Yet another major right-of-center watchdog of telltale signs of global authoritarianism has reduced the “democracy” ranking of the United States.
The latest is the annual Democracy Index ranking by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), which cited new flaws in United States civic life. The EIU is part of the Economist Group publishing house that puts out “The Economist” magazine. The EIU also has an extremely cozy relationship with Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service (MI-6) and is well-integrated with City of London banking interests, and so cannot be considered as some kind of leftist fringe organization.
In 2016, the EIU for the first time reduced the United States index description from a “full democracy” to a “flawed democracy” with the election of Donald Trump as president. This year it, further downgraded the United States due to a worsening situation with regard to suppression of the electoral franchise.
Since 2006, the United States has steadily dropped in the Democracy Index and today its rating is at the lowest point ever. Based on the EIU’s democracy criteria, the United States can be expected to drop in 2022 to “hybrid regime” status, which is defined as a nation that experiences regular electoral fraud, as well as restrictions on the political opposition, widespread corruption, harassment of the media, and an anemic rule of law. State laws being enacted by Republican state governors and legislatures that will further restrict voting rights are sure to move the United States into the hybrid regime category, where it will join such kleptocratic and fascist-oriented regimes as Turkey, Haiti, Guatemala, Pakistan, Morocco, Moldova, Nigeria, and Uganda. Currently, the United States shares flawed democracy status with Tunisia, Israel, the Philippines, Indonesia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Serbia.
Freedom House, which is a right-of-center U.S. non-government organization (NGO), has also dropped the democracy rating of the United States in its annual “Freedom of the World” report for 2021. The decline of American democracy was cited by Freedom House as largely the result of “President Trump’s attempt to overturn the will of the American voters was arguably the most destructive act of his time in office. His drumbeat of claims—without evidence—that the electoral system was ridden by fraud sowed doubt among a significant portion of the population, despite what election security officials eventually praised as the most secure vote in US history. Nationally elected officials from his party backed these claims, striking at the foundations of democracy and threatening the orderly transfer of power.”
The International Institute of Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) in Stockholm also downgraded America’s democracy rating in its annual “Global State of Democracy” report for 2021. It is now considered to be a “backsliding democracy” according to IDEA’s rating criteria. The United States has joined Brazil, Czechia, Hungary, India, Mauritius, Namibia, and Poland in backsliding on democratic rights. As with Freedom House, the U.S. decline was cited by IDEA as Trump’s January 6, 2021 attempted coup d’état to remain in power. The IDEA report states: “A historic turning point came in 2020–2021 when former President Donald Trump questioned the legitimacy of the 2020 election results in the United States. Baseless allegations of electoral fraud and related disinformation undermined fundamental trust in the electoral process, which culminated in the storming of the US Capitol building in January 2021.”
Having suffered an attempted coup with pro-Trump military support has given the green light to fascists in military uniform to stage their own coups to overthrow shaky democratic governments. This occurred in Myanmar in February 2021, Mali in May 2021, Guinea in September 2021, and Burkina Faso this past weekend. China stomped its dictatorial boot on Hong Kong during 2021 and fascists in Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, and Haiti made undemocratic moves toward seizing power.
IDEA cited similar attempts of electoral coups in other countries where political leaders used the example of Trump to overturn or attempt to overturn elections: ” . . . a similar argument alleging fraud but providing no evidence was used to justify a bloody military coup in what had been the weak new democracy of Myanmar in February 2021. Peru experienced one of its worst political crises following a divisive presidential election in November 2020. Candidate Keiko Fujimori, who lost the election, rejected the results and claimed that the election was rigged in favor of the winning candidate Pedro Castillo.” Fujimori eventually conceded her loss, something that Trump has never done.
Republican Party policies and rhetoric strongly indicate that if they gain power in the U.S. Congress and, in 2024, take the presidency, the United States will join Russia, China, Egypt, and Kazakhstan in the authoritarian regime category. The EIU defines authoritarian regimes as having “some conventional institutions of democracy but with meager significance” and where “infringements and abuses of civil liberties are commonplace, elections (if they take place) are not fair or free (including sham elections), the media is often state-owned or controlled by groups associated with the ruling regime, the judiciary is not independent, and censorship and suppression of governmental criticism are commonplace.” In states like Florida, which has become a virtual “banana republic” under authoritarian Republican Governor Ron DeSantis, such manifestations are already starkly present. Republican governors in Texas, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, and other states followed DeSantis’s lead.
American politicians should immediately cease calling the United States “free” and a “democracy.” And stop with the Reaganesque nonsense of a “shining hill,” a “beacon for democracy,” and an exemplar for the world to follow. It is none of those things. Any politician who claims otherwise is a lying coward and a fraud.
Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.
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Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist, author and nationally-distributed columnist. A member of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) and the National Press Club. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required).
