candidate who won the statewide popular vote, regardless of the margin.
In criminal probe of reporter, advocates see attack on Peru’s democracy
In the years since, in addition to adopting voter-identification requirements and limiting polling locations, a number of states—including some that were never subject to the preclearance rule—have rolled back innovations like early voting that contributed to higher rates of participation among minority groups. The Trump campaign in 2020 drew criticism for a pattern in which administrative resources were misused to support the president’s candidacy. Administration officials routinely promoted Trump’s reelection or attacked his Democratic opponents, which apparently violated federal laws barring government employees from engaging in electioneering and other political activities. The president also repeatedly used the White House, his official plane, and other government facilities for campaign events. Separately, Trump on multiple occasions threatened or sought to withhold federal resources from states and cities whose Democratic leaders opposed him politically.
Despite increasingly repressive rule under the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), dissent in China occurs regularly and is geographically widespread. The China Dissent Monitor features quarterly updated interactive data on collective action in public spaces and cases of online dissent.
In September 2020, an appeals court upheld a Florida requirement that former felons pay all outstanding case-related fines and debts to regain their voting rights, leaving hundreds of thousands of people unable to vote in the November elections. Overall, researchers estimated that more than five million people remained disenfranchised in 2020 due to felony convictions. De facto disenfranchisement has persisted among racial and ethnic minority communities, which are disproportionately affected by laws and policies that create obstacles to voting and winning elected office. In 2013 the Supreme Court invalidated portions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, allowing certain states that previously had to submit legal changes for preclearance by federal authorities to adopt election laws without prior review.
Animal therapy (aka pet therapy or animal-assisted therapy) can be very healing, as it allows patients to bond with animals, who give unconditional love. This is particularly useful for those who suffered trauma by the hands of people, who may be able to trust and form closer attachments to animals than humans at certain stages of rehabilitation. That’s why experts agree a medically assisted detox is the safest way to remove addictive substances from the body. Usually done in an inpatient setting, your vitals signs and overall well being are consistently monitored and rechecked in order to keep you safe and ensure the detox is successful.
Ind/Group therapy
Celebrate the History of Freedom House Ambulance: First Responders on WITF TV - WITF
Celebrate the History of Freedom House Ambulance: First Responders on WITF TV.
Posted: Fri, 16 Feb 2024 08:00:00 GMT [source]
In many states, judges are chosen through either partisan or nonpartisan elections, and a rise in campaign fundraising for such elections over the last two decades has increased the threat of bias and favoritism in state courts. In addition, executive and legislative officials in a few states have attempted to increase their control over state supreme courts, including through impeachments and constitutional changes. In June 2020, Trump appointee Michael Pack was confirmed as the head of the US Agency for Global Media, which oversees government-funded news outlets serving audiences abroad. Pack quickly undertook major personnel and policy changes, undermining the news operations’ editorial independence and declining to renew the visas of foreign journalists at the agency, including those vulnerable to repression in their home countries.
A variety of regulations and oversight institutions within government are designed to curb conflicts of interest and prevent other situations that could lead to malfeasance. Unlike in 2018, when the election in a North Carolina House district was nullified on grounds of fraud committed by the Republican side, there were no serious accusations of result-altering fraud in any race in 2020. Republican lawmakers who supported Trump’s objections to the presidential results notably did not question the validity of their own elections. Following the 2020 elections, the Republican Party retained control of 50 Senate seats, a confirmed loss of one.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to scale back its arrests and return to the focus on dangerous criminals, but the administration continued efforts to punish cities that refused to assist ICE agents in identifying and detaining undocumented immigrants. The administration’s enforcement drive has added to an existing backlog of cases in immigration courts; as of December 2020 there were more than a million pending cases, roughly double the number pending when Trump took office. The pandemic exacerbated poor conditions in immigration detention facilities; as of mid-November, over 7,300 detainees had tested positive for the virus. Under pressure from immigrants’ rights advocates, the administration took steps to reduce the population of ICE detainees, which declined by more than 50 percent between February and November.
These orders, combined with other administration changes, helped to reduce the number of refugees admitted to the United States for resettlement to its lowest point since the program began in 1980. The refugee resettlement cap for the 2021 fiscal year was slashed to 15,000 people, down from 18,000 in fiscal 2020, and actual admissions remained far below the cap in 2020; prior to the Trump administration, the annual caps had generally surpassed 70,000. Federal law generally guarantees trade unions the right to organize and engage in collective bargaining. Over the years, the strength of organized labor has declined, and just 6.3 percent of the private-sector workforce belonged to unions in 2020. While public-sector unions have a higher rate of membership, with 34.8 percent, they have come under pressure from officials concerned about the cost of compensation and pensions to states and municipalities.
Civil liberties organizations and other groups have also argued that prison sentences are often excessive and that too many people are incarcerated for minor drug offenses. The United States has a free and diverse press, operating under some of the strongest constitutional protections in the world. The media environment retains a high degree of pluralism, with newspapers, newsmagazines, traditional broadcasters, cable television networks, and news websites competing for readers and audiences. While many larger outlets have prospered, however, independent local sources of news have struggled to keep up with technology-driven changes in news consumption and advertising, contributing to significant ownership consolidation in some sectors, and a number of communities with just one or no local news outlet.
In addition to structural inequalities and discrimination in wages and employment, racial and ethnic minority groups face long-running and interrelated disparities in education and housing. De facto school segregation is a persistent problem, and the housing patterns that contribute to it are influenced by factors such as mortgage discrimination, which particularly affects Black and Hispanic homeowners. Black homeownership has fallen steadily from a peak in 2004, despite gains for other groups in recent years.
No comments:
Post a Comment