Speaking at a Memorial Day observance last week, US President Joe Biden noted rather ominously, "our democracy is in peril". Politics, if we can even call it that, is so distorted and hyper-partisan that the shared values, comity and compromise needed for democracy to function have become endangered concepts.
One clear indicator of this sorry state of affairs is the extent to which Republicans have embraced former president Donald Trump's claim that the 2020 vote was marred by fraud. A recent poll shows that 70 per cent of Republican voters still believe that Mr Trump's victory was "stolen", and as a result do not accept Mr Biden as the legitimate president.
Instead of pushing back on this dangerous idea, Republican leaders are insisting that their elected officials accept this new official party dogma and act accordingly. Exhibit A in this phenomenon was the Senate Republican leadership's refusal to advance a bill in the House of Representatives that would have created a bipartisan commission to investigate the January 6 violent takeover of the Capitol Building, in an effort to stop the certification of the 2020 election. In doing so, it appears that the Republican Party has chosen to ignore the wakeup call of the insurrection, choosing instead to press the snooze button and go back to sleep.
Read More from James Zogby
Equally disturbing has been Republican behaviour on the national and state level.
Immediately following the January 6 certification vote and the January 13 vote to convict Mr Trump of having incited the violence that occurred at the Capitol, several of the party's state committees voted to censure those Republicans who voted either to ratify the election's outcome or to support the charge of incitement against Mr Trump.
The Republican congressional caucus ousted Congresswoman Liz Cheney from her leadership role in the House because she continued to reject forcefully the former president's claim. Ms Cheney has also been rebuked by her state party. Her re-election prospects are now in doubt.
Ms Cheney is being punished because she has refused to accept Mr Trump's claim, maintaining that those who continue to advocate what she calls the "big lie" only perpetuate the very issue that incited the January insurrection and takeover of the Capitol.
Acceptance of the "big lie" is also on display in those states where Republicans control both the governorship and the legislature. In the name of "election integrity", they are passing laws that will make voting more difficult for targeted groups of poor, elderly and minority voters. Such measures have already passed in 14 states and are in process in at least 18 more. A deeply troubling feature of some of these bills is a provision allowing the state legislature to overturn the decision of state election officials to certify election results. If permitted to stand, this provision could lead to chaos and undermine the integrity of future elections on the federal and state levels.
Putting an exclamation point on hyper-partisanship, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell recently made the frank admission that he is 100 per cent committed to blocking Mr Biden's agenda, thus making Republican calls for bipartisanship more of a tactic and a taunt than an honest appeal for constructive negotiations.
This crisis has been brewing for at least three decades. It began in 1995, when Republican lawmakers Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay assumed leadership in the Congress, bringing "slash and burn" politics to Washington. Throughout the remainder of former president Bill Clinton's term in office and into the two George W Bush terms thereafter, Democrats continued to play by the old rules, supporting compromise with the GOP on what were, in my opinion, often regressive pieces of legislation on a host of issues from welfare reform and border security, to tax cuts and education reform.
The crisis in American democracy has been brewing for at least three decades
Republicans were loath to operate in the same way during former president Barack Obama's time in office, with only one or two of their members breaking ranks to support compromise bills. Instead, the GOP not only refused to co-operate with Mr Obama, but also launched the Tea Party and encouraged the Birther Movement that denied Mr Obama was a legitimate president. Fuelled by right-wing talk radio and television, the poison of partisanship paved the way for Mr Trump's election.
While many conservative Republicans opposed Mr Trump and saw that he posed a danger to their party and democracy itself, they were hesitant to buck the mass movement they had created, fearing that it would turn against them. Some of these same conservatives assumed that with Mr Trump's defeat, the horror of January 6 and the former president's banishment from social media, the time had come to restore sanity to their party. But the GOP leadership's continued cowering in the face of what is now called "Trump's base", which has caused them to circle the wagons and purge their ranks of those who call for sanity.
While the majority of the Republican Party is busy cannibalising itself in order to appeal to the very base it created, the lack of comity and civility that this has generated has made it impossible to reach compromise. With the Senate deadlocked at 50-50, it has become increasingly difficult to move the nation's agenda forward.
