Culture War – Will It Work

Hard to grow a campaign on Democratic failures to reignite the economy or not contain the pandemic when the opposite is true. With powerful demands from its most essential “base” constituency – pushing against even modest gun control, encouraging voting, addressing climate change as storms, wildfires, droughts and coastal erosion pound our nation, taxes on the super-mega-rich or sustaining a many-decade Roe vs Wade ruling – even in contravention of a clear popular majority set of opinions, the GOP has been forced to mount more abstract policies. The mantra is based on the purported destruction of the moral core of America by what is labeled the “radical left” determined to “impose socialism” on a free market, that Donald Trump is and will be reinstated as President by August, and that our election process has been fraudulently coopted by Democrats.

Can the GOP, now a radical right Trump-led coalition, mount a vigorous “culture war” to maximize its historical mid-term likelihood of recapturing both houses of Congress by ignoring the political axiom, “It’s the economy, stupid”? Can they rouse an a once-latent emotional reaction, heavily mired in a white supremacist tradition, to guarantee success? Can they twist New Testament teachings of tolerance to match the intolerant requirements of too many evangelicals in their base? Will the addition of the greatest legislative movement to suppress minority voting since Reconstruction and the Jim Crow era add an extra measure of assurance? If this effort is indeed successful, we all should to know that the American vision of democracy – majority determination but with full protection for minorities – will at best be suspended and at worst be permanently over. In short, can the electorate effectively vote to end democracy?

We know references to “creeping socialism” misuse that phrase. Users conflate socialism – where the government itself owns the nation’s manufacturing, business and real estate… wealth – with social programs, just because the same root word is common to both concepts. Public schools and Social Security, for example, are social programs. 

We listen to a Harvard-educated Senator, Ted Cruz, equate honest and fact-based teaching of historical racial injustice as simply another expression of Marxism, a political philosophy predicated on “class” warfare, an economic battle. He tells us that all we need to do in evaluating the growing sentiment against so-called “critical race theory” is to substitute the word “class” for “race,” and the comparison is complete. Seriously, when the essence of Marxism is “class” – the very center of that perception? Not race? That’s like looking at a sentence and replacing “good” with “bad” and determining that the revised sentence says the same thing!!!

This Republican intrusion into which facts are permitted in public classrooms probably will be reversed by our judicial system, but hope rings loud that the new conservative Supreme Court will leave these new statutes, adopted or being proposed in dozens of states, intact. The “cancel culture” movement rails at the thought of removing tributes to slave owners and those who fought to preserve slavery, clearly offensive to African Americans whose ancestry was chained, traded, tortured and murdered as subhuman property.

Reports surfacing from the Trump era Department of Justice show that the President demanded that the DOJ and the FCC proceed against late night hosts, Saturday Night Live, and their networks, for their disrespectful and comedic depiction of Mr. Trump. Of course, each such federal agency was acutely aware that such efforts would not stand a chance against the plain meaning of the First Amendment. Yet the DOJ was still willing to pursue the tapping into private communications of Democratic congressional representatives and journalist-critics at Trump’s whim. That “repress opposing speech” sentiment is hardly dead. The above efforts to “stop cancel culture,” to reverse election results and to impose a ban on presented fully documented historical facts of racial injustice are bad enough. But Trump-successor-wannabe, Florida GOP Governor Ron DeSantis, just signed a new level of political intimation of free speech into law.

Writing for the June 23rd, Salon.com, columnist Brett Bachman explains this statute:“Public universities in Florida will be required to survey both faculty and students on their political beliefs and viewpoints, with the institutions at risk of losing their funding if the responses are not satisfactory to the state's Republican-led legislature. 

“The unprecedented project, which was tucked into a law signed Tuesday by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, is part of a long-running, nationwide right-wing push to promote ‘intellectual diversity’ on campuses — though worries over a lack of details on the survey's privacy protections, and questions over what the results may ultimately be used for, hover over the venture.

“Based on the bill's language, survey responses will not necessarily be anonymous — sparking worries among many professors and other university staff that they may be targeted, held back in their careers or even fired for their beliefs. 

