326
The United States loses its status as a liberal democracy: ‘Trump is aiming for a dictatorship’
(english.elpais.com)
this post was submitted on 19 Mar 2026
326 points (98.8% liked)
politics
28978 readers
2042 users here now
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Given that elections are the defining feature of a democracy, I think it would be prudent to wait until after the mid term elections to start proclaiming the demise of American democracy. Granted, the Republicans are trying their best with mass disenfranchisement, but it remains to be seen how effective they will be.
Giggle. We've been playing "wait and see" for a decade now.
Elections don't solve this. We've seen that high-level Democrats are no different than high-level Republicans. Biden refused to investigate the Epstein files, he refused to prosecute Trump, and he refused to target gerrymandering/election interference.
There's no version of this where the old America magically returns. That's the same logic trap that ushered in this entire mess. There are plenty of MAGA who truly believe that they are shaking up the system and that just one more election will solve everything.
THIS. IS. THE. FUTURE.
We are living in it. The trajectory is set. We didn't stop militarization of the police when they stepped on our toes. We didn't stop data collection when we were warned. We didn't stop gross financial mismanagement, corporate influence, gerrymandering and all the other things that make a democracy work.
We aren't living in a fascist takeover. That happened years ago. We are living in its aftermath. We are frogs in a simmering pot, watching the bubbles float past us and wondering how to turn off the heat. It doesn't matter now, the damage is done. The momentum takes control.
But there's already such a long list of laws and rules he just ignores and seemingly gets away with. It's madness.
Let's also not forget all the campaign finance election laws that preceded his win. No accountability followed because the winner keeps the spoils
We don't have actual "elections"
We have two private organizations (Ds and Rs) who have through law crushed all possible opposition.
So we get two candidates to chose from, both curated by the billionaire "donors" running each party. This is not a conspiracy, see Super PACs for more.
They won't cancel the "elections", there's absolutely no need.