For The Washington Post

ONE TIME USE ILLUSTRATION FOR OP-KAGAN ON THE TRUMP DICTATORSHIP

The Washington Post

cartoon-pritchett-yachts

Music-Drake Kendrick Lamar

op-allen-democracypromo

(iStock)

stock

Patient lying inside a medical scanner in hospital

(Michelle Kondrich/The Washington Post)

WAUKESHA, WI - MAY 1st: Former president Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally on Wednesday May 1st, 2024.  (Photo by Sara Stathas for the Washington Post)

RUSSIA-US-DIPLOMACY-BASKET-COURT

Contributor

FILE PHOTO: Protests continue on Columbia University campus in support of Palestinians

Supreme Court of the United States

Photographer

**ONE TIME USE ONLY FOR OP-LAMOTT

Election 2024 Trump

promo handout

Promo image for edit-solar-storm-0424.

Election 2024 Pennsylvania

other

Hundreds gather for the Lost Voices of Fentanyl Rally in Washington, D.C.

staff

Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

Show NLP summaries collection recirc on article pages

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

In photos: The 149th running of the Preakness Stakes

Book Tour: At home with Amor Towles

Gov. Doug Burgum speaks in support of Trump

Carolyn Hax: Friends say to break other plans to avoid offending new man

Ask Amy: Should my husband get a say in what I do with my inheritance?

Ask Amy: Can’t a single woman eat alone without interruption?

Kyle Finnegan’s rare hiccup helps Phillies to a 4-3 win in 10 innings

Joey Gallo returns, but Nats endure another quiet offensive night

Walter Johnson’s jersey from 1920 showdown with Babe Ruth sold at auction

Would you eat this weird sandwich? Barry Enderwick would. 

She finished chemo then got a medical degree: ‘The dream is real now’

Puppy abandoned with heart-rending note is adopted, named Minerva

‘Never Trump?’ ‘Never Biden’ voters might loom larger.

How Jim Jordan tried to connect the dots on Biden’s $8 million book deal

Lawyer preparation suggests Trump won’t testify in New York trial

Blue Origin to fly again as space tourism struggles to get off the ground

Why this company’s biggest fans turned against it

These ISIS news anchors are AI fakes. Their propaganda is real.

The problem with diversity statements — and what to do about them

Russia shows resilience. There is more to do for Ukraine.

Trump promises tax cuts and fewer rules. CEOs shouldn’t fall for it.

The world’s coolest hotels want to tell you a story

6 Airbnb red flags to spot before you make a booking mistake

Flying budget airlines might not be as cheap as it seems

Biden’s false claim that inflation was 9 percent when he took office

Did Obamacare ‘massively’ increase the cost of health care?

The other side of Punta Cana: A crackdown on Haitians

Top White House aide to meet Netanyahu, who is under political pressure

Live updates: Rescuers struggle to find helicopter carrying Iranian president

Trump trial live updates: Closing arguments set for next week; Cohen resumes testimony

Sean Gallup

The refusal of House Republicans to fund aid for Ukraine, their insistence on pursuing a bogus impeachment scheme <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/03/01/hunter-biden-impeachment-russia-disinformation-smirnov-comer/" target="_blank">hatched by an indicted Russian FBI source</a> in contact with Russian intelligence services and their unfailing loyalty to an anti-democratic demagogue infatuated with Russian President Vladimir Putin will further aggravate the existential threat facing democracy around the globe. MAGA Republicans’ recent conduct will only hasten the dangerous trend toward authoritarianism spelled out in Freedom House’s recent report “<a href="https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2024/mounting-damage-flawed-elections-and-armed-conflict" target="_blank">Freedom in the World 2024: The Mounting Damage of Flawed Elections and Armed Conflict</a>.”

“Global freedom declined for the 18th consecutive year in 2023,” Freedom House reported. “The breadth and depth of the deterioration were extensive. Political rights and civil liberties were diminished in 52 countries, while only 21 countries made improvements. Flawed elections and armed conflict contributed to the decline, endangering freedom and causing severe human suffering.”

The threat from right-wing groups and ideologies rejecting democratic values such as diversity, the rule of law, free speech, equality and tolerance — the very same values the MAGA movement targets — are at the root of the worldwide phenomenon. “Almost everywhere, the downturn in rights was driven by attacks on pluralism — the peaceful coexistence of people with different political ideas, religions, or ethnic identities — that harmed elections and sowed violence,” Freedom House observed. “These intensifying assaults on a core feature of democracy reinforce the urgent need to support the groups and individuals, including human rights defenders and journalists, who are on the front lines of the struggle for freedom worldwide.”

The role of the United States in bolstering democracies, just as it did in World War II and the Cold War, has never been more critical. “As it has for decades, the United States can play a vital role in the expansion of global freedom,” the report reiterated. “But much depends on whether the November 2024 presidential election reinforces or weakens America’s democratic values, processes, and institutions, along with its will to uphold the cause of democracy around the world.”

