Sweden’s V-Dem Institute warns that the US is no longer a liberal democracy. And autocracy is creeping across Europe too, says writer Martin Gelin
👉 Remark: The article is about the U.S. and Europe, despite the title.
He already is pretty much, he does what he wants, laws don’t apply to him and there’s no one to stop him.
The only thing left for him is to get rid of the elections, which he is already working on, he said so himself.
The difference is Europe had kings before.
You point out something crucial. Americans have no sense for autocracy or fascism like Europeans do.
And yet there’s no shortage of people pursuing fascism today in those European countries that haven’t already gone fascist. For example, you’d expect the UK and Germany to know better, yet they both have popular fascist movements.
Americans did know oppression. First the Native Americans, then the European settlers seeking refuge from all kinds of persecution in Europe. Finally (at least that’s the story they told), the American revolutionaries tried to shake off what they portrayed as oppression by the British.
But unfortunately, illiberalism, autocracy, fascism and genocide seem to behave on a macro level like viruses behave on the micro level: like them, a society can - by way of surviving a previous infection - acquire a certain level of immunity. But over time, the pathogen can mutate and transform, and the concentration of antibodies in the organism can degrade over time so the defensive response is weakened. I fear this is where we are now: our societies have started to forget or deny the horrors of where this road has led us in the 20th century, and are becoming susceptible to the trappings of autocracy again. Let’s hope we don’t have to go through the natural process of immunisation again - because the pathogen is deadly and has the potential to kill its host.
Europe also goes the wrong direction, just with some delay
America had a king before too… Kinda why we are the way we are.
“For Orbán in Hungary, it took about four years, for Vučić in Serbia, it took eight years, and for Erdoğan in Turkey and Modi in India, it took about 10 years to accomplish the suppression of democratic institutions that Trump has achieved in only one year,” Lindberg says.
That says a lot about the American population and how “busy” they are to fight this, because they “need to go to work to feed their families”. Not like those other rich countries, where people can afford to lose jobs /s.
It’s not about the population, it’s about the legal system. In the USA, the president has massive powers, much, much more than heads of governments in practically all other democratic countries. The more power the executive has, the easier it is for them to set up a dictatorship.
The wobbling tub of walking gonorrhoea that said they were going to be a dictator from day one is being a dictator? Wow, really? Wow!!! That’s truly a revelation.
“wobbling tub of walking gonorrhoea” WOW! Classy! Can I use this name too? =)
Of course.
Another fave of mine is “stumbling human shaped pile of syphilis”Both are apt as descriptions of the mushy brained, dementia riddled, child rapist.
You got a fan!
Being outside and soaking wet, I can now say, with caution and reservation, that the transparent liquid falling from the sky, MAY be rain… thanks
But what is this “rain” composed of? Water? I don’t think so. Let’s ask the National Weather Service.
The number you have dialed has been disconnected
I mean… it might NOT be rain… was it yellow at all?
That smell… is that… could it be… asparagus?
We know. The problem is a lot of idiots want trump as a dictator.
Yes, I think so too. It’s pretty obvious, after all: ICE has a budget equivalent to the military spending of a medium-sized country. By U.S. standards: This “agency” has a larger budget than all other U.S. federal agencies combined - that is, the FBI, CIA, etc.
ICE was founded after 9/11 by Bush Jr. At that time, its purpose was essentially to enforce the conservatives’ absurd immigration policies outside the democratic decision-making process.
Today, it is clearly a secret police force that is exclusively loyal to the regime. Of course, this is once again about the self-enrichment of unscrupulous MAGA people, but I think it’s still pretty obvious that the main goal is to field a force that, if necessary, can crush resistance from the military - possibly also from the police, though I don’t think resistance from that side is very likely.
It’s insane to me that over the past few decades we allowed the state to construct an entirely parallel national police and judicial system subject to total executive authority, and that very few people objected to this in any major way until 2025.
