America is now a 'Backsliding Democracy'

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Figured this would have been posted already. Probably a paywall, so posting it all:

Breaking|Nov 22, 2021,02:19pm EST
U.S. Named A ‘Backsliding Democracy’ For The First Time On European Think Tank’s Annual List

Updated Nov 22, 2021, 02:45pm EST
Topline

The United States has been described as a democracy in decline for the first time in an annual list by a Stockholm-based think tank after a year marked by disputed election results and the passage of restrictive voting laws.

Key Facts

The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance said the U.S., despite being “the bastion of global democracy,” is undergoing a democratic backslide for the first time since the group began collecting data regarding global democracy more than 20 years ago, according to International IDEA’s annual Global State of Democracy report.

The U.S. found a place on the list after it “fell victim to authoritarian tendencies,” according to International IDEA, which listed election integrity—and specifically, former President Donald Trump’s insistence that the election was “stolen”—as a key factor in the determination, along with challenges to voter access.

Trump’s unfounded yet tireless allegations of voter fraud marked “a historic turning point” for democracy in the U.S. according to the think tank, which described a breakdown of trust in the electoral process as the culminating factor in violent rioting in the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, 2021.

Trump’s baseless accusations have also had “spillover effects” internationally, according to the report, and politicians have raised similar allegations of voter fraud without evidence in countries like Brazil, Mexico, Myanmar and Peru.

The report’s authors also expressed concern for the wave of voting restriction bills passed in states across the U.S., which researchers say disproportionately affect minorities and will prevent them from casting ballots.

Tangent

The International IDEA report did name one U.S. measure it believes will help improve democracy in the country: the new child tax credit. The monthly credit is expected to slash the national poverty rate by nearly half and raise more than 4 million American children out of poverty this year, according to the report.

Surprising Fact

More than two thirds of people around the world reside in either outright nondemocratic regimes or in nations experiencing democratic backslide, according to the report.

Key Background

The democratic backslide in the U.S. has helped contribute to a worrying worldwide decline in democracy, International IDEA said. The U.S. was listed alongside European Union member states like Poland, Hungary and Slovenia as countries that are experiencing “concerning democratic declines,” though not to the degree of nations like India and Brazil, which International IDEA said displayed “the most worrying” backslides in democracy over the past year. The report analyzed trends in data collected from 2020 and 2021. International IDEA is an intergovernmental organization made up of more than 30 member states that works to uphold democracy worldwide. The group is an official United Nations observer, a status that allows International IDEA to speak at UN General Assembly meetings and sponsor and sign resolutions.

U.S. Named A ‘Backsliding Democracy’ For The First Time On European Think Tank’s Annual List

American democracy is threatened by allegations of voter fraud and restrictive voting laws, according to the report.

www.forbes.com

Thanks Donny!!!!!

 

[Greenman]

This falls just under the brand of plastic wrap I use on my list of important things.
Maybe they should be thinking about how to defend Taiwan from China, on the off chance that the US decides not to do it.

 

[MrSquished]

This falls just under the brand of plastic wrap I use on my list of important things.
Maybe they should be thinking about how to defend Taiwan from China, on the off chance that the US decides not to do it.

You've already shown you don't really care about democracy in America being attacked by conservatives, so why would you care now? News at 11 folks

 

[Vic]

Excellent article from long-time conservative writer David Brooks about the radicalization of the new generation of conservatives and how they all idolize illiberal dictators like Orban.

The Terrifying Future of the American Right

What I saw at the National Conservatism Conference

www.theatlantic.com

Years ago, I was listening to a conservative friend of mine tell me of the evils of liberalism, and I had to interrupt him and ask, what about classical liberalism? What about the Constitution and the Republic that were borne of the liberal enlightenment? Surely you don't want a king or a tyrant just because he might protect you from liberals, do you? And after a while, I helped him to see that his conservatism was actually a kind of classic liberalism, and that he had much more in common with those 'evil liberals' that he realized.

The new breed of conservatives, however, no longer care for classical liberalism. And they are very much looking for a champion against their political enemies, even if he is a tyrant.

