On the ballot in Virginia on Tuesday: Fascism v. Democracy

Posted By: James Rowles October 31, 2021

Developing

See

1) Max Boot, “Sorry, Glenn Youngkin. Trump is the biggest issue in Virginia — and in every other state,” Washington Post, October 31, 2021 (1:41 p.m. EDT).

2) “Will America elect a fascist President?”The Trenchant Observer, November 2, 2021.

Last week Max Boot called for the investigation of Donald Trump’s crimes by Merrick Garland and the Department of Justice. Today he points out in his opinion column in the Washington Post that the only issue on the ballot in Virginia on Tuesday is whether to uphold democracy, or to vote for a blimd loyalist of Donald Trump, who is leading the Republican anti-democratic movement to overthrow the last election and to rig the next one.

One thing has become clear about all Republicans in Washington, with only a few exceptions: They do not deal with others, including the electorate, in good faith. The one thing you can count on them to do is to lie, and to act in bad faith.

In other words, the vote is not on the wedge issues of “critical race theory”—a hardly-disguised dog whistle making an openly racist appeal for support–or the supposed “right” of parents to control what books their children read in school,. Rather, the vote is on the fundamental issue of whether we are going to uphold our fragile democracy in America, or rather choose the fascist candidate who supports The Big Lie and Trump’s other lies, and who can be counted on to support the efforts of Donald Trump and his allies to overthrow the Constitution of this country if necessary to seize and maintain themselves power.

Relatively few pundits have had the courage to speak so clearly and so forthrightly as Max Boot. Those who have spoken out are among the best journalists in the country.

They must continue to speak out, and to counter Trump’s mass propaganda to do so again and again, and again.

Boot is absolutely correct, and has his finger on the what will be the most important political issue in the United States for at least the next three years.

The Trenchant Observer

About the Author

James Rowles

"The Trenchant Observer" is edited and published by James Rowles (aka "The Observer"), an author and international lawyer who has taught International Law, Human Rights, and Comparative Law at major U.S. universities, including Harvard, Brandeis, the University of Pittsburgh, and the University of Kansas. Dr. Rowles is a former staff attorney at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the Organization of American States OAS), in Wasington, D.C., , where he was in charge of Brazil, Haiti, Mexico and the United States, and also worked on complaints from and reports on other countries including Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Guatemala. As an international development expert, he has worked on Rule of Law, Human Rights, and Judicial Reform in a number of countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and the Russian Federation. In the private sector, Dr. Rowles has worked as an international attorney for a leading national law firm and major global companies, on joint ventures and other matters in a number of countries in Europe (including Russia and the Ukraine), throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, and in Australia, Indonesia, Vietnam, China and Japan. The Trenchant Observer blog provides an unfiltered international perspective for news and opinion on current events, in their historical context, drawing on a daily review of leading German, French, Spanish and English newspapers as well as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and other American newspapers, and on sources in other countries relevant to issues being analyzed. Dr. Rowles speaks fluent English, French, German, Portuguese and Spanish, and also knows other languages. He holds an S.J.D. or Doctor of Juridical Science in International Law from Harvard University, and a Doctor of Law (J.D.) and a Master of the Science of Law (J.S.M.=LL.M.), from Stanford University. As an undergraduate, he received a Bachelor of Arts degree, also from Stanford, where he graduated “With Great Distinction” (summa cum laude) and received the James Birdsall Weter Prize for the best Senior Honors Thesis in History. In addition to having taught as a Lecturer on Law at Harvard Law School, Dr. Rowles has been a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University's Center for International Affairs (CFIA). His fellowships include a Stanford Postdoctoral Fellowship in Law and Development, the Rómulo Gallegos Fellowship in International Human Rights awarded by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and a Harvard MacArthur Fellowship in International Peace and Security. Beyond his articles in The Trenchant Observer, he is the author of two books and numerous scholarly articles on subjects of international and comparative law. Currently he is working on a manuscript drawing on some the best articles that have appeared in the blog.