In a little-noticed move before the U.S. presidential election, the Trump administration bestowed another major gift upon Israel’s right-wing government, lifting restrictions on U.S. funding of joint U.S.-Israeli research projects in illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine.
The Trump campaign has filed two lawsuits in federal court over ballot counting and voting deadlines in Pennsylvania, threatening to take the election to the Supreme Court. Both consciously echo the two main legal theories of Bush v. Gore, the infamous Supreme Court case that decided the contested 2000 presidential election.
But this race is not likely to be decided by the Supreme Court.
There are several reasons, sitting at the intersection of law and politics, why the ghosts of Florida past won’t rise again in Pennsylvania. As a law professor who’s authored a book on election reform, I rate success in Trump’s efforts to wrench back Biden’s lead through litigation as a real long shot, though not out of the question.
Major wins for democracy in the Americas have occurred in the past two months: in Bolivia and Chile in October, extending into the November 3 U.S. elections. Toward Freedom salutes the citizens of all three countries for their determination to defeat authoritarianism. We hope the following images will serve as inspiration to progressive forces around the world.
In Bolivia: a near-landslide victory occurred for the left-wing Movimiento al socialismo (MAS) and its presidential candidate, Luis Arce, in the country’s national elections in mid-October.
Overhauling U.S Foreign Policy: The Bitter Fights Ahead
This article was first published in Foreign Policy in Focus and is reproduced here under a Creative Commons license.
If Trump loses, we can’t just go back to the status quo. On foreign policy especially, movements need to be ready to push a new administration hard.
By William Minter, Imani Countess, October 16, 2020.
The most consequential election year in most of our lifetimes has featured stark crises unspooling against a backdrop of vigorous activist mobilizations and simmering public outrage. President Trump may lose his reelection bid, but that will not be enough. We need fundamental change rather than a return to the status quo ante.
Copyright Toward Freedom 2019