America's Democratic Recession

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Yesterday, the DOJ set up a $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund” after settling with Trump on a lawsuit over his tax returns. The fund will pay claims to people who are “victims of lawfare and weaponization.” These people can include the January 6th insurrectionists who were convicted following the event. This move is the latest of the Trump administration’s efforts to enrich their allies at the expense of the American people.

Here are a few important updates…

AMERICA’S DEMOCRATIC RECESSION

Under the second Trump administration, American democracy is getting weaker and weaker. A report from the V-Dem Institute found that the U.S. is now an “electoral democracy in significant decline,” its score falling faster than any other rich country and dropping below every other G7 nation. Researchers say the steepest erosion lies in the liberal side of democracy; checks and balances, judicial independence, protections for civil liberties, and a free press. This has all been driven by Trump’s efforts to concentrate executive power, politicize civil service, and intimidate courts, media, and protesters. Analysts at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace argue that the U.S. has now joined countries like Hungary, India, and Turkey in a pattern of “executive aggrandizement,” where elected leaders systematically weaken constraints on their own power while keeping elections in place.

The efforts of the Trump administration and Republican-controlled state legislatures are typical of democratic backsliding. If we saw the cuts to institutional checks, politicization of oversight, and attacks on journalists and activists in any other nation, it would ring alarm bells. However, other democracies like ours have been able to recover from democratic backsliding. In places like Poland, democratic renewal began with civil society mobilization, opposition, and a shared goal to restore basic democratic norms. There is nothing automatic about democratic recovery - it requires an electorate who care enough to fight and institutions that refuse to give up their role as guardrails. The question for America is no longer whether backsliding is happening, but if we are willing to do what it takes to reverse it.

https://onecountryproject.substack.com/p/tuesday-talkers-519-americas-democratic

[Skittles]

1. should say America's Democracy in Recession

because the coming recession will actually be REPUBLICAN