“According to the bill's sponsor, state Sen. Ray Rodrigues, faculty will not be promoted or fired based on their responses, but, as The Tampa Bay Times reported Tuesday [6/22], the bill itself does not back up those claims.” All of these efforts seem to make a mockery of our claim, as stated in the last phrase in our national anthem, that America is the “Land of the free and the home of the brave.” A determined minority, by any and all means possible, is determined to take unilateral control of this nation at the expense of the majority of Americans and particularly those minorities seeking to capture the justice promised to them by the U.S. Constitution.

I’m Peter Dekom, and if there remains a majority belief in the American system of democracy, as flawed as it is, “we the people” must commit ourselves to root out these efforts to usurp the very constitutional principles upon which our government is based.

Post-Pandemic Inflation

There’s no secret in the surge of people resigning, changing jobs and eschewing older levels of pay. Except for certain technology professions, union shops and preset government civil service pay, most Americans are facing post-pandemic wage/salary cuts of 15% on average. Lower-end jobs, particularly in the hospitality/restaurant/retail sector, filling vacancies is proving difficult and frustrating for employers who simply do not recognize that their pay scales need a dramatic upward adjustment. 

Republicans claim that extending unemployment benefits and providing stimulus checks simply demotivate jobseekers; they apparently believe that, notwithstanding that Americans work the longest hours in the developed world, we are inherently a lazy people. All this as income inequality has escalated even further; the disparity between the richest in the land from “the rest” has never been so wide. What the GOP also fails to recognize is that prices everywhere, from home rentals based on overpriced real estate to gasoline at the pump, from used cars to tuition costs. But even the food-clothing staples are experiencing higher costs at every level.

“Global food prices rose for the 12th month in a row in May, up nearly 40% year over year, according to the United Nations' food price index. Last month was also the sharpest monthly rise in average food prices in over a decade, spiking 4.8% from April to May.

“Abdolreza Abbassian, senior economist for the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, says surprising demand for corn in China, an ongoing drought in Brazil and increased global use of vegetable oils, sugar and cereals has caused prices to surge rapidly around the globe… ‘The demand, really I would say, is almost surprising everyone,’ Abbassian told CNN Business. ‘This demand requires a strong supply response.’

“Global inflation is raising prices on virtually everything, from food to steel to lumber and energy. In countries that belong to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, prices surged in April to the highest rate since 2008… 

“US food prices haven't yet returned to normal this year after pandemic grocery buying caused them to skyrocket a year ago. Overall food prices in the US were up 2.4% in April from the same period a year ago, while fruit and vegetable prices rose 3.3%.” CNN.com, June 4th. Meat and milks have been particularly rampant culprits. But it’s not just food.

Writing for the June 17th FastCompany.com, Elizabeth Segran addresses the rise in the cost of clothing: “The price of clothing in the U.S. has gone up 5.6% over the last year, according to the consumer price index released by the Labor Department last week. And that’s across the board, from mass-market retailers all the way up to luxury brands… There’s no single, straightforward reason for these increases, and when it comes to clothing, the causes of inflation are particularly complicated… [but…]

“WE STOPPED BUYING CLOTHES… The problem started during the pandemic. In March 2020, when stay-at-home orders first went into effect in the U.S., Americans changed their shopping habits drastically. With nowhere to go and a possible recession on the horizon, apparel purchases ground to a standstill. In April 2020, clothing sales fell 79%, which is the largest-ever recorded decline.

“Fashion labels began to panic. It was unclear how long the pandemic would last and, by extension, how long consumers would continue to not buy clothes. So many brands radically changed their operations, starting with worker layoffs and slashed prices on merchandise to unload existing inventory. Many canceled orders for the rest of the year, leaving overseas factories in a lurch. In turn, many factories had to fire garment workers…

“[But s]tarting this summer, life in the States has started to return to normal, and there’s a lot of pent-up demand for clothing. But brands can’t suddenly flip the switch and increase their supply. Some are still short-staffed. And many clothing factories around the world are still shuttered. ‘Most brands do their manufacturing offshore, so it is not a very nimble supply chain,’ says Lauren Bitar, head of insights at the analytics firm RetailNext. ‘So now, there’s enormous demand and not enough supply. Hence prices are going up.’