 

[Vic]

This falls just under the brand of plastic wrap I use on my list of important things.
Maybe they should be thinking about how to defend Taiwan from China, on the off chance that the US decides not to do it.

We're all looking forward to the day when you become sufficiently apathetic to stop posting about your apathy.
Now either discuss the thread topic or get out of the thread please.

 

[Moonbeam]

Lots of American males are having the same problem that Taliban gentlemen are having. In a free society women are free to tell them they are insensitive, emotionally immature dicks and the number of women who feel worthless enough to psychologically need their abuse is limited. They don't want to be publicly humiliated as inferior and will bring down the world in order to avoid that feeling. People can go to the zoo to see peacocks if they want that kind of behavior.

 

[gothuevos]

Excellent article from long-time conservative writer David Brooks about the radicalization of the new generation of conservatives and how they all idolize illiberal dictators like Orban.

The Terrifying Future of the American Right

What I saw at the National Conservatism Conference

www.theatlantic.com

Years ago, I was listening to a conservative friend of mine tell me of the evils of liberalism, and I had to interrupt him and ask, what about classical liberalism? What about the Constitution and the Republic that were borne of the liberal enlightenment? Surely you don't want a king or a tyrant just because he might protect you from liberals, do you? And after a while, I helped him to see that his conservatism was actually a kind of classic liberalism, and that he had much more in common with those 'evil liberals' that he realized.

The new breed of conservatives, however, no longer care for classical liberalism. And they are very much looking for a champion against their political enemies, even if he is a tyrant.

Yup, and as the article states, there are no longer "small govt conservatives."

The irony in all their railing against expansive govt is that they are the biggest statists of them all - they want to use the power of the state to win all their culture wars and punish all persona non grata.

But hey, like that quote in the article says, maybe our future GOP overlords will treat "minority cultures with decency."

 

[HomerJS]

This falls just under the brand of plastic wrap I use on my list of important things.
Maybe they should be thinking about how to defend Taiwan from China, on the off chance that the US decides not to do it.

Maybe it might be worth a little of your time figuring out how we can keep this Democracy because is being slow walked away. Example: Republicans in various states want to take away the job of certifying the vote from the Secs of State and turn it over to the GOP. Any problems with that???

 

[Greenman]

Not yet.
What really concerns me is far more fundamental that who certifies the vote.

Back to the topic at hand. If China invades Taiwan the EU is going to do nothing but have a protest and blame the US for not stopping it. There going to demand that action be taken and they won't care how many US soldiers have to die in the process.

 

[gothuevos]

Not yet.
What really concerns me is far more fundamental that who certifies the vote

Ok, and that would be...?

 

[MrSquished]

Not yet.
What really concerns me is far more fundamental that who certifies the vote.

Back to the topic at hand. If China invades Taiwan the EU is going to do nothing but have a protest and blame the US for not stopping it. There going to demand that action be taken and they won't care how many US soldiers have to die in the process.

What is your evidence that Europe will point fingers at the US? Based on what exactly historically?

Does this come from the same addled part of your brain that doesn't give a shit about democracy lasting in this country? The fact is many more people right here at home have commented how the current GQP does not respect Democracy and is eroding it. You don't give a shit when Americans say it, liberal or conservative. And now you don't give a shit about it when Europeans say it.

I'm starting to think you don't give a shit about it at all.

I mean the whole mentality of 'we can't learn or need to give a shit about what anybody in another country might think or ideas they may have' is just such a thick way of existing in a socio-political sense. It's a big mindset of conservatives in this country and completely stupid.

We can learn from Europeans just as they can learn some things from us.

 

[fskimospy]

Before the 2020 election if you told me Biden’s margin of victory and asked me the odds that he would be certified the winner of the election I would have said 100%.

Anyone who tells me that if Biden wins by an identical margin in 2024 the odds of him being certified the winner are 100% they are lying or delusional. I’m not even sure if I would put it at 90%.

At some point we need to take conservatives at their word - they are now comfortable with subverting election results they don’t like.

 

[Moonbeam]

Not yet.
What really concerns me is far more fundamental that who certifies the vote.