I mean the underpinnings of this system, even before it was dramatically expanded and abused by Trump seem so blatantly unconstitutional it’s shocking. How can you have a separate judicial system for certain classes of people nested within the executive branch? Is that not a clear violation of separation of powers? How can we arrest and forcibly imprison or deport people without warrants? What happened to the 4th amendment? What the fuck were people thinking? Was it not obvious where this would lead?
For myself, I can only plead ignorance. I really did not investigate how our immigration system worked until I had cause to, and now that I’ve become educated I’m just incredulous that our elected leaders and judges created such a blatantly authoritarian system. And that no one who knew about it seemed to care for so long. Or at least no one with any power or influence.
I can’t tell you exactly how that was possible, or why U.S. citizens allowed it to happen, but I think one of the main reasons is likely the U.S. Constitution itself: It is old and was originally designed for a nation that included slave-holding states. Added to this is the fact that it was a constitution conceived exclusively by very wealthy landowners. Of course, this was the standard worldwide at the time, but since this constitution remains by far the hardest to amend of all democratic nations, it was never fundamentally revised - which is, of course, absolutely absurd even for countries with a comparable system.
One consequence of this is that the current administration won the last presidential election by about two million fewer votes. And that’s just scratching the surface: there are numerous reforms that have been blocked for decades by a minority of ultra-conservative states, since there is no proper mechanism that would be based on the population of these states. There is also no democratic country in the world in which constitutional court justices are appointed for life.
What I mean to say is this: The almost religious belief in the effectiveness of their Constitution is, in my opinion, the main reason why U.S. democracy cannot survive - at least not without far-reaching reforms that are not even remotely realistic with either of the two major parties.
The only option at this point, in my view, would be a general strike that paralyzes the country until it simply forces through the reforms that have been overdue for more than 100 years. In my view, there is no other option within this system.
In that sense, American citizens could actually bring about something fundamentally good out of the reign of terror imposed by their orange despot - it would be a blessing for the country and for the world. Unfortunately, I just don’t think that will actually happen.
The U.S. Constitution is total shit and should be completely scrapped and re-written. The problem is I don’t trust any of these partisan fools in congress to be educated enough to draft a new one.
The fervent worship of the founding fathers and the document itself as a holy-adjacent collective/artifact is absolutely why we have problems adapting our laws to the 21st century.
The main problem being that most Americans are one paycheck away from starving.
Without reforms they will always be one paycheque away from starving.
Yes, it’s a real catch-22.
Don’t forget that there is no healthcare without employment.
Yes, that is the consequence, and it will remain that way as long as US citizens do nothing to change it. It will remain a self-fulfilling prophecy until the curse is broken. It won’t happen on its own; instead, things will only get worse if people don’t take their fate into their own hands. There are plenty of examples that prove this is possible - and all of these are examples where much more was at stake than just a job.
Please don’t get me wrong: It’s difficult on your own, but there’s strength in numbers. That may sound like a pipe dream, but it’s the only hope for a better life.
Again, there’s no support structure, so even striking in unison means that most people end up with nothing almost immediately.
Try explaining that to the people in Iran who rose up against the regime, were shot by the hundreds, and are now being bombed by the U.S.
🙄
Those who make pacific change impossible risk violent revolutions.
We objected to it. We also quickly realized that it never ends as a democracy, and a republic in name only.
Is this any news? The USA will also change its name to Banana Republic of DonnyT…
it really makes you miss the german neoclassicalism of the previous administrations
Well I’m SHOCKED. SHOCKED to hear this revelation. If only there has been some way to know ahead of time.
This was pretty clear in 2016, glaringly obvious in 2021, and Trump himself explicitly said being a dictator on day one was a goal in 2024.
But I’m sure another think piece won’t hurt!
👉 Remark
You are giving us the finger?!/j
Good remark though. This autocratication proces is a global phenomena unfortunately.
Trump is a current threat to the world. He’s also a warning to everyone, yours could go this route next. Don’t let it.
Now if he just hadn’t invaded Iran…
How them midterms looking?
He also might settle for a Kingdom.
A king is just a dictator with another name.
