Democracy for Me But Not for Thee

At least 13 presidential libraries, going as far back as former US President Herbert Hoover, issued a joint statement on Thursday warning about the state of US democracy, marking a first-ever.

Officials from the libraries said the joint statement was a “reminder” that called for a recommitment to the country’s founding principles, including the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, as well as a call to respecting a diversity of beliefs and backgrounds.

“Americans have a strong interest in supporting democratic movements and respect for human rights around the world because free societies elsewhere contribute to our own security and prosperity here at home,” the statement says in part.

The statement has been co-signed by several libraries for past presidents including: Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George & Barbara Bush, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, Lyndon B. Johnson, John F. Kennedy, Harry Truman, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover. The library for Donald J. Trump was not included in the signatures as his library does yet formally exist.

While the statement did not explicitly name Trump as a culprit for the dire situation of American democracy, a recent poll revealed 48% of Republicans lack confidence in the Justice Department. The poll was conducted at the beginning of August, before Trump and 18 of his allies were indicted in Georgia over attempts to overturn the 2020 election results.

“I think there’s great concern about the state of our democracy at this time,” said Mark Updegrove, CEO of the LBJ Foundation, which supports the Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Texas. “We don’t have to go much farther than January 6 to realize that we are in a perilous state.”