also impossible to look over the local human rights. officials says political and social leaders of become the main targets of the arm groups and pop in thoughtful sooner on paper. everything is great. the government is fulfilling its obligation to the victims who convulsions these elections. but the reality on the ground is the opposite. on people can't exercise their rights, were only running a political campaign in a conflict ribbon region like alco was never easy, but this time was supposed to be different. instead, threats in attacks or once again silencing dis, already marginalized voices. allison and beauty al jazeera alco. ah hello again. i'm fully battle with the headlines on al jazeera. the 1st full day of competition is underway at the winter olympics in beijing. strict her on of ice measures are in place. concerns about human rights abuses,

prompted some countries to speech diplomatic boycotts. the games are happening as tensions over ukraine are high between russia and the west. russian president, by me, put in his in china, oscar and beijing say they oppose nato expansion and accused of cold war approaches . in avenues the u. s. is waiting some sanctions on iran civilian nuclear program as talks to revive the 2015 nuclear deal. enter at critical stage was in jordan has more from washington. essentially what the secretary of state antony blinking has done on friday is restore one part of the deal that was reached back in 2015. this sanctions waiver, a whiles of foreign companies and governments to assist iran in the maintenance of 3 of its nuclear reactors. both share a rock which is a heavy water reactor and the terror on research reactor. otherwise, without this a waiver,

these companies and other governments could find themselves in trouble with the you was possibly facing sanctions or ra, criminal charges of their own for assisting the government. more than half the un security council has condemned north korea for launching a medium range, ballistic messiah describing sunday's launch has a significant escalation that aims to a di, civilized, reaching thousands of people have protested in mali against the former colonial power france. they were celebrating the expulsion of the french ambassador, which came after the french foreign minister, described molly's military leaders as illegitimate and out of control. you're up to date with the headlines on al jazeera, as always more use on our website at al jazeera dot com. peter, darby will have that h. well headlines for you after up front, stay with us. ah, many aspects of afghan culture had been systematically destroyed or forgotten.

the afghan films archive has been largely preserved through all of these years. when so much else was burned, looted, or blown up a small group of people who risked their lives to save the national archive. they managed to preserve the films, and these records of all of the other afghanistan's that existed saving decades of history. they believe these films had something to give to the present moment. in the 19th sixty's afghan cinema was born filmmakers went on a whack of the dangers to com. hello everyone, and thank you for joining us for a new season of up front. u. s. democracy is in crisis and at the risk of failing, that's when a majority of americans believe, according to

a recent ipsos m. p. r poll from the january 6th insurrection at the capitol, for the dismantling of voting rights and deep economic inequality exacerbated by the cobra. 19 pandemic is democracy imperiled in the united states. and if so, what can be done to save it? will ask the world renowned author, scholar and political activist known jobs professor chomsky. thank you so much for joining us on up front. so it pleased to be with you here in the united states professor, you have talked about how 90 percent of the population is basically not represented by political leaders due to concentrated wealth and private power. determining the outcomes of elections. 34 laws, restricting access to voting, were passed in 2021 alone. do we have a real democracy here in the united states? we have a mixed form of democracy. in some respects the

united states is quite advanced. i don't think there's any country that protects freedom speech to the extent that the united states, those if you're moderately privileged, you're secure, a say from state authority and so on. on the other hand, the political system does not represent the population there or extensive studies in academic, political science, mainstream. which should ask a very simple question of what the relation betweens, people's attitudes and opinions and the vote of their own representatives. straight forward. turns out that for a large majority of the population by some studies up to 90 percent of

there's essentially no correlation. their representatives are listening to different voices and that's understandable. you're elected to the house of representatives. the 1st thing you have to do is get on the telephone and make sure that the donors will be read ready to finance your next selection. other, other studies have shown the theme you can predict election electability was very hello precision, as simply we're looking at things like concentrated strategic campaign funding. the well, the legislators calling the donors the legislators office is being floated with lobbyists, corporate lawyers,

representatives of interest and firms. overwhelmingly. steph huge amounts or the materials and ends up with them. pretty much writings a legislation which the legislator then science. there's a bit of a caricature, but not too much. something good is essentially the way much of the system operates. so to as a democracy, in many respects as a lot of freedom, but the representative system is constrained, constrained. another thing that comes up in addition to the kind of constraints on the electrical system influence power money. all the things that you're speaking about is the actual preservation of voting rights. there been efforts to pass some

reforms and voting rights lately in the united states. most recently, the freedom to vote act and the john lewis voting rights advancement act. these would have restored vital voter protections, and they were prevented dist districts from changing voting laws in a way that systematically disenfranchised as minority populations. both bills killed in the senate. can you explain how voters suppression disenfranchisement are predominantly impacting minorities in the united states and why voting rights? which are a pillar of democracy could be under attack? and it's 21st century. well, 1st of all, the united states used to have 2 political parties, democrats and republicans. from another point of view. they were 2 factions of the same party, the business party, the business, but the business world is overwhelmingly dominant and both of them. nevertheless,