“THE PANDEMIC ISN’T OVER OVERSEAS… While the U.S. and some European countries are beginning to bounce back from the pandemic, there are many countries around the world that are facing new waves of COVID-19 cases. This makes the situation even more difficult for brands because their partner factories are located in countries like India, Bangladesh, and Cambodia, where governments have imposed lockdowns… ‘Retailers are working as best they can with their suppliers and have been for the better part of a year now,’ says Jon Gold, VP of supply and customs policy at the National Retail Federation… The ongoing COVID-19 crisis—coupled with the spike in demand from consumers in the U.S. and Europe—is contributing to shortages of materials around the world…

“SHIPPING DISASTERS… Brands are also facing massive shipping delays. The pandemic wreaked havoc on global shipping, leading to a shortage of shipping containers and an imbalance in where they were stuck versus where they were needed…

“RETAIL STAFF WANT BETTER PAY… ‘Retail has traditionally paid very little, forcing workers to work unpredictable hours, and not provided a solid career path,’ Bitar says. ‘A lot of workers got burned from being unceremoniously laid off or furloughed during the pandemic, so they may be looking for a different kind of work.’…To get the workers they need, Bitar says retailers will have to offer better pay and benefits. And this is yet another cost that may lead to an increase in clothing prices.” 

Generally, the rate of these price increases exceeds most salary/wage increases (and certainly salary/wage cuts). In the end, the pandemic reshaped and continues to reshape every nook and cranny of daily existence, with some changes being just transitory while others represent permanent shifts. Political instability coupled with the rise of job-replacing artificial intelligence, with a big dose of climate change, make such changes not only inevitable but massive and never-ending. Life at the top has gotten so much better; life in the middle and the bottom has moved in the opposite direction. “Make America Affordable Again”?

I’m Peter Dekom, and while such huge and across-the-board changes are difficult to live with, we better get used to a future that resists any attempt to restore the past.

 

Chief Heat Officer

It not much of a secret that global temperatures are rising. Even the rising heat in the Arctic region is what is pushing cold Polar Vortex air down south, producing a seeming contradictory result. But, oh those warmer months. I’ve blogged about how the extended heatwaves in the Western states has produced the worst drought conditions in 1,200 years, but today I’d like to focus on the rise of killer heat in so many cities, and what one city, Miami, is doing to focus its urban leadership on the concomitant problems.

Rising temperatures are causing unexpected problems. The cluster of high rises had made cities effectively “urban heat islands,” cutting off breezes, dark buildings and street absorbing and then retransmitting heat. The world is dramatically unprepared for these issues. As Talib Vishram writing for the June 16th FastCompany.com tells us, harsh realities have produced unique changes in urban administration:

“Impacts of extreme heat on cities have ranged from disruptive to devastating in recent years. In 2017, planes in Phoenix couldn’t physically take off in 120-degree heat. In Washington, D.C., and London, metro and tram tracks have melted. And during the pandemic, as people spent more time outside, even public health took a hit, as COVID-19 testing was shut down in areas of D.C. and New Jersey because the heat was too dangerous for those lining up in the sun.

“While many are aware of heat risks, they’re perhaps not taken as seriously as more visible climate disasters like hurricanes and floods, leading many experts to call heat the ‘silent killer.’ A 2020 study suggests that it contributes to the deaths of 5,600 people every year. Data on such deaths is sparse, since they’re often attributed to other conditions, but severe heatstroke can lead to coma or even death. In an effort to raise awareness and put into place concrete actions on local levels to combat heat’s effect on human health and economies, three cities are appointing chief heat officers, who’ll also share best practices with other cities in their regions.

