Heidi Li Feldman“The US is no longer a democracy. One of the most credible global sources on the health of democratic nations now says this outright. The Varieties of Democracy Institute at Gothenburg University reaches the alarming conclusio … that the US is hurtling towards autocracy at a faster rate than Hungary and Turkey.” 1/
‘“Our data on the USA goes back to 1789. What we’re seeing now is the most severe magnitude of democratic backsliding ever in the country,” says Staffan Lindberg, founder of the institute.’ 2/
“US democracy is now back at the worst recorded level since 1965, when US civil rights laws first introduced de facto universal suffrage. All progress made since then has been erased, according to the report.” 3/
‘The…“liberal democracy index” shows that the speed with which US democracy is being dismantled is unprecedented in modern history. [M]ain factor is a “rapid and aggressive concentration of powers in the presidency”, Lindberg says. Congress has been marginalised, jeopardising the “checks and balances” … so crucial to US democracy. [C]ivil rights have been rapidly declining and freedom of expression is now at its lowest level since the 1940s.’ 4/4
Don RayQuibble: Congress has not “been marginalised.” Congress abdicated.
Zaphod BeeblebroxI agree. They are certainly compromised, but this can be corrected. Fixing the American people though…
Grassroots Joe
Anarcho-Daddy@donray @heidilifeldman hard agree, abdication is the correct term
Greg Bell@heidilifeldman man in fairness Congress mainly marginalized itself by a gradual conversion from legislating to being an insider trading sinecure
draNgNon
HakeemGReally who in Congress is insider trading? What stocks and what insider information? I keep hearing this fact free claim.
Eric LawtonThe EIU Democracy Index usually comes out in February, for the previous year.
No sign of it yet, this year.
🤔
Has anyone heard anything about it?
@[email protected]
ocial
Nonya Bidniss@heidilifeldman Republicans packing the SCOTUS with regressive, religious, monarchist kooks has paid off exactly the way they wanted.
JustKathyWe can thank Joe #Biden for this. He refused to remove #TraitorTrump from the political arena and our lives, and now we're all suffering.
FinchHaven sfbaThat's right
Everything is #JoeBiden's fault
Funny how I keep forgetting this
Always makes thinking so much simpler
If you even bother with 'thinking' at all
J. R. DePriest 
:EA DATA. SF:@FinchHaven @KathyLK @heidilifeldman
Democrats were so concerned with decorum that they let a traitor get away with treason / sedition and then he got elected President.
They deserve to accept some responsibility for where we are right now.
@jrdepriest @FinchHaven @heidilifeldman
Yes, Democrats should accept responsibility for where we are right now. I had contacted my Congresswoman several times urging her to persuade Biden to arrest and prosecute Trump. Biden was immovable. And then there were the Democrats who should not be in positions of power, like Schumer, Durbin, Fetterman and the rest of the Senators who refused to pressure Biden. Schumer does not deserve to hold a leadership position.
@KathyLK @jrdepriest @FinchHaven @heidilifeldman
Schumer was selected by his peers to be in a leadership position and quite frankly has done a great job. The Democrats didn't put Trump in office; that was the American people. Whether through the right's ignorance or the leftist's apathy. Don't forget to thank Bernie and the leftists for telling everyone that both sides were the same, without them none of this would have been possible.
@HakeemG @KathyLK @FinchHaven @heidilifeldman
Wow, what an impossibly bizarre take. I think the only reason I haven't blocked you are your consistently entertaining takes written as if you live in a parallel universe where everybody operates in good faith. You're like MAGA but for Democrats.
That, and your avatar reminds me of someone I used the with with.
@jrdepriest @KathyLK @FinchHaven @heidilifeldman
Yes what a bizarre take that the justice department is an independent institution not to be used by the president to direct or interfere in prosecutions.
@HakeemG @KathyLK @FinchHaven @heidilifeldman
No, that's the truth about the judiciary.
But acting like 99.9% of our elected and appointed officials aren't acting at the behest of their donors as opposed to The People is disengenous at best, and dishonest at worst.
There is no reason to give any of them the benefit of the doubt or believe they are acting in good faith.
Most Dems seem to prioritize their own comfort and peace of mind over justice and standing up for what's right. They take every opportunity to ask for money but when it comes time to fight, they eventually give the bullies what they want in exchange for empty promises. Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me a dozen times, I start to think they like it that way, like Charlie Brown with the football.
@jrdepriest @KathyLK @FinchHaven @heidilifeldman
Yes when the Democrats fed hungry school kids over the summer it was at the behest of corporate interests. Biden raising taxes on corporations while passing the largest climate change bill in history was also corporate interests.
@HakeemG @KathyLK @FinchHaven @heidilifeldman
I apologize. I didn't intend to imply that Democrats never do anything for the benefit of the The People, just that, ultimately, they do not feel beholden to us. I believe that anything they do for The People could be compromised if the donor class pushed back.
We are rapidly becoming a dictatorship. That's not hyperbole.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2026/mar/17/trump-is-aiming-for-dictatorship-thats-the-verdict-of-the-worlds-most-credible-democracy-watchdog
Dems are running out of time to do anything about it. We don't need compromise. Compromising with bullies just teaches them that you are weak.