Dr James Zogby is the president of the Arab American Institute and a columnist for The National
The biog
Age: 23
Occupation: Founder of the Studio, formerly an analyst at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi
Education: Bachelor of science in industrial engineering
Favourite hobby: playing the piano
Favourite quote: "There is a key to every door and a dawn to every dark night"
Family: Married and with a daughter
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The specs
Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
Power: 640hp
Torque: 760nm
On sale: 2026
Price: Not announced yet
MATCH INFO
New Zealand 176-8 (20 ovs)
England 155 (19.5 ovs)
New Zealand win by 21 runs
The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo
The specs: 2018 Nissan 370Z Nismo
Price, base / as tested: Dh182,178
Engine: 3.7-litre V6
Power: 350hp @ 7,400rpm
Torque: 374Nm @ 5,200rpm
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Fuel consumption, combined: 10.5L / 100km
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
The Rub of Time: Bellow, Nabokov, Hitchens, Travolta, Trump and Other Pieces 1986-2016
Martin Amis,
Jonathan Cape
T20 World Cup Qualifier
Final: Netherlands beat PNG by seven wickets
Qualified teams
1. Netherlands
2. PNG
3. Ireland
4. Namibia
5. Scotland
6. Oman
T20 World Cup 2020, Australia
Group A: Sri Lanka, PNG, Ireland, Oman
Group B: Bangladesh, Netherlands, Namibia, Scotland
MATCH INFO
Champions League quarter-final, first leg
Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester City, Tuesday, 11pm (UAE)
Matches can be watched on BeIN Sports
Dust and sand storms compared
Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
- Travel distance: Limited
- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
Other must-tries
Tomato and walnut salad
A lesson in simple, seasonal eating. Wedges of tomato, chunks of cucumber, thinly sliced red onion, coriander or parsley leaves, and perhaps some fresh dill are drizzled with a crushed walnut and garlic dressing. Do consider yourself warned: if you eat this salad in Georgia during the summer months, the tomatoes will be so ripe and flavourful that every tomato you eat from that day forth will taste lacklustre in comparison.
Badrijani nigvzit
A delicious vegetarian snack or starter. It consists of thinly sliced, fried then cooled aubergine smothered with a thick and creamy walnut sauce and folded or rolled. Take note, even though it seems like you should be able to pick these morsels up with your hands, they’re not as durable as they look. A knife and fork is the way to go.
Pkhali
This healthy little dish (a nice antidote to the khachapuri) is usually made with steamed then chopped cabbage, spinach, beetroot or green beans, combined with walnuts, garlic and herbs to make a vegetable pâté or paste. The mix is then often formed into rounds, chilled in the fridge and topped with pomegranate seeds before being served.
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, first leg
Bayern Munich v Real Madrid
When: April 25, 10.45pm kick-off (UAE)
Where: Allianz Arena, Munich
Live: BeIN Sports HD
Second leg: May 1, Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
More coverage from the Future Forum
If you go:
The flights: Etihad, Emirates, British Airways and Virgin all fly from the UAE to London from Dh2,700 return, including taxes
The tours: The Tour for Muggles usually runs several times a day, lasts about two-and-a-half hours and costs £14 (Dh67)
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is on now at the Palace Theatre. Tickets need booking significantly in advance
Entrance to the Harry Potter exhibition at the House of MinaLima is free
The hotel: The grand, 1909-built Strand Palace Hotel is in a handy location near the Theatre District and several of the key Harry Potter filming and inspiration sites. The family rooms are spacious, with sofa beds that can accommodate children, and wooden shutters that keep out the light at night. Rooms cost from £170 (Dh808).
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Squid Game season two
Director: Hwang Dong-hyuk
Stars: Lee Jung-jae, Wi Ha-joon and Lee Byung-hun
Rating: 4.5/5
GOLF’S RAHMBO
- 5 wins in 22 months as pro
- Three wins in past 10 starts
- 45 pro starts worldwide: 5 wins, 17 top 5s
- Ranked 551th in world on debut, now No 4 (was No 2 earlier this year)
- 5th player in last 30 years to win 3 European Tour and 2 PGA Tour titles before age 24 (Woods, Garcia, McIlroy, Spieth)
The specS: 2018 Toyota Camry
Price: base / as tested: Dh91,000 / Dh114,000
Engine: 3.5-litre V6
Gearbox: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 298hp @ 6,600rpm
Torque: 356Nm @ 4,700rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 7.0L / 100km
What are the GCSE grade equivalents?
- Grade 9 = above an A*
- Grade 8 = between grades A* and A
- Grade 7 = grade A
- Grade 6 = just above a grade B
- Grade 5 = between grades B and C
- Grade 4 = grade C
- Grade 3 = between grades D and E
- Grade 2 = between grades E and F
- Grade 1 = between grades F and G
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