Back to the topic at hand. If China invades Taiwan the EU is going to do nothing but have a protest and blame the US for not stopping it. There going to demand that action be taken and they won't care how many US soldiers have to die in the process.

Humanity is asleep, living in a wrong world. Humanity is racing toward extinction on a number of fronts and doesn’t care in the process how many will die. I am a human and so are you. I am the reason we are going extinct. Do you see anything similar in you?

Do you know what to do about Taiwan? Are you working on it 24 7 every week?

I don’t know what to do about Taiwan or how to end war in which we send our willing young men to die. I know that many did keeping the Communists from massing on the Mexican border and invading. I decided that military service used peoples’ patriotism to send them to their graves. I didn’t think it right to use people like that.

Do you know what it is like to be seen as a coward by your own family. Let me just suggest that there is a terrible price to be paid sometimes for standing up for what you believe. You might feel something to much to face, perhaps, for standing up for Democracy when it is under attack from within. I would lump militarism right in there with the newly woke authoritarian Republican Party.

Personally, I can see fears about China having a lot in common with fears about a Tet Texas invasion, but the threat from the right is all over the media. Perhaps Taiwan is what an ostrich sees in sand.

Anyway, most of us have many concerns to juggle.

 

[PowerEngineer]

Breaking news? Nope. We've been backsliding for five years.

 

[WelshBloke]

Back to the topic at hand. If China invades Taiwan the EU is going to do nothing but have a protest and blame the US for not stopping it. There going to demand that action be taken and they won't care how many US soldiers have to die in the process.

How has that got anything to do with the topic in hand? The OP is about democracy in the US not geopolitical power.

 

[ch33zw1z]

How has that got anything to do with the topic in hand? The OP is about democracy in the US not geopolitical power.

I read his replies as a topic that makes him uncomfortable, so he's either gonna troll or cognitive dissonance in full display.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Breaking news? Nope. We've been backsliding for five years.

I'd say longer. Conservatives hit the gas in '08 and now it's full speed ahead. Trumps just a shitty actor enabling terrible people to be brazenly terrible.

 

[WelshBloke]

I read his replies as a topic that makes him uncomfortable, so he's either gonna troll or cognitive dissonance in full display.

It's certainly always easier to point at others rather than address the thing you don't like about yourself.

 

[Lost_in_the_HTTP]

Back to the topic at hand. If China invades Taiwan ...

That is NOT the topic at hand in this thread.

Who certifies votes is at least partially the topic at hand.

'It's not who votes that counts. It's who counts the votes'. We must make certain that counting the votes is non-partisan and impartial.

 

[pmv]

I'd say longer. Conservatives hit the gas in '08 and now it's full speed ahead. Trumps just a shitty actor enabling terrible people to be brazenly terrible.

Seriously mixed-metaphors there. Can one hit the gas and go full speed ahead at backsliding?

 

[ch33zw1z]

Seriously mixed-metaphors there. Can one hit the gas and go full speed ahead at backsliding?

Lol, seems so. You see, they have the vehicle (of your choosing) in reverse. 🤔

The GOP has essentially abandoned democracy, as have a good portion of their voters.

 

[zinfamous]

This falls just under the brand of plastic wrap I use on my list of important things.
Maybe they should be thinking about how to defend Taiwan from China, on the off chance that the US decides not to do it.

....exactly the point of the article. your attitude is why we fail.

 

[KMFJD]

hmmm i wonder what OAS will say if an election is stolen here like they did over in Bolivia?

 

[gothuevos]

Before the 2020 election if you told me Biden’s margin of victory and asked me the odds that he would be certified the winner of the election I would have said 100%.

Anyone who tells me that if Biden wins by an identical margin in 2024 the odds of him being certified the winner are 100% they are lying or delusional. I’m not even sure if I would put it at 90%.

At some point we need to take conservatives at their word - they are now comfortable with subverting election results they don’t like.

What made you change your tune? Up until not that long ago, I didn't think you were all that concerned. Unless I just wasn't paying attention.

 

[fskimospy]

What made you change your tune? Up until not that long ago, I didn't think you were all that concerned. Unless I just wasn't paying attention.

Same tune as always.