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13 PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARIES FROM HOOVER TO OBAMA WARN OF FRAGILE STATE OF U.S.
DEMOCRACY

Politics Sep 7, 2023 10:37 AM EDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Concern for U.S. democracy amid deep national polarization has
prompted the entities supporting 13 presidential libraries dating back to
Herbert Hoover to call for a recommitment to the country’s bedrock principles,
including the rule of law and respecting a diversity of beliefs.

READ MORE: Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio gets record 22 years in
prison for Jan. 6 seditious conspiracy

The statement released Thursday, the first time the libraries have joined to
make such a public declaration, said Americans have a strong interest in
supporting democratic movements and human rights around the world because “free
societies elsewhere contribute to our own security and prosperity here at home.”

“But that interest,” it said, “is undermined when others see our own house in
disarray.”

The joint message from presidential centers, foundations and institutes
emphasized the need for compassion, tolerance and pluralism while urging
Americans to respect democratic institutions and uphold secure and accessible
elections.

The statement noted that “debate and disagreement” are central to democracy but
also alluded to the coarsening of dialogue in the public arena during an era
when officials and their families are receiving death threats.

“Civility and respect in political discourse, whether in an election year or
otherwise, are essential,” it said.

Most of the living former presidents have been sparing in giving their public
opinions about the state of the nation as polls show that large swaths of
Republicans still believe the lies perpetuated by former President Donald Trump
and his allies that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Trump, a
Republican, also has lashed out at the justice system as he faces indictments in
four criminal cases, including two related to his efforts to overturn the
results of his reelection loss to Joe Biden, a Democrat.

Thursday’s statement stopped short of calling out individuals, but it still
marked one of the most substantive acknowledgments that people associated with
the nation’s former presidents are worried about the country’s trajectory.

“I think there’s great concern about the state of our democracy at this time,”
said Mark Updegrove, president and CEO of the LBJ Foundation, which supports the
LBJ 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.”

Efforts to suppress or weaken voter turnout are of special interest to the LBJ
Foundation, Updegrove said, given that President Lyndon Johnson considered his
signing of the Voting Rights Act his “proudest legislative accomplishment.”

The bipartisan statement was signed by the Hoover Presidential Foundation, the
Roosevelt Institute, the Truman Library Institute, the John F. Kennedy Library
Foundation, the LBJ Foundation, the Richard Nixon Foundation, the Gerald R. Ford
Presidential Foundation, the Carter Center, the Ronald Reagan Presidential
Foundation and Institute, the George & Barbara Bush Foundation, the Clinton
Foundation, the George W. Bush Presidential Center and the Obama Presidential
Center. Those organizations all support presidential libraries created under the
Presidential Library Act of 1955, along with the Eisenhower Foundation.

The Eisenhower Foundation chose not to sign, and it said in a statement emailed
to The Associated Press: “The Eisenhower Foundation has respectfully declined to
sign this statement. It would be the first common statement that the
presidential centers and foundations have ever issued as a group, but we have
had no collective discussion about it, only an invitation to sign.”

The foundation said each presidential entity had its own programs related to
democracy.

The push for the joint statement was spearheaded by David Kramer, executive
director of the George W. Bush Institute. Kramer said the former president “did
see and signed off on this statement.”

He said the effort was intended to send “a positive message reminding us of who
we are and also reminding us that when we are in disarray, when we’re at
loggerheads, people overseas are also looking at us and wondering what’s going
on.” He also said it was necessary to remind Americans that their democracy
cannot be taken for granted.

WATCH: Conservative retired judge says Trump ‘corroded and corrupted American
democracy’

He said the Bush Institute has hosted several events on elections, including one
as part of a joint initiative with the other groups called More Perfect that
featured Bill Gates, a member of the board of supervisors in Arizona’s Maricopa
County, which includes Phoenix. The county, its supervisors and its elections
staff have been targeted repeatedly by election conspiracy theorists in recent
years.
Gates and his family have been threatened by people who believe false
allegations of election fraud.

“We wanted to remind people that those who oversee our elections are our fellow
citizens,” Kramer said. “Some of them told stories that are almost heartbreaking
about the threats they faced.”

He said he hoped the joint statement would generate wide support, but he added:
“It’s hard to say whether it will or not in these polarized times.”

Melissa Giller, chief marketing officer at the Ronald Reagan Foundation and
Institute, said the decision to sign on was a quick one. The foundation was
approached shortly after it launched a new effort, its Center on Public Civility
in Washington, D.C. She said the statement represents “everything our center
will stand for.”

“We need to help put an end to the serious discord and division in our society,”
Giller said in an emailed response. “America is experiencing a decline in trust,
social cohesion, and personal interaction.”

Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to former President Barack Obama who is now
CEO of the Obama Foundation, said the former president supported the statement.

“This is a moment where we could all come together and show that democracy is
not about partisan politics,” she said. “It’s about making our country strong,
making our country more decent, more kind, more humane.”

Jarrett said one of the foundation’s priorities is trying to restore faith in
the institutions that are the pillars of society. To do that has meant taking on
disinformation and creating opportunity where “people believe that our democracy
is on the up-and-up.”

She said Obama has led a democracy forum and is planning another later this year
in Chicago.

“I think part of it is recognizing that we are very fragile right now,” Jarrett
said, citing the fact that “we didn’t have a smooth orderly transition of power
in the last election” along with people’s mistrust of the court system and
elected officials.

“The wheels on our democracy bus,” she said, “feel a little wobbly right now.”

Left: FILE PHOTO: U.S. President George W. Bush walks past U.S. President Donald
Trump, first lady Melania Trump, former President Barack Obama, former first
lady Michelle Obama, former President Bill Clinton, former first lady Hillary
Clinton, former President Jimmy Carter and former first lady Rosalynn Carter as
he arrives at the state funeral for his father former U.S. President George H.W.
Bush at the Washington National Cathedral in Washington, U.S., December 5, 2018.
REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque


RELATED

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   from running again for president
   
   By Nicholas Riccardi, Associated Press

 * Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio gets record 22 years in prison for
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   By Associated Press

 * Israelis are protesting for democracy but Palestinians say occupation ignored
   
   By Tia Goldenberg, Associated Press


GO DEEPER

 * barrack obama
 * democracy
 * donald trump news
 * herbert hoover

By —

Gary Fields, Associated Press Gary Fields, Associated Press

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