Summit for Democracy

[pecksniff]

Going on now.

Washington (CNN)President Joe Biden on Thursday took the next step in his plans to promote democracy against rising autocracies when he convened a virtual "Summit for Democracy," which hosted more than 100 participants representing governments, civil society and private-sector leaders.

"In the face of sustained and alarming challenges to democracy, universal human rights, and all around the world, democracy needs champions," Biden said as he kicked off the summit.

The President continued: "I wanted to host this summit because ... here in the United States we know as well as anyone that renewing our democracy and strengthening our democratic institutions requires constant effort."
"American democracy is an ongoing struggle to live up to our highest ideals and to heal our divisions and recommit ourselves to the founding idea of our nation captured in our Declaration of Independence, not unlike many of your documents," Biden said, calling it the "defining challenge of our time."

The virtual gathering of leaders is focused on combating corruption, defending against authoritarianism and promoting human rights. It's part of a broader theme Biden has frequently reinforced throughout his time in office -- that the global competition of the 21st century is one defined by democracies versus autocracies and America has a responsibility in ensuring democracies prevail.

Biden announced the establishment of the Presidential Initiative for Democratic Renewal, which will build on the US' ongoing work to bolster democracy and defend human rights around the world.

What will come of this, beyond talk? If it's a summit of leaders of already democratic countries, is it just preaching to the choir?

 

[Rightguide]

Nothing will come of it. In a couple of days Biden won't remember he was there.

 

[pecksniff]

Meanwhile, the PRC is fighting back (words only).

Does U.S.-style democracy “realize dreams or create nightmares?” It appears to have turned evil like Voldemort, the dark wizard of the Harry Potter franchise. Young President Biden must have eaten too much KFC and McDonald’s, leading to a belief that democracy is like a fast-food chain with the United States supplying the ingredients.

These are among the odd arguments and analogies deployed in recent days during a Chinese Communist Party propaganda blitz to claim that China is as much a democracy as the United States. After China was excluded — along with Russia and other nations deemed autocratic — from Biden’s “Summit for Democracy” this week, Chinese state media, think tanks and officials have lined up to take potshots at the event.

But aside from mudslinging and off-color humor, the campaign also betrays Beijing’s desire to redefine international norms and present its controlling, one-party political system as not just legitimate but ideologically superior to liberal multiparty democracies.

A decade ago, China’s ambition to change the world’s political structures was less clear, but “now I think they genuinely do want to change the world on an ideological level,” said Charles Parton, an associate fellow at the Council on Geostrategy, a British think tank.

The former British diplomat added that the propaganda messages may appear ineffective to Western observers, but they will strike a chord with Beijing’s intended domestic audience and help Chinese leader Xi Jinping legitimize his monopoly on power.

 

[pecksniff]

Nothing will come of it. In a couple of days Biden won't remember he was there.

He's no more senile than you are, probably less.

 

[pecksniff]

Colbert's take.

 

[KeithD]

I'd like Biden to be more proactive in defending democracy but at least he's trying in contrast to Donald Trump and company and the board Trumpettes, who are trying to tear it down.

 

[GothTalk]

I'd like Biden to be more proactive in defending democracy but at least he's trying in contrast to Donald Trump and company and the board Trumpettes, who are trying to tear it down.

"Defending Democracy"..... you mean like subverting our borders and immigration laws so your tribe gets it's way???

Your lot undermines democracy so much just what are you trying to preserve exactly??? Nothing but the power to bully and steal.... that's all you and yours want. Just a bunch of Kim Jung Un wannabes.

 

[LittleDixie]

Joe: "Okay, so I'll announce my vaccine mandate at 8:00, and then I'll be speaking about the importance of individual choice in elections at 8:30."

 

[Cubantripod]

I'd like Biden to be more proactive in defending democracy but at least he's trying in contrast to Donald Trump and company and the board Trumpettes, who are trying to tear it down.

Democracy is terrible form of government. The framers understood that and established a representative form of government centered around liberty. Biden and the rest of the fools are using democracy to undermine liberty.

 

[Bud_Spencer]

I just have to laugh at the spectacle of progressives touting democracy, when they've done everything in their power for a century to subvert it.

 

[BidudeinWi]

Going on now.



What will come of this, beyond talk? If it's a summit of leaders of already democratic countries, is it just preaching to the choir?

