U.S. could lose democracy status, says global watchdog

www.cbc.ca /news/world/trump-democracy-report-1.7486317

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We should have never had the status given we still use slaves.

The US is one of the most watered down democracies, even for a liberal democracy (which is severely watered down). Its a system where the needs of the many are filtered through the needs of the few. We dont need to "fix" liberal democracy, we need workers democracy (syndicalism).

Oh, but were not a democracy, were a constitutional republic hardy har har har har
my republican friends.
- we're a constitutional federal republic, with democratically elected representatives, but a plutocracy, in practice
  me, a political science pedant of highest/worst order
  
  As a political science pedant, can you explain to me the difference between a democracy and a constitutional republic? I tried to Google "constitutional republic" but I just got a Wikipedia page that said they were the same thing.
  Which I guess would fit, since republicans are absolute dumbfucks, but if there's actually some nuance there, I'm curious to know.
  Thanks!
  
  I'd like to subscribe to more political pedantry
  
  Unsubscribe!!!!
- Oh, we are? Is that why everyone other than hetero white males is getting mentions removed or protections gutted and/or removed? What part of the constitution that provides rights to all Americans is in play when this is happening? Go ahead, I’ll wait…
  That would be my response.
  
  My response is to click that “unfriend” button and never see them on social media again.

And a few days after that, PragerU releases a video titled "Why democracies will fail eventually", which tells its viewers that democracy creates "moral decadence", and now a "strong leader" is needed to fix the issue, who might have told some noble lies like a parent tells their kid the stork brings the children when they're not ready for reality. And the video ends with a "Roman salute" over "God Bless America".
- People tell their kids the stork brings babies because the parent is the one not ready to have the conversation.
  The parent is avoiding their own humiliation. Telling kids how babies are made is not embarassing for kids. Kids have no reason to feel shame or judgement about these kinds of things….
  Just pointing this out to show that the metaphor here is deeply flawed.
  
  3-4 year olds don’t need to know about birds and the bees
- I hate that I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or if this really happened

"Could lose"? We are long past this point. When you can chose between two parties and they try to manipulate the election as hard as they can, then that's a zombie democracy at best. And now? The president stands above the law. He can fire people illegally. He can disable law enforcement. Democracy in the US is gone. Hopefully only temporarily. Now it's up to people to act, take their rogue government down and repair what can be repaired.
- To be fair they did explicitly say that this report includes no data from 2025.

Baby, you haven't been a democracy for a while
- Really? Seems like we had a peaceful transition of power just this year.
  
  Optical illusion. Plutocrats sharing power among themselves is not democracy, friend.
  
  We peacefully transitioned into a technocracy with a wanna-be dictator idiot at the helm.
  As an exercise for anyone reading this who doesn't already know: How did Hitler got into a position of power? Look that up, don't use AI, actually check up on that yourself.
  
  I would assume most monarchies transitioned just as peaceful. What does that prove?
  
  That makes one in a row now.
  
  The only party willing to accept defeat and not cry foul until their cult riots lost. It will never happen the other way around are you'd have be to a deeply vastly empty head to not know that.
  
  Degree of democracy has more to do with the size of the ruling coalition relative to the size of the pool of the interchangeables. When power is shared within a large ruling coalition, there tends to be a louder and more influential voice by the interchangeables, leading to more democracy and better living conditions for everyone, including those in the losing coalition. Autocracies on the ruling spectrum tend to have tiny ruling coalitions.
  Source: my memory of reading The Dictator's Handbook by Bueno de Mesquita and Smith. Highly recommended reading.
  If the ruling coalition of the US is much smaller than it appears to be, then yeah, it's at risk of losing its foothold as a democracy.
  
  That's not the only quality of a democracy.
  
  How many eligible voters abstained?

Damn. When Sweden (or any Nordic country) says it, it really hits hard.

"You’ve only been a democracy for only 50 years. Not unless you don't count black people... you are nearly as mature democracy as Botswana." - Lukas Matsson (Swedish guy) on Succession

America is lost. Do not let Elon near your country.

Trump's approval rating us TOO DAMN HIGH!

Could? Do it now.

Just publish an addendum and yank it. The great experiment failed. We’re cooked, chat.

Democracy isn't a status given by some watchdog.
Democracy is shit
- So you're all for dictatorships then?
- What do you mean by that?
  Do you mean electoral politics is fundamentally flawed?
  Do you mean direct action by the working class (workers democracy) is better than liberalism?
  Or are you just begging to have the orange tyrants foot deep down your throat?
- Oooh edgy.
- Anything else than democracy is shittier
  
  Demonstrably false.

sorry for derailing a little:
why is there multiple links to choose from as a source? What exactly created that choosable format - are they automated, is this some system like groundnews or something?
- Idk, don't have that on my client (Eternity) but that's dope

78 comments