As I've said, I always vote Blue. Yet here we are. They were complacent and acting like it was business as usual. They missed the Jan 6 wake up call. It's almost too late.
I want to be wrong about the Dems.
@jrdepriest @KathyLK @FinchHaven @heidilifeldman
I know we're rapidly becoming a dictatorship and I don't think it's the Democrats that have become complacent. Lead, follow, or GTFO the way. If the leftists can provide a better candidate then I'm all for it, give me an AOC to vote for, but otherwise I'm taking the best candidate running, and I'm going to assume everyone else was incapable or unwilling to do any better.
@HakeemG @KathyLK @FinchHaven @heidilifeldman
Anybody who is serious is actively trying to get progressives on the ballet by being active in the primaries. That's the only way to get the best people out there. Inertia and complacency (and, often, AIPAC) drive the establishment.
@jrdepriest @KathyLK @FinchHaven @heidilifeldman
Bernie has endorsed a grand total of 7 candidates this year, that's a joke.
@HakeemG @KathyLK @FinchHaven @heidilifeldman
Bernie is a joke. Has been for a long time.
Edit: that is one thing we agree on.
@jrdepriest @FinchHaven @KathyLK @heidilifeldman
The Democrats were prosecuting that criminal and he had four cases going. The American people let him off the hook when they elected him. Don't blame the Democrats for the stupidity of everyone else.
@HakeemG @jrdepriest @FinchHaven @heidilifeldman
I'm just curious, have you ever heard of Section 3 of the 14th Amendment? Is it up to voters to enforce the Constitution?
Tag Your Toe@jrdepriest @FinchHaven @KathyLK @heidilifeldman TRANSLATION: "I threw myself under the bus with my electoral nonparticipation because I was conditioned by idiots and trolls on social media to believe that politics is "West Wing"-style theater and Democrats didn't make enough of a spectacle of themselves to entertain me. And this is all their fault because reasons."
If the buck doesn't stop at the top, where does it stop?
https://www.publicnotice.co/p/merrick-garland-failures-explained
Randall Lee@KathyLK @FinchHaven @heidilifeldman I noticed trump never mentions this asshole when he is attacking people from the Biden administration.
@BLTpizza @FinchHaven @heidilifeldman
According to all the men jumping all over me, when someone spends years spouting sedition and inciting violence, there's nothing that can be done on the federal level, only the state level, is that correct? One of the bros did mention that Trump was involved in various lawsuits, such as the one over classified documents that the judge dismissed. Then there were all the convictions he DID have--weren't those all at the state level? And haven't we seen that cabinet members can be replaced if they're seen to be not doing their jobs or doing them inadequately? Anyone out there remember John Mitchell?
Just to continue my streak of entertaining the bros who all know better than the rest of us, here's a list of everything Trump has gotten away with over the years. Despite McSweeneys generally being a satire website, there is NOTHING FUNNY about this article.
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/january-2026-atrocities-658-730
@KathyLK @FinchHaven @heidilifeldman The gish gallop criminal president. Several dabbled in crime while president but it wasn't their MO. The pedo president has committed every category of crime. The presidency elevated him to an international criminal.
Josh@KathyLK @heidilifeldman Wouldn’t it be more useful to hold Trump accountable for his actions than to hold Biden accountable for Trump’s actions? 🤔
Duchamp PérezNo, because how do you hold Trump accountable for his actions unless you have someone prosecute him for treason, which is a federal crime? If you don't have anyone to prosecute him, how can he be held accountable? Your argument is circular, to say the least.
Biden could have picked a more aggressive Democrat for AG instead of a limp-dick Republican. And if Biden had ordered Garland to prosecute Trump and Garland refused, Biden could have replaced him. Read for yourself.
https://www.publicnotice.co/p/merrick-garland-failures-explained
@KathyLK It's not impossible that he could have been held accountable in other ways during the biden admin, but your argument doesn't consider:
* He was held accountable in nearly any arena they thought they could get him in;
* Prosecution doesn't equate to a winning verdict (he was prosecuted for stealing US secret documents and the judge fell all over herself to not hold him accountable to the point where her superiors told her to cut it out);
* Congress?!? SCOTUS?!?!?
@KathyLK
For whatever it's worth, Garland was a *huge* disappointment to me. I think it's very possible that he played it too "safe," but he was also on some new ground. I'm not sure SCOTUS would've agreed with other findings and I think the thing I focus on the most is that I don't disagree that the "parking brake" failed but it's *more* concerning to me that the "service/foot brakes" seem to be out (state legislature, congress, judiciary).
Yes Joe Biden should have taken over the justice department and turned us into a tinpot dictatorship first by prosecuting his political opposition. The American people are responsible for the rise of Trump, 77 million people voted for this and another 90 million stayed home. Special shout out to all the leftists who claimed both sides are the same.
@KathyLK @heidilifeldman Or maybe you should've voted.
Who said I didn't? You know what they say about assumptions--they make an ass out of you.