So this is, by my count, Wednesday #7 of this administration and as noted, America is already on the fast track to a soft-autocracy.
Media stifled: check. Judicial branch accused of implicitly sponsoring international terrorism: check. Vast conspiracy theory involving the ‘deep state’ posited: check.
Yes sir, we’re well on our way to an Erdogan-esque reality. For those of you who might have questioned whether Steve Bannon could truly undermine the most Western of all Western democracies, you now have your answer.
Given all of that, I found the following from WEF to be particularly amusing – where “amusing” means unnerving but still funny because of how ludicrous it is.
As it turns out, the US has been officially demoted to a “flawed democracy” and in turn, the percentage of the the world’s population that lives in a “full democracy” has been cut virtually in half.
Democracy is in decline.
The Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) latest Democracy Index 2016 shows 72 countries experienced a decline in democratic values last year. Countries with declining levels of democracy outnumbered those becoming more democratic by more than 2 to 1.
The EIU’s Democracy Index measures the state of democracy by rating electoral processes and pluralism, the state of civil liberties, the functioning of government, political participation and political culture in more than 160 countries worldwide. The EIU’s ranking shows the average global democracy score in 2016 fell to 5.52, down from 5.55 in 2015 (on a scale of 0 to 10).
Less than half the world lives in a democracy
The report finds that less than half (49%) the world’s population lives in a democracy of some sort, and only 4.5% reside in a “full democracy.” This is a steep decline from 2015, when it was just under 9%.
The US is now a flawed democracy
This dramatic decline is primarily down to the US having been demoted to a “flawed democracy,” in the classification of the EIU – as a result of low public confidence in the government. The report stresses that this was strongly in evidence prior to the presidential election that saw Donald Trump become president.
Yes, “the report stresses that this was strongly in evidence prior to the presidential election that saw Donald Trump become president,” which means that by the time next year’s results are released, the US should easily be in “authoritarian regime” territory.
Trump’s International business empire – whether he likes it or not, whether it is an inconvenient denial of what he says at his base rallies (self contradictions being a standard daily occurrence in Trumplandia) – Trump is the essence of an elite “globalist.”
That his supporters are too infatuated or to ignorant to see this – only shows reveals how Trump rules the US by having only united the critical thinking challenged right wing fringes of it.
“Yes, “the report stresses that this was strongly in evidence prior to the presidential election that saw Donald Trump become president,” which means that by the time next year’s results are released, the US should easily be in “authoritarian regime” territory.”
That actually means all of the reasons for the ‘downgrade’ fall to Obama and Bush etc., but nice try.
Though, means little anyway. We were never a democracy, but a representative republic. Words have meaning.