“Miami was an apt place to start: Known for its vulnerability to sea-level rise, the coastal city broke its own heat records last year, reaching a June high of 98 degrees, the hottest ever for that month. ‘It’s killing more people than any other climate-driven hazard in the U.S.,’ says Kathy Baughman McLeod, senior vice president and director of the Adrienne Arsht-Rockefeller Foundation Resilience Center, a nonprofit that works with cities around the world to fund climate-resilience solutions. It’s under the group’s Extreme Heat Resilience Alliance program that the mayors of Miami-Dade, Athens, Greece, and Freetown, Sierra Leone, agreed to appoint CHOs (the organization helps fund the position). Miami-Dade’s mayor, Daniella Levine Cava, was the first to announce the role. Jane Gilbert, who worked for many years on the city’s climate resilience initiatives, is the first person to hold a position of this kind in the world.”

Miami’s CHO has a staff of 13 with instructions to coordinate responses to extreme heat among the various city agencies. Across the country, we’ve not only seen fires and other vestiges of punishing heatwaves but coupled with rolling power failures from overtaxed electrical grids, food spoilage and an inability to escape into any air-conditioned alternative create critical problems. For those without access to air-conditioning at all, from homeless encampments to bare-minimum construction housing, the results can be devastating. How did folks cope with this in the pre-air-conditioning era? Fans? Staying in shade? Opening fire hydrants? Maybe, but climate change was not an issue back then. It sure is now.

Vishram notes: “Though the CHO title is new, none of these cities is the first to take on the issue: New York is currently funding air conditioners for eligible residents; Los Angeles counties are fitting cool roofs and pavements; Phoenix is redesigning its most affected low-income neighborhoods—cool roofs reportedly won’t work in the Arizona city due to interfering dust storms. But labeling the role ‘chief heat officer’ is smart branding—and not just because of the obvious association with the Miami Heat. (Perhaps they could join forces with the local basketball team in the future to help with outreach, Gilbert suggests with a laugh.) It shows the public that heat is now an explicit city priority, especially as global warming continues to increase. ‘It’s just going to get hotter. It’s going to sneak up on us,’ Baughman McLeod says. ‘We are not cooling this planet.’” 

There is one obvious question: Does generating the extra electricity needed to power those extras just make the global warming issue worse? It sure suggests that using fossil fuels to create cooling is an unworkable vicious circle. But the problems, especially in urban areas where heat has always been an issue, the need to find immediate leadership-driven coping mechanisms has arrived.

I’m Peter Dekom, and unless and until the earth gets really serious about this exploding global warming issue, we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, of killer heat-related problems.

 

The Inner Circle of Denial-Land

 

It is a matter of history, a pattern followed by most autocrats and their zealous followers, that “truth” is what the leaders say it is… not what objective facts determine. With leaders with autocratic tendencies, contradicting the autocrat’s view of history – folks like Genghis Khan, many Middle Eastern and European royals, Hitler, Mussolini, modern People’s Republic of Chinese, Russian and North Korean leaders – often resulted in imprisonment, frequent torture and death. It is a sure sign of autocracy, one that should put us all on red alert, when facts are considered unpatriotic and insidious, but mythology is treated as if it were the gospel truth.

While the United States, like most countries, has never been free of baseless conspiracy theories with thousands, if not millions, of followers, modern conservative America has only recently legitimized some of the most toxic conspiracy theories imaginable. Like the QAnon belief in a vast network of pedophiles within the leadership of the Democratic Party aiming to supplant the bona fide government in Washington. 

Recognizing that this once seemingly marginal segment of the American electorate represented an untapped constituency, Donald Trump smartly embraced, directly or indirectly, a vast portion of racist, conspiracy theorist and extremist views that defined what was to become his “base.” It was this constituency that gave him the margin of victory in 2016 and allowed his thoroughly unsustainable claim to have won the 2020 election. It was almost as if he reached a devil’s bargain: I’ll support your mythological conspiracy theories if you’ll support mine. But even as the facts were seemingly irrefutable… they were refuted by a staggering number of his supporters, and the values and platforms of virtually the entire body of elected Republican officials became “whatever Trump wants.”

A simple review of objective facts: Of the 538 Electoral College Votes, Joe Biden won a staggering 74 more such votes than did Donald Trump, totaling more than 7 million more popular votes and winning well over 60 judicial rulings (many including judges where were Trump appointees, including the Supreme Court) that determined that widespread election fraud was completely non-existent in the November Presidential election… zero rulings finding such fraud. 

