Three major reports out this month say Trump has done serious damage to American democracy at remarkable speed since his return to the White House.
An annual report from V-Dem, an institute at Sweden’s University of Gothenburg, concluded democracy had deteriorated so much in the U.S. that it lowered the country’s democracy ranking from 20th to 51st out of 179 countries.
The U.S. landed between Slovakia and Greece.
If democracy means anything at all, it’s a system where the people rule. By your loose definition, every country is a democracy! Every king and dictator has enormous propaganda machines because they need to keep their people from overthrowing them.
The Gilens and Page study gave the game away in 2005. “The preferences of the average American appear to have only a miniscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.” Policies are decided by the ruling class before a single vote is cast, the elections are simply another propaganda machine to trick people into giving their consent to be governed.
And right now the propaganda machine is telling you to just wait for the midterms and everything will be fine. You don’t need to do anything! Just sit back and relax, the system is working as intended, everything will work out. “Democracy”. What a joke.
I don’t think Mamdani is perfect, but I have a hard time believing his policies were decided on by the ruling class. Will they fight the implementation of those policies? Of course they will. Those with a need for power will never concedes an inch. That doesn’t mean that wasn’t a free and fair election decided by the people of NYC.
Also, IDK what propaganda machine you’re listening to but I have never heard anyone, of any political stripe, tell me “everything will be fine after the midterms”.
I’ve absolutely seen tons of astroturfed messaging saying “Let’s all wait for the midterms” since about when Trump took office. It has been the predominant message across so-called liberal media and so-called liberal groups. I have not heard that idea by anyone IRL. I have seen that message online stated many political accounts which popped up around January 2025 and caught the algorithm while everyone in the USA was rightfully freaking out about Elon’s Nazi salute, DOGE’s ransacking, and Trump’s absurd nominations.
I’ve definitely seen the “Now the Presidential elections are over, time to immediately focus on the midterms” variations that come about every four years, but they’re usually calls to action, not “just sit back and relax, the system is working as intended”. That… honestly just sounds like technically bad propaganda. If propaganists can’t get their targets in a rage about something, they’re leaving them open to someone who can.