{"id":17207,"date":"2020-10-28T07:18:30","date_gmt":"2020-10-28T14:18:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/politicalhat.com\/?p=17207"},"modified":"2020-10-28T07:18:30","modified_gmt":"2020-10-28T14:18:30","slug":"the-political-and-cultural-bias-of-freedom-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/2020\/10\/28\/the-political-and-cultural-bias-of-freedom-house\/","title":{"rendered":"The Political And Cultural Bias of Freedom House"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;An outfit calling itself \u201cFreedom House\u201d has decided that the U.S. is free\u2026 but <a href=\"https:\/\/freedomhouse.org\/country\/united-states\/freedom-world\/2020\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">not free enough<\/a>. \u00a0 Why is the U.S. not free enough? \u00a0 President Trump.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">\nThe administration of President Donald Trump continued to introduce restrictive new policies to limit immigration and reduce the number of refugees and asylum seekers reaching US soil, prompting court challenges and some pushback from Congress. In March and October, the president vetoed congressional resolutions that sought to overturn his February declaration of a national emergency, which he used to reassign appropriated funds to advance construction of a wall along the border with Mexico.\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">\nIn August, a gunman apparently motivated by racist and xenophobic ideology carried out the year\u2019s deadliest mass shooting, killing 22 people at a store in Texas that was frequented by Mexican and Mexican American customers.\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\">\nIn December, the opposition-controlled House of Representatives approved articles of impeachment against President Trump, accusing him of abusing his office by attempting to extort a personal political favor from the Ukrainian government, and of obstructing Congress by ordering the executive branch not to cooperate with the House\u2019s impeachment inquiry. A trial in the Senate was pending at year\u2019s end.\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Let us address the those score deficiencies.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cWas the current head of government or other chief national authority elected through free and fair elections?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201c\u00be\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And how is the United States deficient? The use of the Electoral College, Russia interference, not making Russia interference a major issue, and being impeached.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-17208\" src=\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Russia-Russia-Russia.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;How is the Electoral College <em>not <\/em>part and parcel of a \u201cfree and fair\u201d election? Is it because the winner of the Electoral College might not win a plurality of the vote? That speaks to an intentional anti-majoritarian element, not to whether the process is \u201cfree\u201d or \u201cfair\u201d.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The rest of it is linked to the Russia conspiracy, including the impeachment. To be fair, the Freedom House ranking was only through 2019 and didn\u2019t include Trump\u2019s acquittal in the Senate. But even they admit that \u201cThe Trump administration took some steps to prevent a repetition of the 2016 interference in 2020, but the White House resisted making the issue a major priority\u201d. So not going full in on what he perceived as a political and personal attacks makes his election \u201cunfree\u201d or \u201cunfair\u201d? This \u201cranking\u201d made no legitimate qualms about the 2016 Presidential election.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cAre the electoral laws and framework fair, and are they implemented impartially by the relevant election management bodies?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201c\u00be\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And what are their complaints here? Single member districts drawn by legislatures with gerrymandering, voter ID laws, election officials who are elected (<em>e<\/em>.<em>g<\/em>. Secretaries of state, county registrars of voters, &amp;c.), the Electoral College (again), the Senate, and vacancies on the Federal Election Commission.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><!--more-->&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The \u201cunfairness\u201d of the \u201claws and framework\u201d amount to the American Federal government not being set up the way Feedom House wants, what with equal representation of the states in the upper Chamber of Congress, the indirect election of the President, or centralization of elections to the Federal government. The decentralization and anti-majoritarian elements are features, not bugs. Their other major gripe is elected officials being in charge of making rules and enforcing the same. Perhaps Freedom House thinks that unelected bureaucrats are synonymous with \u201cdemocracy\u201d, but being directly accountable to the voters is preferable to often unionized social servants that can be even more impartial than an elected official who has to face the judgment of the people.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cAre the electoral laws and framework fair, and are they implemented impartially by the relevant election management bodies?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201c\u00be\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The horror this time is the dreaded \u201cinterest groups\u201d and a weak influence from party leadership, with specific complains including the existence of political action committees, people with money exercising their rights by donating or participating in political groups, and <em>yet again<\/em> griping about Russia\u2014even about Giuliani working as a private representative for Trump amongst others.