US added to list of 'backsliding' democracies for first time
Source: The Guardian
The US has been added to an annual list of “backsliding” democracies for the first time, the International IDEA thinktank has said, pointing to a “visible deterioration” it said began in 2019.
Globally, more than one in four people live in a backsliding democracy, a proportion that rises to more than two in three with the addition of authoritarian or “hybrid” regimes, according to the Stockholm-based International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance.
“This year we coded the United States as backsliding for the first time, but our data suggest that the backsliding episode began at least in 2019,” it said in its report.
Alexander Hudson, a co-author of the report, said: “The United States is a high-performing democracy, and even improved its performance in indicators of impartial administration (corruption and predictable enforcement) in 2020. However, the declines in civil liberties and checks on government indicate that there are serious problems with the fundamentals of democracy.”
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/nov/22/us-list-backsliding-democracies-civil-liberties-international
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I was one of those who rolled my eyes when TFG announced his run for the presidency in 2015. I thought he was a ridiculous buffoon and couldn't imagine him getting very far. I did not take him at all seriously, and once the debates started, my opinion of him kept dropping lower and lower as he said and did one ridiculous and horrifying thing after another.
As time went on, things got weirder and weirder. And then....he actually nailed the nomination. 
I knew I couldn't keep dismissing him outright once it became clear that his name was going to be on the ballot in the general election. Still, I didn't see how he could possibly get elected. But we all know what happened, and I was absolutely gutted (and totally baffled) by the 2016 election results. Of course, we now know that he had loads of help from Putin and his bot farm minions, but at the time it just seemed inexplicable.
The rest, as they say, is history. His entire presidency was like a trip down a rabbit hole to a place that was a cross between Dante's Inferno and a carnival sideshow. So yeah, 2016 was when it felt like everything changed, for me. There were certainly earlier signs that things were headed in a bad direction, but 2016 was when it felt REAL to me that something crucial was, for lack of a better word, broken.
way before now
There are several other democracy reports.
For the fifth consecutive year, the United States was rated a "flawed democracy"
by the Economist Intelligence Unit, reflecting a year of political division and mistrust. The U.S. has not been in the top 20 since 2015.
In recent years the democratic institutions of the United States have suffered erosion,
says "Freedom in the World", a yearly report from "Freedom House": Bias and dysfunction in the criminal justice system, harmful policies on immigration and asylum seekers, and growing disparities in wealth, economic opportunity, and political influence.