they were, they have been somewhat different with some overlap. in the last 3040 years, one of the is the republican party has simply drifted off the spectrum. it's not a political party in the traditional sense about 10 years ago to leading political analysts for the conservative american enterprise institute to thomas man. norman ornstein wrote an article in which they describe the republican party of 10 years ago. as in their words, a radical insurgency that has abandoned any interest in participation in harlem entry politics. what do you think causes this radical departure from

the values and the position that the republican party was in even 10 years ago? much less 30 or 40? there's always been an ideological difference in divergence. but as you said, they seem to fall off the map almost by over the last 10 years. why? i mean, this goes back to richard nixon, actually 50 years ago. the nixon who was told and statesmen understood that the republicans who are more oriented than the democrats towards corporate power and private wills cannot win elections on their own programs. you can approach the electorate and saying, i want to stab you in the back. enrich the rich and empower the corporate sector doesn't work. so they had to turn to other issues. what are called cultural issues . nixon begun it with what was called the southern strategy. democrats had

been supporting johnson's civil rights that caused great resentment among the deeply racist. so the democrats nixon recognized the ending yet enough to say it in words and doing that the republicans would become the weights of premises party hagar went over the democrats. there was a southern strategy were pretty will then they moved other issues by the midden news. republican strategists recognized that if they pretended stress pretended to be opposed to abortion, they could win. the huge is angelica over 25 percent of the population, northern catholics. so they all switched on a dime, reagan, george, h, w, bush,

sure. always been what we call pro choice, but all of a sudden they began passionately anti abortion next to gun next. other things. trump was extremely curry. this is after the comment, or is it mentioned on the road at gl insurgency. but trump could brilliantly was able to tap the poisons that were on right below the surface in american society, their migration, the professor think of this idea of an insurrection and trump. i mean, we had an actual attack on the capital in january 6 of 2021, which you describe as an attempted coup. some have said the united states is still witnessing a slow motion insurrection by republicans, and that they're using a election after their lead the plotting election. according to the states united democracy center last year, at least $262.00 bills were introduced in $41.00 states that will interfere with

elections. is our democracy being subverted through the electoral process? and what relationship does it have to to trump? and this right wing insurgency that you're talking about, well, trumpet, managed to mobilize a popular coat of worship all followers. anything he does, they support those who sickly taken over the republican party or what used to be the republican party, republican leaders or grovelling notice, feet afraid to offend him in any way. a truck was made it very clear, more clear in the last few days that he does not believe that the united states should have a functioning democracy. is to explicitly that the vice president, mike pence could have overturned the election and failed to do it. it was

fences failure, his fault that the election was overturned and handed over to trump. he said it quite explicitly over in congress to the constitution happens to be rather vague about this. nobody in the last 250 years, really thought about the possibility that one of the, the political party could arise which wants overthrow the democratic system. so the laws are a little bit obscure. and there is, there are debates going on right now in congress as to whether to sharpen the rules to make it clearer, the voters, oh, shouldn't be in charge, not elect, not officials want to overturn the vote trumps against it. and it's not clear how the republican party will done this,

but you're correct for hundreds of bills in state legislatures, republican ones working on various ways to ensure that they can become a permanent dominant minority party by excluding the road. so the wrong kind of people. ready present chomsky i keep hearing this word party. i hear republican i hear democrat a lot and i have to ask you, i mean, is it too much focused on parties too much focus on party affiliation and partisanship? it seems that people might be caught up in this idea of winning at any cost rather than creating functional democracy, functional government, and safeguarding the protections that we're supposed to have in our society. is that an accurate assessment? well, if you go back to the days before the republican party addressed it off the spectrum, there was cooperation between the parties and i voted for

republicans moderate republicans. but by no, that's just inconceivable. republicans have just become a denial list party. actually, this precedes trump. when prison obama was elected, and mitch mcconnell, senate leader for the republicans, and may be the most influential person in the party where obama was elected. mcconnell said street that i, that the republicans have one goal, make sure that he cannot achieve anything. make sure that the country is ungovernable, and then the blame can be put on the, on the democrat to happened. her power. and republicans can come back into office doing exactly the same thing. know when joe button was elected and

mcconnell, senate minority leader said very explicitly, our goal is to ensure that he can achieve nothing will harm the country as much as possible. and we will then blame it on the democrats, and we'll come back to power. that's not a political corte, that's a radical insurgency, no interest and see, but is there any room for critique of the democratic party as well? i mean, the rise of the right in this way, in some ways has to do some would argue with the democratic parties, failure to address the needs of working people in that capitalism itself is part of the problem. and because democrats are fully on board with the system, that they are as complicit in culpable in our failure to have a ineffective functional democracy is anybody else which says quite accurate and this goes back 45 years, president quarter. by the time,

the late 19 seventy's, the democrats, there were not gonna be the party of working people any more that were going to become a party of affluent professionals. and wall street, the kinds of people into italy who showed up at obama's extravagant parties, chuck schumer, that is now the senate majority leader said street out that a week ago, maybe with a loser. we're close road in western pennsylvania, but we'll pick up to a affluent suburban vote. so that's what we'll do. and the last effort of the report of the democrats to serve working people was in 1978 or the humphrey perkins full employment. it did pers,

congress prison quarter didn't veto it, but he watered it down so that it had almost no boy. when the democrats basically hand the work in close over to their class enemy, the republicans are the bitter enemy of the working class. or democrats handed it over to them. reagan came along, his 1st act was to smash labor unions opening the door to the corporate sector to do the same initiated programs, which has severely harmed the working class in the middle class. we should have measures of this. the rand corporation super respectable, recently did a study on how much wolf had been transferred from the lower

