American Democracy Still Up for Grabs

As Donald Trump rapidly fades from public life, it would be easy to imagine that the threat to America’s democracy has passed. Joe Biden’s first few months of administration have been competent, stable and popular. A degree of normalcy appears to be returning. Yet, rather than reflect on a brand that has lost the popular vote in seven of the last eight elections, Republicans have chosen instead to double-down on their commitment to minority rule. Driven in part by the…

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Exiled at his golf club in Florida and barely seen since leaving office, Donald Trump is to once again take centre stage as a second Senate impeachment trial commences on February 8th. The trial is unprecedented – and bizarre – in a number of ways. A conviction would merely remove a man from a job he has already left. The President is accused of inciting violent insurrection, so his Senate jurors were also the intended victims of the crime. Yet…

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This is really bad. Following the most consequential attack on America’s seat of government since 1814, new information is coming to light that suggests an even darker, more sinister side to the story. After days of pressuring Mike Pence to illegally overturn the electoral college results, Donald Trump held a rally in Washington on 6th January, the same day Congress was preparing to vote on what would be the final confirmation of Joe Biden’s win before the inauguration. Speakers at…

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When Nelson Mandela became President of South Africa in 1994, he faced a dilemma. The leaders of the now fallen apartheid regime had presided over a system that routinely imprisoned, tortured and killed many of its black citizens, and an entire generation of white politicians faced trial and imprisonment for clear and outrageous human rights violations. Mandela had more reason than most to thirst for retribution, having endured nearly three decades of imprisonment, but wisely recognised that healing his nation’s…

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