🚨🚨🇺🇸 USA Falls Off the Democracy Map. For the first time in 50 years, the United States no longer appears on the list of liberal democracies. In a single year, the country has fallen from 20th to 51st place. The V-Dem Institute calls it one of the most dramatic declines ever recorded. The fall does not happen in a vacuum. Brendan Carr is not among the most recognizable names in Trump’s orbit, but the head of the federal media regulator FCC made waves this weekend with a direct threat to the country’s broadcasters. Networks spreading what he called fake news were told they have an opportunity to correct course before their license renewals come up. The message was plain enough: fall in line, or face the consequences. Staffan Lindberg, founding director of the V-Dem Institute, is blunt about what this means. Across so many dimensions, the retreat has been so severe that the United States can no longer be counted as a democracy. The term he uses is “electoral autocracy” – a system without genuine democracy that still goes through the motions of holding elections. Like Putin’s Russia. What concerns him most: the assault on free speech, illustrated by the FCC chief’s latest threat. An extreme concentration of power in the president’s hands. A Congress that, in Lindberg’s words, has abdicated. And Trump’s use of paramilitary forces in American cities – ICE soldiers who killed two civilian protesters this past winter. “The United States used to talk about being a global beacon for democracy and freedom,” Lindberg says. “That idea has now been erased.” Read the full V-Dem Democracy Report 2026: v-dem.net/documents/75/V… Gandalv / @Microinteracti1
