The Struggle for Revenge Must End

 

                            Saving Democracies from International Antagonists is Crucial!

Why?  Because Anti-democratic Antagonists want Democracies to become extinct and “replace them” with Authoritarian rulers [Dictators, Putin in Russia], or with Religious Rulers [Theocracies, religious leaders in Iran and Afghanistan].  Antagonists purposefully activate political and religious destabilization Internationally to accomplish these goals, with Wars, with fascistical Nationally inclined Political Parties [The Brothers of Italy], and Extremist Religious-Right Fundamentalists [ISIS, the Islamic State].  Communist and Autocratic Leaders are Antagonists, as they govern within Authoritarian governmental systems which despise the principles of a Democracy, such as civil rights, freedoms, equality, the rule of law and much more.  The U.S. Antagonists are the Extreme Right-Wing ideologists, which include the Christian-Coalition and Evangelicals, also, the White Supremacists, Civil War advocates, and former President Donald J. Trump and his ‘Make America Great Again’ [MAGA] followers, who prefer their dictatorial and religious philosophies to govern U.S. laws and its population, namely Authoritarianism. 

Is the United States’ Democracy in Jeopardy?  Example:  In the U.S. Constitution, the First Amendment (1791) states: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…The Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses…Secularism = meaning, Separation of Church and State” ( https://www.senate.gov).  However, Religious-Right advocates in the United States for years have pursued, and accomplished to modify, not only the Secularism meaning in the First Amendment, but they have incorporated their religious beliefs in State and Federal offices in America, including the establishment of a Faith-Based Office in the White House, created by President George W. Bush, receiving funding for their Religious Programs.  Most of the following Presidents have kept some form of Faith-Based Office as well, including President Joe Biden.  Further, recognized IRSChurches and Charity Organizations are exempt from Federal Taxation (IRS Exempt Organizations, https://www.irs.gov, retrieved on April 24, 2024;  “The Faith-Based Initiative Controversy” in FRONTLINE, the Jesus Factor, an old PB.pdf, posted April 29, 2004, retrieved at https://www.pbs.org;  Oberbauer, 2007, Separation of Church and State: U.S. Constitutional Law in Conflict, Oxford University, in Oxford, England, in the Forum on Public Policy Journals Online, https://www.forumonpublicpolicy.com, Vol 2007 no3).  The Problem?  The more ‘certain’ religious beliefs continue being integrated into U.S. governmental offices and laws, the less our protections on religious freedom are being protected by the First Amendment, including U.S. Democracy.  

Religious-Right advocates strategically place their followers into prominent positions within state and federal Legislatures; the Executive Branch; into both U.S. Congressional Chambers; into the States' Judicial Systems and Federal Judicial Systems; into right-leaning media outlets, and academics in higher education (ibid). Three Conservative-Right Federal Judges [Originalists] were appointed by former President Trump and confirmed by the U.S. Senate into the Supreme Court during his four-year Presidency (Retrieved from: Legal Information Institute, Wex Definitions Team, Originalism, May 2022,  https://www.Law.Cornell.edu ).  

The result: the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Abortion Decision in “Roe v. Wade” (1973) with their “Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization” Decision on June 24, 2022, with a majority  6-votes from  Conservative-Right Justices to 3-votes from the Dissent Justices (Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Supreme Court Decision,  19-1392 Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (06/24/2022).  The Supreme Court decision in Dobbs specified that Abortion issues are now up to each of the 50 U.S. States’ Legislatures to decide on, which has caused personal dilemma for many women, and more political division on the Abortion issue in each State.  After the Dobbs decision, 13 Conservative States with Trigger Laws and majorities of Religious-Right Law makers, have been legislating pre-Roe v. Wade laws on Abortion, which are much stricter Abortion Laws (Neelam Patel.  Abortion “Trigger” Ban:  Impacts on Plan B, Birth Control, and IVF /Treatments, retrieved from The Georgetown Journal of Gender and the Law, Vol. XX111, Issue 3, 2022 https://law.georgetown.edu).