The United States remains vulnerable at home, where “harassment and intimidation of federal, state, and local politicians, election administrators, and judges pose a serious challenge to the conduct of November’s presidential election.” Moreover, still “haunted by the January 2021 attack on the Capitol and related court cases, Americans are heading into a decisive election starkly divided, with some questioning the very utility of fundamental democratic institutions.”

As the world’s only true superpower, the only country that can summon a global alliance and the historic exemplar of democratic values, the United States must take the lead in defending democracies against internal and external threats. If “governments, donors, and the private sector” do not “deepen their solidarity with front-line allies, hold dictators accountable for rights abuses and corruption, and invest in democratic institutions at home and abroad,” democracy will continue its downward trajectory, the report said. If the United States sacrifices “core principles for the sake of illusory short-term interests,” then we will lose a “global order in which democratic norms prevail” and that “deliver liberty, prosperity, and security — for those living now and for future generations.”

Military defense of democracies continues to be an essential part of protecting our alliances facing aggression from authoritarian regimes such as “the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine [that] continued for a second year, further degrading basic rights in occupied areas and prompting more intense repression in Russia itself.” But the question remains if the United States has the will to do so.

We recently witnessed how perilously close the United States is to frittering away our democratic leadership in the world. When the Republican presidential front-runner <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/07/trump-dictator-authoritarian-democracy/" target="_blank">espouses fondness for fascist ideas</a> and displays a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/10/trump-nato-allies-russia/" target="_blank">determination to destroy NATO</a>, and his minions rely on <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2024/02/22/fbi-informant-biden-smirnov-arrest/" target="_blank">Russian-hatched conspiracies</a> to impeach a president and seem <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/02/20/gops-big-gamble-ending-ukraine-aid-what-comes-next/" target="_blank">willing to let Ukraine go under</a>, we can imagine the threats to democracy here and abroad reaching the point of no return.

Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.), a nine-year veteran of the Navy and three-term congresswoman who recently returned from the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/02/16/munich-security-conference-kamala-harris/" target=_blank>Munich Conference</a>, expressed to me her dismay at Republicans’ irresponsibility in defending democracy at a critical moment. She pointed at four-times-indicted former president <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/donald-trump/" target="_blank" class="contextual_link">Donald Trump</a> and his party for “undermining and walking away from our alliances.”

She explained, “The rules-based order benefits not just the U.S. but other countries,” yet Republicans “want to blow up the system.” Republicans seem not to care that we depend on an alliance of democratic allies to do everything from protecting the seaways to confronting China’s aggression, she noted. She said there is a military phrase: “We never fight alone.” And yet we will find ourselves isolated, vulnerable and saddled with higher defense costs if Republicans persist in enabling Putin and destroying our democratic alliances.

“We are at an inflection point,” Sherrill said, echoing the Freedom House report and speaking with obvious emotion. “I cannot accept that the country I have given my life to, the country [for which] I cannot count the number of oaths I have taken, the country I have fought for, I cannot accept that we cannot stand with Ukraine.”

And yet if Republicans have their way — denying Ukraine a lifeline, doing the bidding of Putin internationally and lifting a Putin pawn to the U.S. presidency — democracy’s backsliding will become an avalanche. Imagine if the only country capable of reinforcing the rules-based order and preventing tyrannical regimes from overwhelming vulnerable countries stood with the authoritarians. Under such circumstances, democracy in the United States and around the world would be unlikely to survive.

It’s hard to quibble with the argument that the upcoming election is the most important in our history and in the history of Western democracies. The world will be watching.

University of California at Berkeley, BA in history

University of California at Berkeley, JD

Jennifer Rubin writes reported opinion for The Washington Post. She is the author of “Resistance: How Women Saved Democracy from Donald Trump” and is host of the podcast Jen Rubin's "Green Room."

Jennifer Rubin

washpost

Democracy is imperiled globally. Republicans aren’t helping.

the-washington-post

Demonstrators Show Solidarity With Ukraine On War's 2nd Anniversary

Staff

Getty Images

Editorials

Columns

Guest opinions

Cartoons

Submit a guest opinion

Today's Opinions newsletter

Opinions

Sign up for the Prompt 2024 newsletter for opinions on the biggest questions in politics

Washington Post Opinions

The Washington Post Opinions section features opinion articles, op-eds, editorials by the Editorial Board, global opinions and letters to the editor on the issues of the day. Offerings include columns by Washington Post opinion writers, political cartoons by editorial cartoonists Ann Telnaes and Michael de Adder and podcasts by Jonathan Capehart.

Sign up for Democracy, Refreshed, a newsletter series on how to renovate the republic.