And still, red state legislative bodies, alleging voter fraud, are passing voter nullification or suppression laws to prevent traditional Democratic minority voters from casting their ballots. Neutral appointed and elected state election officials are resigning in unprecedented numbers from a tsunami of death threats, allegations of criminal misconduct and complete rejection of their non-partisan efforts. There is hope among the GOP that these neutral players can be replaced with Trump-biased officials who will never certify an election result, regardless of the actual vote, that contradicts a Trump-desired election result.

But as this mass denial seems to be unending, if not escalating, it is interesting to understand the day-to-day world of Donald Trump’s life in Mar-a-Lago (pictured above), Palm Beach opulence in red state Florida. What Karl Rove has described as Trump’s “Fortress of Solitude.” Joshua Green, writing for the June 10th Bloomberg Business week, provides some livid details: 

“Tossed from the White House, banished from Facebook and Twitter, Trump has never seemed more distant from public consciousness. But while he can’t broadcast out, those same platforms offer a surprisingly intimate glimpse into his new life, thanks to the prolific posting of the club’s guests. At every moment of his day, Trump is bathed in adulation. When he enters the dining room, people stand and applaud. When he returns from golf, he’s met with squeals and selfie requests. When he leaves Mar-a-Lago, he often encounters flag-waving throngs organized by Willy Guardiola, a former professional harmonica player and anti-abortion activist who runs weekly pro-Trump rallies in Palm Beach. ‘Give me four hours and I can pull together 500 people,’ Guardiola says. Trump recently invited the self-proclaimed ‘biggest Trump supporter in the country’ for a private consultation at his club.

“In this gilded Biosphere, Trump encounters no one who isn’t vocally gratified by his presence. When he speaks extemporaneously, so many guests post footage that you can watch the same weird scene unfold from multiple vantage points, like the Japanese film Rashomon. Trump seems so comfortable, the journalist and Instagram sleuth Ashley Feinberg has noted, that he’s taken to wearing the same outfit for days on end. Blue slacks, white golf shirt, and red MAGA cap are to the former president what the black Mao suit is to his old frenemy Kim Jong Un. Club members say his new lifestyle agrees with him. ‘Presidents when they finish always look so much older,’ says Thomas Peterffy, the billionaire founder of Interactive Brokers LLC, who lives three doors down from Mar-a-Lago. ‘Not true for Trump.’

“He’ll show up to anything. In recent weeks, Trump has popped into engagement parties and memorial services. A Mar-a-Lago member who recently attended a club gathering for a deceased friend was surprised when Trump sauntered in to deliver remarks and then hung around, apparently enjoying himself. This insular feedback loop, amplified by the worshipful validation he gets for doing Newsmax or OAN TV hits, doesn’t appear likely to diminish as he settles into his New Jersey golf club for the summer and prepares to resume his trademark rallies. ‘Donald Trump needs the adulation of the crowd the way you or I need oxygen to breathe,’ says Michael Cohen, his estranged former lawyer. By all accounts, Trump’s life after the White House doesn’t resemble that of a typical ex-president so much as a foreign monarch cast into exile—like Napoleon at Elba, but with golf and a bigger buffet.”

Living in this environment, surrounded by sycophants who idolize him, it is little wonder that Trump makes pronouncements that he expects to be reinstated as President in August. His “legal team” supports this belief even as there is no constitutionally valid path to cause this result. And the leadership of the Republican Party is now unwilling to accept the election reality or that the January 6th assault on the Capitol was an insurrection and not simply a peaceful tourism event, for fear of alienating what they believe is such an election-required constituency – Trump’s base – by dealing with objective reality. If they cannot nullify the results of the 2020 election, they want to be damned sure that votes opposing their position are never cast or counted against them ever again.

I’m Peter Dekom, and not since the Civil War has American democracy faced such an existential challenge.

As Negotiations with the North Went South

 Donald Trump’s purported bromance with the man he had once derisively called “Little Rocket Man,” punctuated with his several meetings with the North Korean dictator culminating at the above photo op in the demilitarized zone between the two Koreas, did little more than raise Kim Jong-un’s stature on the global stage. 