Oberbauer  2

Internationally:  Vladimir Putin, an extreme anti-democratic Antagonist, invaded his neighbor, Ukraine, in February 2022.  This was an imperialistic invasion of the Sovereign State of Ukraine.  Putin’s purpose:  to annihilate Ukrainian Democracy, the Ukrainian population, and sweep the Sovereign State of Ukraine back into Russian domain!  Continually, for over two years now, Putin has had his military viciously bomb direct hits on numerous buildings in Ukrainian Cities, killing many adults and children heartlessly.  Six million Ukranians have migrated to Europe, and since February 2024, 6.5 million have migrated to Worldwide safety areas (Statista Research Department, March 13, 2024, https://statista.com;  SkyNews, UK, January 1, 2024   https://www.news.sky.com ). 

Political and religious destabilization affecting Democracies occur in areas of the Middle East, Iran, the Israel-Hamas War, as well in Africa, India, Asia, Central and South American Countries [Venezuela], to name a few.  Russia and China have invested heavily in many of these countries: improvements to their infrastructure, security protection, economic growth and trade.  In some cases, the new Leaders mimic Russia’s and China’s dictatorial styles over their populations, by taking down their leaders with military coup d'états because they have a distaste with how Democracy functions!  For instance, in Africa:  Burkina Faso, Burundi, Niger, Sudan, and unfortunately more (Charles A. Ray, March 10, 2022, Foreign Policy Research Institute, https://www.fpri.org;  https://www.Freedomhouse.org, 2023 Ed).  

Is Secularism and Democracy in India in jeopardy?  Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent blessing of the majestic Hindu Rama Temple in the City of Ayodhya, revealed to his Hindu voters, his intent to have the Hindu Religion closely united to the government of India, while blatantly demolishing Muslim mosques.  Modi’s incremental Autocratic leaning to the Right in his policymaking during his present Term, has made his citizenry worry that India’s Constitution and religious protections within their Democracy are vanishing (Sophie Landrin and Uttar Pradesh, January 22, 2024, pub. Le Monde,  https://www.lemonde.fr). The present 2024 Lok Sabha elections [India’s 543 members in Parliament] run from April 19, 2024 – June 1, 2024, with results on June 4, 2024 (www.thetimesofindia.indiatimes.com).

In European Union Countries such as Hungary, Slovakia, the Netherlands, Italy and Sweden, a majority of citizens have elected Right-Wing Conservative candidates over candidates who protect Democratic values like ‘exotic identity’.  Why?  Because of too much foreign immigration into their countries.  The conservative voters now want leaders with illiberalistic ideologies that support ‘Far-Right’ populism, national identity, and exclusion of foreigners (Armida van Rij.  "A solid bloc of Eurosceptic parties in power is cause for concern."  November 24, 2023, at Chatham House,  https://www.chathamhouse.org).

Another political/religious/territorial/Democracy destabilation in the Middle East:  On October 7, 2023, the Palestinian Islamic Militant Group Hamas attacked Israel.  Hamas, an Islamic Party, exercised defacto authority in Gaza after the 2006 Palestinian Legislative Council Elections.  Fatah, the secular Party that was defeated in 2006, since then, has led the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.  There is no Democracy in Gaza nor opportunity to vote.  On October 7, 2023, 1,139 Israelis and foreign nationals, including 764 civilians, were killed, and 248 persons taken hostage (Center for Strategic Studies, December 19, 2023, www.csis.org;  Robert Barron. “Palestinian Politics Timeline: Since the 2006 Election.” The United States Institute of Peace, June 25, 2019,  https://www.usip.org).

