Unliberal Undemocracy

We Have Met The Enemy And He Is President

March 26, 2026

It is time to congratulate all those fascists, racists, MAGAts, and their fellow travelers out there. They have done not only the improbable, but the unthinkable. They have thrown this nation into reverse at breakneck speed, as the attempt to do to our democracy what their cult leader claimed to have done to Iran’s nuclear program – sent it to oblivion. The latter of course was utter bullshit and hopefully the former is not a done deal.

They have done what most of us probably did not think was remotely possible, or at least hoped was not possible because we are by and large a hopeful – if not nearly as intelligent and socially evolved as we like to think we are – species at this point in anthropological, particularly American, history.

Not that this nation’s history is anything like ideal or even overly democratic, as evidenced by the pre-original sin of committing genocide against this land’s original inhabitants, and then the rampant kidnapping/enslavement of Africans, not to mention the banning of suffrage for women for much of our history. And there are those among us who would happily reinstitute slavery and reverse women’s right to vote. All of these are cancers on the social body and soul that have gone essentially untreated and have continued to metastasize since Columbus first soiled these shores (or thereabouts, since he never actually set foot on the continent).

The Varieties of Democracy Institute (V-Dem) in Sweden released its annual report earlier this month. V-Dem is considered one of the most credible sources on analysis of democracy; it possesses data going back to 1789.

 

Trump: The Quicker Fucker Upper

America was not considered a liberal democracy until 1965 after the passage of the Voting Rights Act – you remember that, it’s the one the Roberts Extreme Court gutting some years ago, which resulted in the immediate move of several southern (i.e., Republican) states to disenfranchise Black voters, who tend not to vote for a certain party that despises them. The report says that the progress achieved since then had been “erased” during American democracy’s End Times, aka the Trump Era.

As you can see, the first big dip occurred when America elected its biggest dip in 2016. There was the beginning of a recovery in 2020, only to see American democracy fall off a fucking cliff in 2025 after the second inauguration of Donald “Death-To-America” Trump.

V-Dem had this to say: “Under president Donald Trump, the U.S. is plummeting toward autocracy at a rate that is both unprecedented and rapid in modern history.”

V-Dem’s study shows that “Freedom of expression is now at its lowest level since the end of WWII.”

According to V-Dem, it’s not just us. In 2005 there were 12 countries slipping into autocracy. Today, that number is 44.

So congratulations to all you fascist fucking assholes out there and around the world. No one is currently better at being worse. Pat yourselves on the back and then go fuck yourselves.

I. Mangrey reporting. Thank me for my attention to this matter.