IS AMERICA LOSING ITS DEMOCRACY?

 

….For the first time in U.S. History, a Confederate Flag was paraded through the U.S Capitol on January 6^th, 2020

The United States has become a “backsliding” democratic nation

 

With all the recent discussion as to how the United States seems to be losing its democracy, what else is happening across the country?  That is, in addition to how the Republican party has become the “Party of Trump”.  

With this being the current situation, I decided to dive into a new book called: HOW CIVIL WARS START, and how to stop them, by the Professor of International Relations at the School of Global Policy & Strategy at U.C. California, Ms. Barbara Walter.

In the book’s INTRODUCTION, it says: “Seventy percent (70%) of extremist related deaths in the U.S. are at the hands of far-right or white supremist movements.”

The professor continues by saying: As compared to the past, “It is common today to see Confederate Flags for sale, as well as seeing other far-right group insignias.”  In addition, that today we also see more visible “Bumper Stickers” referring to many, “Dangerous, Far-Right Military Groups’ .

 (BTW: There are many more private militia groups located within the U.S. than ever before.)

Ms. Walter spends much of the book’s Introduction, using an example of describing how a new militia group came together and attempted to kidnap he governor of Michigan.  She details how their ultimate plan was to, “try her with their members and to eventually execute her.”  Fortunately, she also tells how the group had been found out, how the group was infiltrated and how the authorities were able to stop them and arrest the entire group.

She also tells about how, today more guns are being purchased in the U.S. because we Americans overall, feel more threatened by some militant members of the American public.

But even with all this going on, most Americans today are still saying:  “No, that (a possible civil uprising) could never happen here.”

                                                 ...Professor Barbara Walter

Professor Walter then demonstrates how the general population of Irag, after the invasion by the American military, actually had initially thought that with the Americans arriving, they would now finally be able to have a real democracy in Iraq.

But, as with what usually happens, when you have different religious groups within a country being released to that level of free thinking, in Iraq, the Sunni’s, and the Shia’s and the Kurds, all became very militant and started seriously fighting amongst themselves.  

When the then President George W. Bush’s administration decided to not provide strong democratic leadership for these three Iraqi religious groups, they eventually turned the turmoil into a real civil war.  The then U.S. president made the situation that much worse by not requiring the Iraqi leadership to use democratic measures for dealing with those three religious groups.

But, history has shown that all nations will have serious conflicts, sometimes that turn into a civil war, when an autocracy like Iraq attempts to change and become a democracy.

Today, the way any nation in the world refers to themselves as being either a democracy, or an autocracy, this done today using a 21 point scale called the “Policy Score”.

This “Policy Score” is used to rate all the nations in the world as to where they fit as an democratic nation, or an autocratic nation, or if they are somewhere in-between.

A non-profit international research organization developed that Policy Score and the group is called the Center for System Peace.  Their nation scoring approach is referred to as their: Policy Project Research Operation.

There are today, three definitions as to a nation’s political policy position;  That being, that a nation is either: "Democratic", "Autocratic", or now what is called, "Anocratic".  (Anocratic is that position that is partially democratic, but it has fewer freedoms than a democracy and it is usually led by very autocratic political rules.)

Within the 21 Point scale score, a (-6) to a (-10) score is considered that the nation is being: “mostly autocratic”.  A  (+6) to a (+10) score is considered that the nation is “Mostly democratic”.

A full democratic nation would have a score of (+10) and being a full (+10) score, the nation would have to have what is considered: “Free & Fair Elections”.

Up until recently, the United States was scored at the (+10) rating, along with Norway, New Zealand, Denmark and Canada.

As an example of a -10 country, North Korea, has a (-10) rating, as does Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain

Newly rated “Anocracies” are rated having scores of (-5) or (+5), such as Turkey and Iraq.   That’s because they are somewhere between being a full Democracy or a full Autocracy.

The point is that since 2019, the United States has been considered that it has been “backsliding” for years of being a “full democracy,” to something much less.

The “backsliding” attitude comes from the fact that more polled Americans have stated that they think the country is losing its democracy, and that we have a former president that is falsely claiming that the 2020 election was stolen from him.  No fully democratic nation would have that attitude.

The fact that 50% of the former Republican party also believes that the 2020 election was either rigged for the Democrats, or they feel the election was outright “stolen”, that is another situation that explains that the nation is “backsliding” and losing its democracy.

For many nations over the last century, the idea that the United States was a “full democracy” was just considered as a fact. That is no longer the case, and the scoring of the country has obviously declined.

As an example, for decades after World War II, this nations “infrastructure” was considered the in the position of being the very best.  Today, the U.S. infrastructure is rated as being 13^th in the world.  That means that 12 other nations have better highways, freeways, airports, schools, bridges, and railways.  They are much better than those in the U.S..  What is the most disturbing is that today, Communist China is one of those nations that is well ahead of the U.S. in these areas

What is also disturbing  is that the new president of the United States realizes this fact, and his “Build Back Better” paln was his way of changing the situation.  But the current Republican lawmakers do not feel they will support that the nation needs the spending to correct our nation's negative issues

The fact that no lawmaker in the other party has shown any intention of supporting the Democratic President’s plan is just another example of how the nation is “backsliding” away from its former number one position in the world.  (And the fact that today, 2 Democratic lawmakers will also, not allow the Democratic Senators that today have a small leading political position, to make President Biden’s plan a reality.  This just confirms the current American “backsliding” situation.)

The overall current situation says, “The United States is in serious trouble for remaining as a full democracy.”

If the GOP continues to support a president that legally lost the last presidential election.  If those that planned the attack the U.S. Capitol on January 6^th, 2020, continue to stay “at large” and if the Republican party doesn’t become the legitimate party they were before the election of President Donald Trump, the U.S. will officially become an anocracy and stop being a democracy.

The author of the book, HOW CIVIL WARS START, will have made her point, and we will become much less than we are today, as being a real democracy.

Yes, we will have lost our democracy.

Copyright G. Ater 2022