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-17208\" src=\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Russia-Russia-Russia.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Unlike many \u201ctotes free\u201d countires, the people are more directly involved and don\u2019t passively sit back and let unaccountable party overlords toss out a handful of pre-selected \u00a0 politicians.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;It\u2019s bemusing how they complain about not enough democracy (<em>e<\/em>.<em>g<\/em>. the presence of the Senate) <em>and<\/em> <em>too much <\/em>democracy (direct participation by the people themselves).<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cDo various segments of the population (including ethnic, religious, gender, LGBT, and other relevant groups) have full political rights and electoral opportunities?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201c\u00be\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The claim here is \u201cdisenfranchisement\u201d caused by \u201cobstacles to voting\u201d such as tossing out <em>ca<\/em> half-century year old pre-clearance lists and the presence of voter ID, legitimate purging of voter roles, not letting felons vote, and attempts to ask about citizenship on the decennial census.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Clearly, Freedom House is demonstrating quite a lot of ignorance. The Supreme Court didn\u2019t rule against pre-clearance lists but only that states and jurisdictions couldn\u2019t be punished for something that happened half a century ago. Voter ID laws have not shown to dissuade voters of any race. Felons are convicted criminals who have lawfully lost many of their rights, and are considered to not be trustworthy with the franchise. The 14<sup>th<\/sup> Amendment arguably requires citizenship status to be known, and has been asked many, many times before. None of these things deny any \u201csegment\u201d of the population such as ethnic or gender grouping any \u201cpolitical rights and electoral opportunities.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cDo the freely elected head of government and national legislative representatives determine the policies of the government?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201c\u00be\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The executive branch and legislative branch being at odds were cited as a primary reason for the lack of a perfect score. This is nothing more than the intended checks and balances of having separate branches of government. They even so so far as to cite Trump casting vetoes as evidence of the \u201celected head of government and national legislative representatives\u201d determining government policies! Do these people not realize \u00a0 that the President is the head of government and Congress is the legislative representatives of the people and the states?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;And yet again, they cite Russia and impeachment as some type of proof that \u201cthe freely elected head of government and national legislative representatives\u201d aren\u2019t determining policies because <em>they disagree<\/em>. The U.S. requires different branches of government to tussle, even if that means disagreement over nominations by the President and advise\/consent by the Senate. \u00a0 Funny how they complain about lack of \u201cimpartial\u201d operation of government while saying that lack of political appointments is also a problem!<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cAre safeguards against official corruption strong and effective?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201c\u00be\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The entire argument is Trump\u2019s refusal to put all his assets into a blind trust. He isn\u2019t legally required to and this doesn\u2019t affect any legal safeguards in place. Also, of course, Russia and impeachment.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-17208\" src=\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Russia-Russia-Russia.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" \/><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cDoes the government operate with openness and transparency?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201c\u00be\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Trump not releasing his tax returns (which he\u2019s not legally required to do), and otherwise breaking with tradition when it comes to matters such as this. All that is <em>private<\/em> opaqueness, not a lack of openness and transparency of the functioning of government itself. The major non-private gripe is that Trump makes policy that doesn\u2019t overly rely or defer to bureaucrats. Ironic then that not blindly deferring to government bureaucrats makes America less \u201cfree\u201d.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cIs there freedom for trade unions and similar professional or labor organizations?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201c\u00be\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Less people being members of unions, not letting public servants strike, and the National Labor Relations Board not bending over backwards for corrupt unions doesn\u2019t stop anyone from joining a union. Heck, the fact that they can become sole bargainers for all employees indicates just how much power they actually have.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;They complain about \u201c\u2018right-to-work\u2019 legislation\u201d (quote marks in the original document) and otherwise protect a worker\u2019s right to <em>not<\/em> join a union or have to fork over their own money to support that same. This isn\u2019t a restriction of freedom, but a protection of freedom.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cIs there an independent judiciary?