Democracy in Danger

The Democrats have come up short on President Biden’s spending package, failing to deliver $555 billion for renewable energy that climate advocates say was direly needed. This week we dust off an episode on the relationship between good government and climate policy. Science journalist Kendra Pierre-Louis says better individual choices won’t really address the looming ecological crisis. She argues instead for international reparations and a wholesale shift in social norms, including a healthy dose of shame.

This isn’t and never has been a podcast about “Democrats” in danger. But in the United States, one political party epitomizes the antidemocratic moment: Republicans remain devoted to a corrupt leader, intent on suppressing the vote and hostile to racial justice. This week, after GOP politicians simply ghosted the Jan. 6 commemoration in Congress, we’re replaying a show that takes a hard look at their party — with help from a former Republican congresswoman who has dared to call out former President Trump.

Jamelle Bouie and Nicole Hemmer return to the show this week for a special conversation looking back on the siege of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — and looking forward at the prospects for democracy in the post-Trump era. Both the country’s political leaders and the media, our guests say, have been reluctant to embrace a rhetoric of emergency to define the moment. And as lawmakers investigate the attack, the window is closing on enacting genuine reforms to ensure voting rights and fair elections.

When Narendra Modi became India’s prime minister in 2014, he promised economic growth and relief from the corrupt and calcified Congress Party. Instead, Modi has stifled dissent, championed Hindu nationalism, undermined democratic institutions and assailed India’s Muslim minority. Last spring and summer, on his watch, the coronavirus delta variant took a devastating toll. Now omicron is rearing its head. Will Modi oversee yet another catastrophe? With that in mind, we revisit this episode from Season Two.

The drumbeat of war is sounding at the doorstep of eastern Ukraine. In Poland, desperate migrants from the Middle East and Afghanistan had to flee from tear gas and water cannons. And Hungary’s right-wing dictator is cracking down on any hint of dissent. Liberated from the grip of authoritarian rule 30 years ago, Eastern Europe has become a tinderbox — and a headache for U.S. diplomats. Two seasoned experts on the region discuss the latest on these dilemmas, and what America’s role in solving them might be.

Myo Yan Naung Thein had to be smuggled out of his country last spring or face certain torture and death. A leader in Myanmar’s pro-democracy movement, Naung Thein worked in the National League for Democracy, the party of deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Now in exile in the United States, Naung Thein shares his gripping tale, and explains why he thinks the Burmese military regime is losing.

A wave of extraordinary protest came to Cuba in July. Thousands hit the streets to call for more civil liberties, cheaper food and better health care, in a nation whose leaders for decades have defended socialism, at least in words. This week, NYU scholar Ada Ferrer brings some historical perspective to the circumstances in her native country, and our producer considers the island’s uncertain prospects for homegrown activism unafraid of repression and political transformation free of American interference.

Mexico’s murder rate has tripled in 15 years, even as the country enjoys a robust multiparty electoral system, a growing economy and a vibrant civil society. That mixed fate is common across Latin America, as the region struggles to overcome its colonial past and face the problems of the present: violence, inequality and agonizing migrations. Sociologist Gema Kloppe-Santamaría says there is common ground on which the Americas, together, can build a better future. Listen back to this episode from the spring.

Four years after far-right demonstrators came to Charlottesville, Va., victims of the mayhem are suing the rally’s organizers. At the core of their federal lawsuit is the 19th-century KKK Act — and thousands of texts and social media posts shared on the dark web. This month two media experts joined us for a conversation about the trial, taped live just a mile from the courthouse where jurors are weighing the facts. Here’s an edited version of that show, the first in our series on democracy “hot spots.”