There was no treaty, no accord, no reduction of nuclear weapons, no long-term limitation on the North’s continued development of its rocket/missile program or its development toward submarines capable of carrying missiles with nuclear warheads and certainly no reestablishment of meaningful diplomatic relations with the US. Despite Trump’s claim that he had accomplished more than any other US president in dealing with North Korea, today, even after a voluntary moratorium on high-level testing, the North is more weaponized and increasingly capable of deploying its nuclear arsenal than ever.

Recently, Kim finally acknowledged a haunting reality for his people: “North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has admitted his country is facing food shortages that he blamed on last year's typhoon and floods, just months after he warned North Koreans about a looming potential crisis… Kim told the plenary meeting of the Workers' Party of Korea the nation was experiencing a ‘tense food situation,’ Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Wednesday [6/16].

“The secretive country has cut itself off from the rest of the world even more during the pandemic. Speaking on Tuesday [6/17], Kim said the conditions and environment that North Korea was facing ‘have become worse upon entering this year,’ even though its economy has, on the whole, shown improvement… The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has estimated that North Korea is short of about 860,000 tons of food, enough for just over two months of supplies.” CNN.com, June 17th. 

The COVID-driven border closing with China has not been lifted. The supply of needed foodstuffs is severely limited. As his people literally face starvation, Kim needs a distraction, and blaming the United States has been his “go-to” policy in the past. He played Donald Trump for a fool, and perhaps he is hoping that Joe Biden just might be his next patsy.

“North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered his government to be prepared for both dialogue and confrontation with the Biden administration — but more for confrontation, state media reported Friday [6/18]… The report came days after the U.S. and others urged Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear program and return to talks… Kim’s statement indicates that he is likely to push to increase his nuclear arsenal and raise pressure on Washington to give up what North Korea considers a hostile policy toward it, but he’ll also prepare for talks to resume, some experts say.

“On Thursday [6/17], during an ongoing meeting of the ruling party, Kim analyzed in detail the policy tendencies of the U.S. under President Biden and clarified steps to be taken in relations with Washington, the Korean Central News Agency said. It did not specify the steps.

“Kim ‘stressed the need to get prepared for both dialogue and confrontation, especially to get fully prepared for confrontation in order to protect the dignity of our state’ and ensure national security, the agency said… Kim Jong Un has recently threatened to enlarge his nuclear arsenal and build high-tech weapons targeting the U.S. mainland if Washington refuses to abandon its current policy toward North Korea.

“In March, the North Korean military performed its first short-range ballistic missile tests in a year. But Pyongyang is maintaining a moratorium on long-range missile and nuclear tests, in an indication that Kim wants to keep prospects for diplomacy alive.

“Kwak Gil Sup, head of One Korea Center, a website specializing in North Korean affairs, wrote on Facebook that Kim’s statement suggested that he’s taking a two-track approach of bolstering military capability and preparing for talks. But he said Kim is more likely to focus on boosting military strength and repeating his demand for the U.S. to withdraw its hostile policy than to hastily return to talks.” Associated Press, June 19th. Is phased reduction of nuclear weapons possible? Perhaps, but it would only be partial and depend heavily on a reduction in US nuclear weapons in the region as well plus a negotiated lifting of US economic sanctions. The reality is that trying completely to denuclearize the North is a train that has long since left the station.

I’m Peter Dekom, and there will always be a gigantic trust issue in any possible agreement given North Korea’s history of keeping its word.

Growing Limitations on Qualified Candidates

 Official photograph of Iran President Rouhani (left)

                with President-Elect Raisi

The notion of “free and fair elections” is eroding fast in so many parts of the world. In Russia, for example, Vladimir Putin’s administration at first tried to poison the only viable opposition candidate, Alexey Navalny, and then when he had recovered in a hospital in Germany, he was instantly jailed upon his return to Moscow. People’s Republic of China’s President, Xi Jinping, defying the hand-over treaty with the UK guaranteeing a continuation of the British legal system until 2047, removed candidates from running for Hong Kong elected positions who did not fully support Beijing’s repressive laws against free speech. 