More Fake News CNN!

 

[Rightguide]

He's no more senile than you are, probably less.

He doesn't know what to do without being told. Nobody tells me what to do.

 

[pecksniff]

And the Chinese are still at it. Now they're calling democracy a "weapon of mass destruction."

'Democracy' has long become a 'weapon of mass destruction' used by the US to interfere in other countries," a foreign ministry spokesperson said in an online statement, which also accused the US of having "instigated 'colour revolutions'" overseas.

The ministry also claimed the summit was organised by the US to "draw lines of ideological prejudice, instrumentalise and weaponise democracy... (and) incite division and confrontation."

Instead, Beijing vowed to "resolutely resist and oppose all kinds of pseudo-democracies".

Ahead of the summit, China ramped up a propaganda blitz criticising US democracy as corrupt and a failure.

Instead, it touted its own version of "whole-process people's democracy" in a white paper released last week that aimed to shore up legitimacy for the ruling Communist Party, which has become increasingly authoritarian under President Xi Jinping.

While the US has repeatedly denied there will be another Cold War with China, tensions between the world's two largest economies have spiralled in recent years over issues including trade and technological competition, human rights, Xinjiang and Taiwan.

The US Treasury on Friday sanctioned two high-level Chinese officials for human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region and placed Chinese AI surveillance firm SenseTime on a blacklist for its facial recognition technology targeting the Uyghur minority.

 

[pecksniff]

He doesn't know what to do without being told.

And who's telling him? Not Jill, not Obama, and not the CCP.

 

[pecksniff]

Democracy is terrible form of government. The framers understood that and established a representative form of government centered around liberty. Biden and the rest of the fools are using democracy to undermine liberty.

If we ever have to choose between the two, we should always choose democracy.

 

[pecksniff]

I just have to laugh at the spectacle of progressives touting democracy, when they've done everything in their power for a century to subvert it.

Progressives have been the primary force for expansion of democracy for the past 100 years. It was the progressives of the early 20th Century that invented the referendum and recall initiatives. It was the progressives of the 1960s that demanded enfranchisement of AAs.

 

[pecksniff]

"Defending Democracy"..... you mean like subverting our borders and immigration laws so your tribe gets it's way???

There is no electoral agenda in Dem immigration policy. Immigrants don't vote. Their children might, but nobody thinks that far ahead in politics -- they don't even think in terms of the timescale naturalization of the present generation of immigrants will require.

 

[Cubantripod]

If we ever have to choose between the two, we should always choose democracy.

That's why the polarization continues. A society where 51% of the population can silence the other 49% is one step above mob rule. It's why the framers didn't set up a direct democracy. They set up a republic centered around liberty.

 

[LupusDei]

I wonder none of the trolls have yet jumped the kerfuffle with the map. Taiwan video was shut down unexpectedly. Perhaps technical reasons, perhaps the map showing "openness" of society and, obviously, Taiwan in green while (mainland) China in red.

The "strategic ambiguity" is ridiculous thing. It's long overdue to recognize Taiwanese independence for what it is. Then, I guess, they have to do it themselves first, and declare it finally. The window to do so might be short.

 

[pecksniff]

That's why the polarization continues. A society where 51% of the population can silence the other 49% is one step above mob rule.

No -- mob rule is disorderly. The focus of a mob's anger can shift 180 degrees in a moment. Democracy doesn't work like that.

 

[Cubantripod]

No -- mob rule is disorderly. The focus of a mob's anger can shift 180 degrees in a moment. Democracy doesn't work like that.

We would do it sooner if election didn't happen every two years. The president almost always loses Congress in the midterm.

 

[BidudeinWi]

Going on now.



What will come of this, beyond talk? If it's a summit of leaders of already democratic countries, is it just preaching to the choir?

Blah blah blah….more Fake News from Pedo Central, CNN!

Let’s Go Brandon!!

 

[pecksniff]

We would do it sooner if election didn't happen every two years. The president almost always loses Congress in the midterm.

But that never leads to mob rule.

 

[BabyBoomer50s]

Hey Peck, when can we expect you to report back on measurable goals and results from this big Zoom meeting?

 

[pecksniff]

Hey Peck, when can we expect you to report back on measurable goals and results from this big Zoom meeting?

How could this sort of summit ever have measurable results? That does not mean it's not worth doing.