A Brief Historical Background:  In 1917, the Balfour Declaration, a statement published by the British Government, promising the Jewish Community [Nationalists/Zionists] in England, that a “Jewish National Home” would be established in Arab territory [in Palestine] one day.  The Declaration overlooked the dominant number of Palestinians also living in Palestine for centuries as well. When WWI ended in 1918, the Brits had charge of Palestine after the downfall of the Ottoman Empire.   By 1920, the Jewish immigration to Palestine had grown “from 56,000 to 650,000 in 1948, along with one million Arabs.   In 1947, after World War II, the United Nations proposed a two-State solution to both the Jewish leadership and the Palestinians living in Palestine.  By now, the Brits had left Palestine.  The Jewish leaders agreed to the UN proposal, but the Palestinians refused the UN proposal.  Fighting erupted into War.  The Israelis won the war in 1948, including the Statehood of Israel.  As a result, almost 500,000 Palestinians fled to refugee camps in Egyptian controlled Gaza, and another 400,000 settled in an area called the West Bank, under the control of Jordan  (Interactiv-Timeline: Palestine Remix, https://remix.aljazeera.com; Oxford Research Encyclopedias; Creation of Israel, 1948: Office of the Historian, 2021,  https://www.state.gov;  https://www.History.com 2021; James N. Danziger. 2013, Understanding the Political World, pp. 337-338. Eleventh Edition. pub: Pearson)!

                                                                                                                                       Oberbauer  3

Palestinians and Israelis have had 75 years of territorial, political and religious confrontations. The Palestinians see ‘their land’ to be occupied by Israeli rule.  Both sides have since caused the loss of thousands of innocent citizens: one side having Statehood and identity, the other side a Nation of people left with being occupied with no State recognition.  Since May 13, 2024, “…over 36,000 people have been killed in this War:  35,273 Palestinians killed and 76,980 wounded in Gaza by Israeli attacks, and in occupied West Bank 485 killed including children, more than 4,800 wounded.   Also, 1,413 Israelis killed, including 97 journalists (92 Palestinian, 2 Israeli, and 3 Lebanese), over 224 Humanitarian Aid Workers, and over 179 UNRWA employees killed.”  The majority of Palestinians killed have been women and children (Update, May 18, 2024 https://Aljazeera.com).  To-date, no solutions!  This War is about hatred, religious differences, and unending occupation of the Palestinian area by Israel.  And to-date, over 100 hostages still remain captive somewhere in Gaza (Edna Mohamed, Live Updates, April 21, 2024, https://Aljazeera.com;  Stephen Quillen, Maziar Motamedi and Usaid Siddiqui.  “Israel’s war on Gaza updates: Deadly strike on centre housing displaced,” 29 March, 2024, https://Aljazeera.com;  WafAA Shurafa and Samy Magdy.  AP News. February 20, 2024, www.apnews.com; Palestinian-Health-MinistryGaza@mohenglish 3). 

The only Solution:  President Biden must finally be very ‘clear’ to Netanyahu and his extremist Right-Wing advisors, that enough is enough ‘payback’ in this War!  All Hamas followers will never be annihilated, as Netanyahu and his extremist Right-Wing advisors claim to accomplish. With the horrific destruction, killing, and starvation of the innocent Palestinians that Netanyahu and his Right-Wing government and military have achieved through bombing and direct shooting of innocent individuals in Gaza and the West Bank, and more to come; this only energizes the remaining Hamas advocates and their Allies to ‘hate’ Israelis more.  The danger is that their ‘payback’ to Israel may be heavy once this War is over, and possibly toward the United States as well for its strong and continued support to Israel. The U.S., its Middle East and International Allies must continue to coordinate negotiations with both the Palestinian and Israeli leadership being at the table.  Peace will only be restored in the Middle East when this War Stops, and the Palestinians are no longer led by Hamas, they are no longer occupied; instead, have become an internationally recognized State with a reliable, democratically led government!  Also, equally important: that Israelis soon elect a truly Democratic government and get rid of extremist-Right leaders!

As noted, the United States is struggling to maintain its Democracy.  Example:  on January 6th, 2021, an insurrection by an extremist-mob attempted a ‘coup d’etat’ to over-throw and stop the Capitol Legislators. The mob had signs stating to hang some U.S. Capitol Representatives, namely, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice-President Pence.   Pence, as President of the Senate for this procedure, had oversight of the counting and confirming of the Electoral College Votes out of each of the 50 U. S. States (Twelfth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution 1804 retrieved from U.S. Constitution-Senate_Publication_103-21 https://www.senate.gov).  

