The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has downgraded the United States from a full democracy to a flawed democracy. That sounds about right.
Every year, the firm's Democracy Index provides a snapshot of global democracy by scoring countries on five categories: electoral process and pluralism; civil liberties; the functioning of government; political participation; and political culture. Nations are then classified under four types of governments: full democracy, flawed democracy, hybrid regime and authoritarian regime.
America's score fell to 7.98 last year from 8.05 in 2015, below the 8.00 threshold for a full democracy, the EIU announced in a report on Wednesday. That put the world's largest economy on the same footing as Italy, a country known for its fractious politics.
The EIU is quick to point out that our country has been teetering on dropping into the “flawed” category for quite some time now, and would have fell this year with or without Trump—which is clearly one of the reasons we now have … Trump.
We have a lack of campaign finance laws, relentless voter suppression, and never-ending attacks on public education. But before we begin not pointing fingers, let’s remember that for all of the flaws in the Democratic Party, they haven’t systematically been attacking the very notion of our Constitution day in and day out like the Republican Party has.