Global Democracy Is Doing Fine. U.S. Democracy Is in Trouble.
Foreign rivals hypocritically echo Americans’ own fears about racism and Trumpism, but the real malaise is bipartisan.
Disputed.
Photographer: Alex Edelman/AFP/Getty Images
Back in 2006, the British comedians David Mitchell and Robert Webb risked a sketch in which they played two Waffen-SS officers toward the end of World War II. Reflecting on the Totenkopf (death’s head) badges on their caps, Mitchell asked the immortal question: “Are we the baddies?”
An increasing number of anxious American political commentators are asking themselves a version of this question. For some time, it has been a concern of political scientists such as my colleague Larry Diamond that the world is in a “democratic recession” or “regression,” which he dates from around 2006.