The health of American democracy, as measured by those who study it most closely, has settled into a diminished state – stabilizing after a sharp decline last year, but still well below the levels recorded at any point before the start of Donald Trump’s second term, according to a new survey released on Tuesday.
The findings, by the nonpartisan democracy-tracking project Bright Line Watch, which surveys hundreds of US scholars at American colleges and universities, suggest that the erosion of norms detected after Trump’s return to the White House last year has hardened into a new baseline. The public also holds a dim view of American democracy, the most recent survey found, but are sharply divided along partisan lines over how well the system is functioning.
Considering the intention of the public education system to improve the understanding of the populous has been degraded to the point where basic civics is not taught and we’re lucky if graduates are even functionally literate, I’d say that people who understand what our government is supposed to be and what it’s supposed to do is fairly small.
And unfortunately, that’s the whole fucking point. A uninformed population is an easily manipulated population.