Budget Cutters, Overlooking Dangers From New ‘Axis of Autocracies,’ Threaten the Bipartisan National Endowment for Democracy

The bipartisan foundation has assisted countless grassroots democrats abroad since its founding during the Reagan years.

Sergei Guneyev, Sputnik, Kremlin pool via AP
Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands during a concert marking the 75th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Russia and China and opening of China-Russia Years of Culture at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, China, on Thursday, May 16, 2024. Sergei Guneyev, Sputnik, Kremlin pool via AP

A campaign is underway to terminate annual congressional funding for the National Endowment for Democracy, the bipartisan foundation that has assisted countless grassroots democrats abroad since its founding during the Reagan Administration. 

In his historic address before the British Parliament on June 8, 1982, President Reagan called for launching a bipartisan effort by America’s business, labor, political, and civic leaders to assist new and aspiring democracies in building and strengthening “the infrastructure of democracy — the system of a free press, unions, political parties, universities — which allows a people to choose their own way, to develop their own culture, to reconcile their own differences through peaceful means.”  

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