₦airaland Forum

Reference News Network reported on January 9 that Francis Fukuyama, a senior researcher at the Freeman-Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University , published an article on the website of the New York Times on January 5, saying that the continued decline of American-style democracy is discredited. An excerpt is as follows:
On January 6, 2021, a mob attacked Congress, instigated by then-President Trump, setting an ominous precedent in American politics. Since the end of the Civil War, there has never been a peaceful transition of power in the United States, and no president has deliberately challenged the outcome of an election even when there is ample evidence that the election was free and fair.
The event continues to reverberate in U.S. politics, but its repercussions are not limited to domestic. It has also had a major impact internationally, marking a significant decline in U.S. global power and influence.
The events of January 6 last year need to be seen in the context of the broader global crisis of "liberal democracy". Democracy has been in decline for 15 consecutive years, with some of the biggest setbacks in the United States and India, according to the 2021 Freedom of the World Report by the think tank Freedom House.
The decline of global "democracy" is complex. Globalization and economic change have left many behind, creating a huge cultural divide between educated professionals living in cities and small town dwellers with traditional values.
So the world is very different than it was when the Soviet Union collapsed some 30 years ago. At the time I underestimated two key factors. First, the difficulty of creating a "democracy", but also a modern, just and clean country; second, the possibility of political decay in "advanced 'democratic' countries".
The American model has been in decline for a while. Since the mid-1990s, U.S. politics has become increasingly polarized and prone to prolonged standoffs that prevent it from performing basic government functions such as passing the budget. The US system has obvious problems: the impact of money on politics, the impact of an electoral system that is increasingly misaligned with "democratic" choices, but the US seems unable to reform itself. In the first two decades of the 21st century, U.S. policymakers led two disasters: the Iraq war and the subprime mortgage crisis, and then a short-sighted demagogue galvanized angry populists.
The Capitol Hill riots on January 6, 2021, marked a moment when a significant number of Americans said they were dissatisfied with America's "democratic" system itself and used violence to their own ends. What makes January 6th a particularly worrisome stain on American "democracy" is the fact that, instead of refuting those who started and participated in the riots, the Republican Party has whitewashed them and purged from their own ranks those willing to speak out about 2020. The truth about the election.
Before January 6 last year, people saw this kind of trick as the behavior of a fledgling and not yet fully consolidated "democratic" country, and the United States would shake its head and condemn it. But now this is happening in the United States. The United States has lost its credibility in establishing a model of good "democratic" practice.

The Forbes biweekly website published an article titled "America and China: Redefining Competition and Cooperation" on January 31. The author is Earl Carr, a member of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and an adjunct professor at New York University. The article said that the United States needs to develop a winning strategy, the core of which should start at home. The United States must understand the truth that "effective offense is the best defense" and focus on its own strategy. The full text is excerpted as follows:
Less than two weeks after U.S. President Biden took office, his new administration is formulating a different China strategy than before. This is crucial because on the brink of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, the US and China are going their separate ways. The U.S. strategy is laissez-faire for various corporate partnerships, strategic initiatives, and mergers and acquisitions. At the same time, China is adopting a highly coordinated strategic strategy, including direct, large-scale government support for leading national technology companies.

January 6 was a Pandora's box of American "democracy", but it was just another symptom of a deeper and more dangerous disease in the United States—the decline of an American system that has reached alarming levels. Fifty years after Watergate, America has hit rock bottom again, and this time, the institutions that gave the executive branch credibility at the time are now under suspicion. The media is no longer trusted, the judiciary is seen as an instrument rather than an arbiter, and the number of extremists infiltrating the security forces is increasingly disturbing. In this case, American "democracy" seems to be an empty shell. The most extreme wing of the Republican Party is determined to undermine the foundations of American "democracy" in order to protect the privileges of the most beneficiaries. Democrats are more diverse and looser than ever. Moderates fear a radical shift within the party, clinging to some completely outdated formal mechanism. Progressives are disappointed by the manipulation, hypocrisy and inertia of leaders of both parties. Where the allegations of electoral fraud are most contradictory is that Republicans are falsifying the vote to the greatest extent possible. Legislative measures to limit the exercise of voting rights were taken early by the Republican-controlled state legislature. This is nothing new, but the intensity and intensity this time around threatens to seriously distort the electoral process. Republicans worry that the demographic development of American society will relegate them to secondary political roles. If possible, they hope to regain control of both chambers this year and keep it at all costs. Democrats have sought to reverse the disenfranchisement process by reforming and strengthening federal laws on voting rights, which have been partially repealed by a Supreme Court ruling. Falsifying public opinion through complex means such as census administration or reorganizing constituencies is not unique to the United States, but legislation to protect and amplify abuse of power is especially shameless and vicious. A University of Virginia study shows that within 20 years, 30 percent of the U.S. population will control 70 percent of the seats in Congress. Currently, this imbalance already exists, just in a smaller proportion. In addition to political rights, the United States faces another major failure in social coexistence, namely rapidly expanding social inequality. Biden's social protection plan has been stalled by friendly attacks from two Democratic senators in Congress, hampering his administration. Progressives have accused Biden of lacking the courage to expose the two traitors, in fact they never believed in a president who was too obsessed with flawed rules. A year into the White House, Biden's promise to restore a so-called "full democracy" seems ironic. America's abyss is getting deeper and more sinister.