90 percent of the population. were in class middle close to poor. how much will had been transferred to the super rich during the last 40 years, and reagan, their estimate is about $50000000.00. wow, that's a, that's a, that is a staggering. now, that is a staggering number professor. even on the issue that you're raising, where there is a considerable shift in a direction that might be in some estimation, anti democratic. there's still a lot of americans who are lined up in support of policies that often may be, undermine their own best interest. you wrote a seminal book manufacturing consent and you talk about how leaders sometimes can't necessarily control people by force, like in a dictatorship. but they control people thinking they control how they act. and this often results in people operating against their own interests. talk to me a little bit about the media. what role does the media play in manufacturing

consent? what role does the media play and undermining democracy in the united states? well, for example, one thing they do is not discuss what you and i have just been discussing. they act as if they were to political court is both dedicated to the benefit of the population. what you and i have just been discussing. and you can fund, hence of it here, and there was the public doesn't see it and insert this. the effects are very striking to take congress right now. one of the main legislative programs that button put forth as a build back better program the to program which would greatly benefit working people, poor parents,

children very beneficial to the population. republicans, of course, are 100 percent opposed to a few democrats are opposed, right? winged currents, and since congress has split, can't get through. take a look at public opinion. very striking. when you, when the public is asked about the individual provisions of this program that are medical care, child credits and so on, their favor of it. when the rest, what they think about the program, they're opposed to it. when you ask, do you know what's in the program? no, they don't. it's an interesting collection. they are in favor of the individual measures . they do not know that those are in the program. they're opposed to the program because it's been presented on fox news other right wing media as

a government attack on you, which is just gonna raise the deficit and won't be able to pay for it. and it's just going to the undeserving poor, there's an undertone there that says, well, there are these people who don't want to work. the ones who reagan calls the the will for cheats. black mothers going and limousines to the social security office to rob your will through. that's the undertone. and somehow those people who are, who are worthless and a worker taking it all away from us. it's an old technique to try to divert the attention of people away from their true oppressors, to people that are even more disadvantage than they are. that's one of the ways in which the way we're in class was kept down for a century and much of the country

a get them to hate black people who are even worse off than they are. he can make them think, well, i'm better than those guys. then you can exploit them and repress them. spin of familiar technique of crushing or close organization. we're going people move this incidentally. you take a look at a great labor movement of the 19th century nights of labor. norma's labor movement bitterly opposed to industrial capitalism. their 1st organizing effort. first one was in louisiana black workers working in the cotton fields. they've been driven back to something that are truly like slavery. so the knights of labor began to organize among them was very successful, black and white organizing together. local officials,

local people. in this town, in louisiana table to louisiana, they heard about it. the organized, organized militias called in the state. oh, state troopers carried out a huge massacre. we don't even know how many people were killed because nobody, even the chick thing was devastated to try to. ready block this, blackwood, organizing effort, brutal, vicious massacre. well, there was the 1st went on and many others goes on many other ways. i go back to my childhood, the early 19, thirty's, the labor movement was revising. celia was organizing those through workers. black and white workers were working together. when they were joined in the labor action,

they asked grace conflict dissolved just as in the early efforts of the major labor of the employer wants to stop that. always, professor, i have just a few minutes left and i have to ask you, you've been writing about capitalism, power and democracy for decades, given where we are right now. the state of our democracy. do you see a way forward? are you still hopeful? there's always a reason to be hopeful, we have a political the just mentioned briefly impact of 40 years of new liberal attacks on the population. it's caused extreme social breakdown and disorder fertile terrain for a demagogue like trauma or de santis of florida or tucker carlson,

myrtle live or come next, but there is a revival of sin, decent, honest commitment to a better world. he saw it pretty dramatically as for the george floyd murder, huge uprising, black and white. biggest in american history, calling for an n 2 violent repression against americans. norma, support. well, came under attack, beaten back, still there are other young people organized active working very hard to overcome the most serious crisis that humans are ever faced in their history destruction of the environment. there are other groups working for racial justice for recognition of human rights. they're all over. very good. they're

not. they don't have will concentrated power media support, but they're there and they can become the weight of the future. so to us to support them, participate with them. kathy, thank you so much for joining us on that price and i will play it. all right, that's our show up front. we'll be back with ah, in south korea military service is compulsory. ah, but some refused to take part in one at 18 weeks. those dodging the drop in on al jazeera, we understand the differences and similarities of cultures across the world center

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contradiction. carmen get up front on al jazeera. ah, the cost of the councils ongoing silence is too high. more than half the un security council condemns north korea's latest launches, but china calls for dialogue. ah, hello, welcome, i'm pete adobe. you're watching al jazeera alive from doha also coming up the u. s . wave. some sanctions on iran, as talks continue to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal.