Democratic Values
Neo-humanists engage actively in politics, support the democratic way of life, tolerance, and fairness, and accept responsibility for the well-being of society, guaranteeing various rights, including those of women, racial, ethnic, and sexual minorities; and supporting education, health care, gainful employment, and other social benefits.
Neo-humanists hold that humanity needs to move beyond ego-centric individualism and chauvinistic nationalism to develop transnational planetary institutions to cope with global problems-such efforts include a strengthened World Court, an eventual World Parliament, and a Planetary Environmental Monitoring Agency that would set standards for controlling global warming and ecology.
The Constitution of the United States established a democracy with clear separation of powers between the three branches of government. Nevertheless, achieving a democracy still depends upon the citizens and certain qualities of the elected officials. This essay examines several famous historical leaders identified as tyrants by noted historians, and describes the common strategies all of them used to gain autocratic power in diverse societies. The current president of the United States, Donald Trump, is then shown to have applied the same strategies to gain autocratic power in this country.
This year could very well be a watershed year for women’s rights, and the task before National Organization for Women activists is clear: we must mount an aggressive program of voter education and mobilization to get the word out about what is at stake for women in the 2012 U.S. elections.
We write to you as organizations strongly opposed to S. 15531, an unconstitutional and dangerous limitation on abortion that puts women’s health and rights at risk. The bill’s provisions represent an appalling lack of compassion for—or trust in—the women who would be affected by this ban. By significantly interfering in both women’s personal decisions and their relationships with their healthcare providers, this bill is part and parcel of a nationwide campaign that has only one ultimate goal: to forever eliminate women’s access to reproductive health care.
Recently, the trials and tribulations of Ashley Madison have been in the news. That is the agency catering to those that want to cheat on their spouses. A hack list containing a whopping 32 million names has been released. The company’s CEO Noel Biderman resigned. Biderman had always claimed that he had no extramarital affairs behind his beloved wife’s back. However, there are reportedly emails showing that (surprise!) he has had several such affairs.
Any conception of the New Humanism will have to confront threats to secularism and religious liberty worldwide. Sadly, there are many, and one will always find work in trying to roll back the tide of theocratic reactionary forces on the global scene.
There seems to be no limit to how low the Republicans can sink. They seem to be trying to outdo each other in bigotry, thereby increasing their appeal. Donald Trump has stated that Muslims should be prevented from immigrating to the United States. Marco Rubio, the junior senator from Florida whose campaign is on life support as of this writing, has pushed for closing mosques in the country. Former Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson has gone so far as to say that a Muslim should not be President.