Pro-democracy activists heartened by US system's resilience

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Democracy is an ongoing process, and it is what we make of it.” In an email to the AP, she dismissed Lukashenko's comments as one of several “propaganda outbursts.” “They say: ‘Look at America, same hooligans as here,’" wrote Tsikhanouskaya, who was Lukashenko's main opponent in the election. “If the U.S. democracy comes out victorious and shows its institutional perseverance, then, it will be easier to all those who are still far away from victory, to persevere and not give up,” said Przymusinski, spokesman for Poland’s largest association of judges, which is resisting efforts by the right-wing government to chip away at judicial independence. “A successful defense of democracy may prove to be the vaccine against authoritarian viruses in still healthy countries.” Alfredo Romero, a human rights lawyer in Venezuela, feared the U.S. violence would provide political cover for crackdowns elsewhere. “I said, ‘This is the end of Trump!’ Populists and ‘neo-fascists’ cannot control the most ancient democratic institutions, not only in America, but in the world,” he says.