Ballot box
A year of global elections shows a battle between nationalism, liberalism
In 1989, the Berlin Wall fell, ushering in a wave of regime change that overwhelmed dictatorships around the world. At the same time, political scientist Francis Fukuyama wrote about the then-apparent triumph of liberal democracy. In “The End of History,” Fukuyama spoke on the idea that liberal democracy was an endpoint every country would gradually reach, even if haltingly.
Now, 35 years after the Berlin Wall’s fall, history has shown that it’s not over. Oxford professor Ben Ansell says we are witnessing a battle between nationalism and liberalism that will indelibly mark our time in the history books of tomorrow.
This year alone, the greatest number of people ever were able to vote in elections — but not always democratic ones. Half of the world’s population — 4 billion people — live in countries where elections took place in 2024. Only around half of those were in countries where the elections could be viewed as free and fair.
Elections in India were marred by the disqualification and arrests of opposition leaders; in Mexico, elections were tarnished by violence; elections in Turkey and Pakistan witnessed accusations of voter fraud and party interference; and in some particularly authoritarian cases, such as Venezuela, Bangladesh and Russia, the elections were systematically biased in favor of the ruling party.
Even when the idea of national elections is not taken seriously, they have prevailed, showing that democracy will always have a fighting chance. Ansell dives into this year’s elections as part of NPR’s 2024 Year of Global Elections series.
US House of Reps passes bill to fund government in crucial step towards averting shutdown
For now, the Senate is still expected to vote by midnight on the bill passed by the House earlier on Friday.
Still, it is very possible that if it is passed by the Senate, Biden may not have time to approve it before that swiftly-approaching deadline.
This would be a scenario similar to what played out last March.
Then the government technically closed for a few hours early on Saturday morning before Biden signed a budget agreement into law.
Disruptions were not widespread at the time, but some delays were reported at airports.
The spending bill that could prevent a government shutdown – which is set to begin in three hours – is in the hands of the Senate.
The chamber appears to have the numbers to approve the bill, but it takes only one senator to delay things. That lawmaker may be Sen. Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican.
An outspoken fiscal hawk, Paul took to the Senate floor just now to oppose the bill because it includes spending that he says will put the US further into debt.
Paul argues the US should set priorities and decide whether it can afford to fund Ukraine or issues at home, and not choose to fund everything.
He says he will offer amendments to the legislation, which will then have to be debated on the Senate floor.
That will cause a delay, although we’re not sure for how long.
Earlier this evening, Paul offered some amendments to disaster aid legislation, specifically to tackle concerns he had that wealthy individuals could take advantage to a government insurance program. The attempts were immediately shot down.
House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries has spoken to media about the spending bill that his fellow Democrats voted in favour of.
He says they “successfully stopped the billionaire boys club, which wanted a $4 trillion blank cheque by suspending the debt ceiling”.
Jeffries called the vote a victory for the American people, but said there’s still work ahead and they “look forward to that fight in the New Year”.
While we wait for word from the Senator floor, where the spending bill could soon be voted on, let’s rewind to a memorable moment from earlier in the day.
Before House members voted, Republican lawmaker Mark Alford had a few words to say – and they all rhymed.
He started: “’twas five days before Christmas and all through this house, not a lawmaker was resting, not even their spouse”.
If you want to listen to the rest of his poem, click play on the video above.
Only Republicans voted against the spending bill on the House floor on Friday Night, which passed 366 to 34.
Congressman Chip Roy of Texas was one of them.
“While this bill was a marked improvement on the 1,547 page ‘cramnibus’ that was released earlier this week, it still included $110 billion in supplemental funding with no offsets or pay-fors, which I cannot support,” he wrote in a post on X.
Tennessee Congressman Tim Burchett voted no, he said in a video posted to social media.
He questioned why Democrats voted in support of the legislation when they did the opposite 24 hours earlier.
“I just feel like we got played. It just doesn’t make any sense with them trashing it and then all voting for it,” he said.
Congressman Andy Biggs of Arizona also voted it down.
“I voted against continuing to bankrupt our future generations,” he wrote in a post on X.
Source: BBC