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201c\u00be\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;These Freedom House fools like to have it both ways, don\u2019t they? They complain about Congress not being able to advise and consent and then complain when they do so in a way Freedom House doesn\u2019t want. They then complain that Trump nominated, and the Senate confirmed a bunch of people to the bench! They even go so far as to complain about the President exercising his Constitutional right to granting pardons!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;That there are checks and balances does not make the judiciary independent, it prevents the judiciary from going to far.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;They even complain about state judges being elected in many states! An independent judiciary does not mean being \u201cindependent\u201d from abuse of their power.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cDoes due process prevail in civil and criminal matters?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201c\u00be\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;It isn\u2019t about Russia this time, but rather raaaccciiisssmmm!!1! Specifically they complain about incarceration rates and how some racial groups are over-represented. Of course this doesn\u2019t take into account that crimes are being committed and some ethnic groups commit crimes at higher rates than other groups. This does not mean there is a lack of due process.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-16441\" src=\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/thats-racist.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"268\" \/><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cIs there protection from the illegitimate use of physical force and freedom from war and insurgencies?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201c\u00be\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The three complains are: The existence of mass killings, police brutality, and the existence of the death penalty. Mass killings are not alien to even European countries and in the U.S. are extremely rare. \u00a0 They claim that most police involved killings don\u2019t result in prosecution let alone full convictions; they seem to ignore the possibility that the officers are innocent and the use of physical force, if it did happen, just might be legitimate? Apparently America is less free because we don\u2019t have kangaroo courts that deny due process. As for the death penalty, if it is to protect innocent people, it\u2019s a legitimate use of force.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cDo laws, policies, and practices guarantee equal treatment of various segments of the population?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201c<sup>2<\/sup>\/<sub>4<\/sub>\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;They bring up the \u201cwomen make much less than men\u201d lie, as well as fail to correct for other factors when comparing wages of individuals of different races. They even talk about the #MeToo movement! Oh, they even bring up the \u201cMuslim\u201d ban that didn\u2019t \u201cban\u201d Muslims and complain about not enough refugees in the U.S. And how dare, the U.S. enforce it\u2019s own immigration laws and arrest illegal aliens! Tossed in is what amounts to talking about so-called \u201cstructural inequalities\u201d and complaints about lack of <em>Federal<\/em> legislation stating that LGBTQ&amp;c. are a protected class; none of which involved a lack of equal application of the law. This isn\u2019t about equal treatment but of values Freedom House does not hold.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cDo individuals enjoy equality of opportunity and freedom from economic exploitation?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201c\u00be\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Some people make more than others and some are able to earn degrees that others can\u2019t.\u00a0\u00a0 That\u2019s their argument\u2026 that and automation, lack of European style trade unionism, and lack of European style public transportation. \u00a0 Not everyone can become rich, but almost everyone has an opportunity to make a living.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;In summary, Freedom House thinks that the U.S. is less free because we do things in a way they don\u2019t prefer and also Russia!!1!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/EaglewithFlag.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"1\" height=\"1\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-5372\" \/><\/p>\n<p><meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/><meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@PoliticHatBlog\" \/><meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ThePoliticalHat\" \/><meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"The Political And Cultural Bias of Freedom House\"\/><meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"An outfit calling itself \u201cFreedom House\u201d has decided that the U.S. is free\u2026 but not free enough. Why is the U.S. not free enough? President Trump.\" \/><meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/EaglewithFlag.gif\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;An outfit calling itself \u201cFreedom House\u201d has decided that the U.S. is free\u2026 but not free enough. \u00a0 Why is the U.S. not free enough? \u00a0 President Trump. The administration of President Donald Trump continued to introduce restrictive new policies &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/2020\/10\/28\/the-political-and-cultural-bias-of-freedom-house\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5372,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[70,62,68],"class_list":["post-17207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-facepalm","tag-patriotism","tag-wtf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17207"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17210,"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17207\/revisions\/17210"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/impeachreno.org\/politicalhat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}