Sweden’s V-Dem Institute warns that the US is no longer a liberal democracy. And autocracy is creeping across Europe too, says writer Martin Gelin
👉 Remark: The article is about the U.S. and Europe, despite the title.
Sweden’s V-Dem Institute warns that the US is no longer a liberal democracy. And autocracy is creeping across Europe too, says writer Martin Gelin
👉 Remark: The article is about the U.S. and Europe, despite the title.
Yes, I think so too. It’s pretty obvious, after all: ICE has a budget equivalent to the military spending of a medium-sized country. By U.S. standards: This “agency” has a larger budget than all other U.S. federal agencies combined - that is, the FBI, CIA, etc.
ICE was founded after 9/11 by Bush Jr. At that time, its purpose was essentially to enforce the conservatives’ absurd immigration policies outside the democratic decision-making process.
Today, it is clearly a secret police force that is exclusively loyal to the regime. Of course, this is once again about the self-enrichment of unscrupulous MAGA people, but I think it’s still pretty obvious that the main goal is to field a force that, if necessary, can crush resistance from the military - possibly also from the police, though I don’t think resistance from that side is very likely.
It’s insane to me that over the past few decades we allowed the state to construct an entirely parallel national police and judicial system subject to total executive authority, and that very few people objected to this in any major way until 2025.
I mean the underpinnings of this system, even before it was dramatically expanded and abused by Trump seem so blatantly unconstitutional it’s shocking. How can you have a separate judicial system for certain classes of people nested within the executive branch? Is that not a clear violation of separation of powers? How can we arrest and forcibly imprison or deport people without warrants? What happened to the 4th amendment? What the fuck were people thinking? Was it not obvious where this would lead?
For myself, I can only plead ignorance. I really did not investigate how our immigration system worked until I had cause to, and now that I’ve become educated I’m just incredulous that our elected leaders and judges created such a blatantly authoritarian system. And that no one who knew about it seemed to care for so long. Or at least no one with any power or influence.
I can’t tell you exactly how that was possible, or why U.S. citizens allowed it to happen, but I think one of the main reasons is likely the U.S. Constitution itself: It is old and was originally designed for a nation that included slave-holding states. Added to this is the fact that it was a constitution conceived exclusively by very wealthy landowners. Of course, this was the standard worldwide at the time, but since this constitution remains by far the hardest to amend of all democratic nations, it was never fundamentally revised - which is, of course, absolutely absurd even for countries with a comparable system.
One consequence of this is that the current administration won the last presidential election by about two million fewer votes. And that’s just scratching the surface: there are numerous reforms that have been blocked for decades by a minority of ultra-conservative states, since there is no proper mechanism that would be based on the population of these states. There is also no democratic country in the world in which constitutional court justices are appointed for life.
What I mean to say is this: The almost religious belief in the effectiveness of their Constitution is, in my opinion, the main reason why U.S. democracy cannot survive - at least not without far-reaching reforms that are not even remotely realistic with either of the two major parties.
The only option at this point, in my view, would be a general strike that paralyzes the country until it simply forces through the reforms that have been overdue for more than 100 years. In my view, there is no other option within this system.
In that sense, American citizens could actually bring about something fundamentally good out of the reign of terror imposed by their orange despot - it would be a blessing for the country and for the world. Unfortunately, I just don’t think that will actually happen.
The main problem being that most Americans are one paycheck away from starving.
Without reforms they will always be one paycheque away from starving.
Yes, it’s a real catch-22.
Yes, that is the consequence, and it will remain that way as long as US citizens do nothing to change it. It will remain a self-fulfilling prophecy until the curse is broken. It won’t happen on its own; instead, things will only get worse if people don’t take their fate into their own hands. There are plenty of examples that prove this is possible - and all of these are examples where much more was at stake than just a job.
Please don’t get me wrong: It’s difficult on your own, but there’s strength in numbers. That may sound like a pipe dream, but it’s the only hope for a better life.
Again, there’s no support structure, so even striking in unison means that most people end up with nothing almost immediately.
Try explaining that to the people in Iran who rose up against the regime, were shot by the hundreds, and are now being bombed by the U.S.
🙄
We objected to it. We also quickly realized that it never ends as a democracy, and a republic in name only.