Examples of pretend democracy, where candidates who do not tow the party line are simply disqualified, are everywhere. The latest example is the late June presidential election in Iran, reflecting the leadership that President Biden has to deal with if there is any hope of a negotiated re-containment of Iran’s renewed refining of weapons-grade fissionable nuclear materials.

“Iran's hard-line judiciary chief won the country's presidential election in a landslide victory Saturday, propelling the supreme leader's protege into Tehran's highest civilian position in a vote that appeared to see the lowest turnout in the Islamic Republic's history.

“Initial results showed Ebrahim Raisi won 17.8 million votes in the contest, dwarfing those of the race's sole moderate candidate. However, Raisi dominated the election only after a panel under the watch of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei disqualified his strongest competition.

“His candidacy, and the sense the election served more as a coronation for him, sparked widespread apathy among eligible voters in the Islamic Republic, which has held up turnout as a sign of support for the theocracy since its 1979 Islamic Revolution. Some, including former hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, called for a boycott.” CBSNews.com, June 19th. Writing for the June 19th Informed Comment, Juan Cole provides more details on this Islamist clone president-elect:

“[Ebrahim Raisi] was born in 1960 into a family of clerics claiming descent from the Prophet Muhammad in the Nowghan district of Mashhad, the largest city in Iran’s northeast at a population of 3 million (i.e., Chicago inside city limits). He studied in seminary in Mashhad, known as a bastion of religious conservatism and the site of the shrine to the eighth Imam or successor of the Prophet Muhammad in Shiism, Imam Reza…

“At age 15 in 1975, he went to another holy city, Qom, for higher seminary studies. This was a time of popular ferment against the iron rule of the then king or shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlevi, whose policies had an anti-clerical and secular streak that angered Iran’s Shiite clergymen. In Qom… he also studied toward an MA in International Law and did all but dissertation work in Islamic Law after the Revolution at Shahid Motahhari University. He doesn’t seem ever to have actually been awarded any degrees.”

“[Beginning in 1980, Raisi pursued a career as a public prosecutor in Karaj, then Tehran.] In 1988 there was a massacre in jail of some 5,000 People’s Jihadis, and Raisi was implicated in it. (The official Iranian account did not mention this role for him, as a result of which he has been sanctioned by the US and others, so that he cannot travel internationally.)… In 1988, as well, Ayatollah Rohullah Khomeini appointed him to deal with judicial issues in Laristan, Kermanshah and Simnan… He ran for president in 2017 against Hassan Rouhani, but Rouhani had just achieved the 2015 nuclear deal with the UN Security Council, and had the advantages of incumbency, and Raisi did poorly.

“[After a series of rising appointments, D]uring the past two years Raisi has been Iran’s chief justice. He often imposed for the death penalty, and even executed one man for drinking alcohol. He is a notorious hanging judge with no respect for individual liberties.

“It was after Trump destroyed the nuclear deal in 2018 and imposed a wide-ranging economic blockade on Iran that the economy tanked, and Rouhani looked like a chump for trusting the United States, so that the centrists plummeted in popularity. Hence, Raisi will likely win a big majority in this round, though it isn’t that he is popular. It is just that the Guardian Council refused to allow centrists and pragmatists to run, so that Raisi [had] little competition, and the centrists and left-liberals in the Iranian electorate say they [didn’t] bother to vote.” Hard-liners rule Iran. Culling candidates who do not accept fiercely limited conservative need not apply; it’s voter suppression on steroids.

For our skeptical wagging heads, we know this is wrong. But so many Americans and elected officials see nothing wrong with new laws making minority access to the ballot box more difficult than at any time since Jim Crow laws were purportedly removed. They obviously weren’t. The example is further illustrated in the dramatic culling of non-Trump-supporting candidates – a party with a very minimalistic “whatever Trump wants” platform – from their ranks. We seem to be slowly but clearly moving towards a rather undemocratic form of government.

I’m Peter Dekom, and as we see an increasing number of Americans willfully embracing a white, traditional Christian autocracy as their favored choice of government, can the United States survive as a nation?