Multiple Court Trials since this insurrection confirmed, that this Coup attempt was the result of continuous lies and incitement statements by former President Donald J. Trump since the Election on November 3, 2020, stating again and again, “... the election was a fraud”.  Trump continually directed his followers to go to the Capitol at his rally on January 6, 2021, “…to take back the election” (Retrieved from: Brian Naylor, February 10, 2021, Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021, the entire video, PBS News Hour via You Tube, as published by the Associated Press, https://www.npr.org;   https://nationalarchives.gov).  Five persons died as a result of the attack at the U.S. Capitol, many were injured, hundreds of insurrectionists were tried, convicted, and now in jail (ibid).

                                                                                                                                              Oberbauer  4

Further antaganistic activities are continually being conducted by extreme Right-Wing Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives, along with their House Speaker Mike Johnson, by denying the 2024 Budget to be voted on in the full House for six months.  Speaker Johnson was also one of Trump’s attorneys that worked feverishly in State Courts to support Trump’s efforts and conspiracy theories regarding false voting procedures in U.S. State Courts to prove Trump won the 2020 Presidential Election, even though over 60 Court decisions across the U.S. in 2020 and 2021 confirmed the opposite (Updated: Mary Clare Jalonick, Michael R. Sisak, Nicholas Riccardi. “New US House Speaker tried to help overturn the 2020 election…”, October 26, 2023. Assoc. Press, www.apnews.com;  Lauren Fedor, October 25, 2023. Financial Times at www.ft.com).  

After six months of President Biden’s appealing to the House Speaker to compromise and agree with Biden and the U.S. Senate’s suggested 2024 Budget Bill, which also included financial aid and weaponry to Ukraine, funding for Israel and the Boarder Package.  Finally, on March 23 and 24, 2024, Johnson allowed a vote in the House for the 2024 Budget and it passed with Bipartisan votes.  However, he kept the Ukraine, Israeli and Boarder packages out of the document.  Then Finally, on Saturday, April 20, 2024, House Speaker Johnson allowed the Ukraine, Israel, and Boarder Bills to be voted on in the House, and each Bill was voted positively with bipartisan House members’ votes!  Speaker Johnson found his courage to have the full House vote, realizing that the World is looking at how the U.S. extremist Republican Representatives in the House have been behaving, instead of legislating Bills on U.S. security for the protection of the American population! 

Summer 2024 is near, and yet the struggles to maintain Democracy in the United States and in additional international Democratic countries continues.  Should former President Trump actually be elected President in November 2024, he and his followers will become even more Authoritarian oriented!  Should this happen, our U.S. Democracy might well be in imminent danger, because our Founding Fathers’ ‘Vision for Democracy’ would be severely destroyed by Autocrats!   Remember, the U.S. Constitution was created in 1787, ratified in 1788, and in operation since 1789 to be a ‘Democracy’!  It then was strengthened by our Founding Fathers with the Ten Bill of Rights in 1791, and later strengthened with seventeen more Amendments added into 1992 with the XXVII Amendment, to ensure that the United States remains a strong, independent, protected, and an exemplary representation of ‘Democracy’ (2 US_Constitution-Senate_Publication_103-21)!

Therefore, all democratically governed countries must continuously protect their Democracies, as Ukraine is doing at this very moment!  Democratically led governments must enable their populations to be well educated on ‘Why’ the values and protections included in their Democracy, such as civil rights, freedoms, rule of law, equality, separation of church and state, and no one is above the law, and more, are important to be kept and fought for, and not just taken for granted.  Finally, citizens of Democracies must also continue to safeguard and protect their countries from electing Despotic (authoritarian) Rulers.

Author, Angela Oberbauer, M.A.© 2024