The health of American democracy, as measured by those who study it most closely, has settled into a diminished state – stabilizing after a sharp decline last year, but still well below the levels recorded at any point before the start of Donald Trump’s second term, according to a new survey released on Tuesday.
The findings, by the nonpartisan democracy-tracking project Bright Line Watch, which surveys hundreds of US scholars at American colleges and universities, suggest that the erosion of norms detected after Trump’s return to the White House last year has hardened into a new baseline. The public also holds a dim view of American democracy, the most recent survey found, but are sharply divided along partisan lines over how well the system is functioning.
I question any expert that has taken until now to realize the death of American democracy.
Well, if you read the article, there’s some good news for you: they haven’t taken this long.
If you would read to at least the second paragraph (and I know I’m asking a lot), you would see that this organization has been tracking the descent since 2017. The “new” bit here is that it seems to have stabilized, i.e., it isn’t currently getting worse than it already is. The bad news (which you have to read more of the article to get) is that it isn’t going to get better any time soon, either.
It goes beyond “charitable interpretation” and into magical thinking to argue that it has somehow stabilized.
A paramilitary death squad is “helping out” with security checks for travel, we’re marching right along the path to the end of any premise of privacy or anonymity on the internet, and the Pentagon just threw the press out of the building. And that’s just YESTERDAY.
I did, I was referring to the academics that give conclusions like:
But good job being utterly insufferable.