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.
“Settled”? I dare you to say that again in a month.
You mean absolutely raped?
lmao, “settled” the say.
If you think the bar can’t go any lower, I’ve got some shocking news for you. The corruption, cronyism, and grifting have only just begun.
I have no faith that it’s stabilized.
I think it’s the calm before the storm - if Trump successfully manipulates the midterms the US might be doomed.
If he botches that and becomes a ‘lame duck’ president, there might still be hope.
I don’t think there will be hope worth having if we don’t elect progressive candidates who intend to overthrow the shillionaire broligarchy.
Oh we definitively need better Democrats.
Just voting for another center-right Democrat as next president is like stopping right before a cliff and then walking on the edge instead of turning back.
Progressives or not if we even just get the votes to stop ICE and all the wars Trump started on a whim that’s a win.
Sad the bar is so low that closing the concentration camps is a win
I suppose that’s why they’re asking you to take the results based on the research data rather than faith. It’s important not to confuse pessimism with objectivity.
Things can look stabilized for the moment and the results can certainly back that up, but I have no faith that they’re not going to decline further and numbers can’t tell you that they won’t.
This is why it’s extremely important for us to keep pressure up on whomever takes over next to dismantle the grip that the executive branch has over the governing body as a whole.
Regardless of party, the next group (particularly the president and exec branch) will not be incentivized to relinquish power even in the name of maintaining the balance originally held unless we the people demand it, and hold them to account.
How do we do that though? If the people wanted to push this change now there’d be way more action then we’ve all seen so far (no, I’m not even sure what action is left to take beyond THAT kind of action). If it isn’t happening now during the worst of it (so far!) then why would anything be pushed harder if the next administration even attempts to show they’re reigning things in a little? People will feel less pressure to act and nothing changes. Again.
Sorry, I’ve been in a doom mode for a few years now about all this and like all of us…I’m just tired man.
I hear you, I absolutely do. I wish I had the answer, and I’m tired too.
All I know is that we need to work really hard, and for a really long time.
I mean, do you really need an expert opinion to come to this conclusion?
Some people, yes. Never ger complacent. Always question what’s actually happening. A lot of people never do…
On the one hand, death (or murder) of expertise is one of the things that got us here. On the other, you don’t need an expert to tell you that a car is on fire.
I think it is good that there are organizations tracking this sort of thing based on multiple criteria. As individuals, we are prone to bias, and our outlook can be overly optimistic or pessimistic based on what news we happen to read and how our lives are going.
Additionally, knowing the rate of change is important. Sure, “everyone” knows that the planet is getting hotter each year due to climate change. I still want scientists out there checking thermometers each day so that we have data to support better decision making. The attitude of ignoring legitimate research and relying on “common sense” is part of how so many people were swayed by MAGA bullshit in the first place (i.e., they dont want someone with a fancy medical degree telling them they should vaccinate their children). Maybe we can get off our high horses for a bit and look at what experts are saying from time to time.
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:
During Trump’s first term and for the duration of Joe Biden’s presidency, ratings of US democracy were relatively stable, never falling below 60 or exceeding 70.
But good job being utterly insufferable.
RIP
We’re rapidly becoming an anocracy - sometimes called a ‘semi-democratic’ state.
Also apparently called ‘managed democracy’.
Like in Helldivers or Starship Troopers!
Is that summary right? They’re measuring how “democratic” the USA is by surveying professors at universities?
Isn’t that like surveying CEOs about employee wages and then saying you’re “measuring” employee compensation?
Bright Line Watch fielded two recent surveys of political science faculty at American colleges and universities (whom we refer to as “experts”) and representative samples of Americans (whom we refer to as “the public”).
Faculty’s relationship to a university is not the same as a CEOs relationship to a business.
This would be akin to a CEO surveying his engineering team about the state of the company’s engineering
I mean where else do you get wage data from? The company payrolls are how they find it and the CEO would be the highest authority in the company that could release that data.
You’re presuming that the CEOs would give honest answers, instead of whatever answer helps them get a bigger bonus.
(Not to mention all of the businesses that don’t actually have a CEO, or the subcontractor shell games they play so cleaning and support staff dont actually work for the company…)
Where else would you get the info?
Obviously 🙄
It’s not obvious that it has “settled” rather than continuing to decline.
we never had direct democracy anyway which is the only democracy that should be considered “democracy” when average people think of the term.
more than half of us don’t know what a constitutional republic is.
Is it… A form of democracy wherein the populous uses a selection of elected representatives and a framework of a near immutable law set to guide the representatives in governing for the best interest of all citizens?
Indeed. So clearly you’re in the group that knows. Now the real question is… How big is each group?
Considering the intention of the public education system to improve the understanding of the populous has been degraded to the point where basic civics is not taught and we’re lucky if graduates are even functionally literate, I’d say that people who understand what our government is supposed to be and what it’s supposed to do is fairly small.
And unfortunately, that’s the whole fucking point. A uninformed population is an easily manipulated population.
yes, but i’m arguing that democracy being applied in other methods is not understood by the average American. they assume it means how i defined it which is why i think it’s the only version most people are discussing that aren’t politically minded.
Funny enough, this is basic civics that should have been taught in middle school
