The Thin Thread of Democracy
We Are Losing Our Hold on the Thing We Cherish Most
When our backs are against the wall, and we are plagued by an insurmountable obstacle or an unrelenting foe, Americans tend to put our hopes in three things — God, Karma and Democracy, and the assumption that one, or a combination of them, will eventually deliver justice.
God and Karma, the two least in our control, have proven over the history of humankind that they are the most reliable, though almost never on our preferred timeline.
But Democracy, and particularly American Democracy, lacks the track record that justifies our unshaken faith that it will always win. We treat it as if it is an unmovable mountain, instead of a living thing that requires care and nurturing. And it is precisely because we do control it, that Democracy is as faulty and frail as we are. Still we hold on to the notion that it will always be there for us, even if we don’t always reciprocate.
While our greatest and sometimes worse moments have come when we have challenged ourselves to live up to the true meaning of our Democracy, those challenged relied on a common sense of what Democracy meant.
That common sense no longer exists. It is clear that the Administration in power, and the people who derive power from propping it up, are working from a different definition of Democracy than the rest of us. And while we have been covering our eyes and closing our ears over the last four years assuming that all will be just fine because “democracy always wins”, we have been losing or grip on it— empirically — bit by bit.
Freedom House, the 80-year old global organization that monitors freedom and democracy around the world, recently released its annual Freedom in the World report, a global ranking of nations on the progress and maintenance of democracy. And for the first time in its history, the organization has turned its sights to the United States, ranking it as a power that is losing an alarming amount of ground.
The Carter Center, which has monitored 110 elections in 39 countries, has now put a team together to monitor the US election — also for the first time.
For many, the biggest surprise may not be that we have lost ground, but the fact that we are not, and have never been, Number One, as most Americans assume. We are in fact, laggards, in that regard.
In the Freedom House report, the United States’ current score on the Global Freedom Scale is 86 out of 100, only a point above Argentina. It was 89 in 2017, a full 3 percentage points lost, unsurprisingly, in the last three years alone, and a full eight point drop, from 94, over the last decade. That puts us behind Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Canada, the UK, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Iceland, Chile, Australia, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and most of the Caribbean nations. And despite being the birthplace of the internet and the home of Silicon Valley, we score even lower (76) among nations in “Internet Freedom”.
Our self-identifying image as the best in class in freedom belies the fact that we are at best a B/B+ nation flunking simple tests that should simple and not living up to our potential. At this point, hip hop and Netflix are probably stronger and more trusted American cultural exports than our style of Democracy.
The report scores countries based on a range of factors falling under the broader categories of Political Rights and Civil Liberties. On several critical questions intended to measure freedom, we rank only in the 75th percentile on things that should be easy layups if we are vigilant and protecting our investment, including these categories:
Was the current head of government or other chief national authority elected through free and fair elections?
Are electoral laws fair?
Does the government act with openness and transparency?
Does due process prevail in civil and criminal matters?
Is there an independent judiciary?
And on the question, “Do laws, policies, and practices guarantee equal treatment of various segments of the population?” we score only 2 out of a possible 4 points.
While not every red flag cited in the report can be tied directly to the Trump Administration, the drop-off in the last three years is no coincidence. Trump is clearly the banana in the basket causing the other fruit to rot. The lowered scores track with stunning accuracy the whittling away of our democratic infrastructure since 2016, as well some of those things we are still working to get perfect in our quest for a more perfect union.
Moreover, the report points to the incredible importance of down-ballot races at the state and local level, as well as the continued interference of money and corporate interests in our judicial system, offering this ominous statement:
“In many states, judges are chosen through either partisan or nonpartisan elections, and a rise in campaign fundraising for such elections over the last two decades has increased the threat of bias and favoritism in state courts. In addition, executive and legislative officials in a few states have attempted to increase their control over state supreme courts, including through impeachments and constitutional changes.”
To be clear, the United States still ranks among those nations that are considered “free”. There are a host of countries in the single digits. But when candidates, pundits and political experts say “Democracy is on the ballot” it is more than just hyperbole or a fear tactic, it is an alarm that cannot sound loudly enough. We have damage to repair, and much work to do, but the slow climb back begins at the ballot box.
