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The orange-faced duck-haired God-Emperor of the United States doesn't get much good press. In fact, even his good press tends to be bad press, except when it's coming from places like Breitbart and Fox. But sometimes even the most 'eminent' and 'respectable' sources can't help but pay Trump an unintentional compliment. The neocon-infested, U.S.-government-backed NGO Freedom House released a report today with attention-grabbing conclusions that would make Chicken Little die in a fit of acrobatic hysterics.

According to Freedom House, democracy is "under assault and retreating" around the world. The U.S. is "abdicating" its "traditional role" of acting as galactic champion of "democratic ideals". The Demon-Spawn Nations of Russia and China are "increasing repression" and exporting their "malign influence" abroad. Indeed, this is democracy's "most serious crisis in decades"; basic democratic tenets are "under siege" across the world, according to Freedom House President, Michael Abramowitz. The gates of hell have been opened, Satan has appeared, and he looks a lot like Xi, Putin and Trump.

The great bastion of CIA-sourced freedom and democracy, RFE/RL, reports:
"A major development of 2017 was the retreat of the United States as both a champion and an exemplar of democracy," the report says. Freedom House ... says it has "tracked a slow decline in political rights and civil liberties in the United States for the past seven years." But it says that "the decline accelerated in 2017, owing to evidence of Russian interferences in the 2016 elections, violations of basic ethical standards" by President Donald Trump's administration, and "a reduction in government transparency."

The report says that "the press and the judiciary have remained resilient in the face of unprecedented attacks from President Trump." But it warns that those institutions ultimately could be weakened by Trump's attacks, "with serious implications for the health of U.S. democracy and America's place in the world."

Abramowitz said, "the core institutions of American democracy are being battered by an administration that has treated the country's traditional checks and balances with disdain."
I can't say they're entirely wrong. But I harbor a strong suspicion that if Hillary Clinton were president, they would've gone lightly on their criticism of U.S. democracy. The fact is, the U.S. abandoned its so-called democratic ideals many years ago, more than the "7 years" cited in the report at least. Judge Napolitano, on his last episode of "Freedom Watch" on Fox Business, wasn't far off the mark:


That was back at the beginning of 2012, six years ago, presumably only one year after American political and civil liberties started to decline. Does anyone else find it fairly remarkable how a nation can go from "champion and exemplar of democracy" to total shit-show in just one year...? But Freedom House doesn't want you to focus on Obama (or Bush and Clinton, for that matter). No, the decline took a marked turn only last year, apparently. Considering the things Napolitano said in 2012, which only scratched the surface of how far America has fallen, you'd think things must have gotten pretty bad, like Gestapo-death-camp-babies-in-incubators bad. What horrors has Trump wrought on the American body politic? His administration is unethical, lacks transparency, and... Russia!

Give me a break! Two of those items are standard operating procedure, and have been for generations. And the third is a delusional fantasy dreamed up by mentally-deranged losers. Actually, the very fact that that third item made the list makes me question the first two. Given that there is absolutely no freaking evidence of Russian meddling, the bar can't have been too high for ethics and transparency violations. But coming back to the report, let's take a look at what else Russia and its evil Commie neighbor have been up to:
Meanwhile, Freedom House says, "autocratic regimes" in Russia and China have "taken advantage of the retreat of leading democracies" and are "acting beyond their borders to squelch open debate, pursue dissidents, and compromise rules-based institutions."

Abramowitz says the Trump administration's "sharp break from the political consensus of the last 70 years" has cast aside democracy as the "animating force behind American foreign policy."

He said Trump's "hastening withdrawal" from the historical U.S. commitment to supporting democracies abroad has made "the challenge posed by authoritarian regimes all the more powerful and threatening."

The report says Russian President Vladimir Putin's government has "demonstrated the increasing sophistication and reach of modern authoritarian regimes" by "organizing disinformation campaigns during elections in European democracies" and cultivating ties with "xenophobic political parties across the continent," threatening its closest neighbors, and serving as "an alternative source of military aid for Middle Eastern dictatorships."

"The central goal of these efforts was to disrupt democratic states and fracture the institutions that bind them together."
So much stupid, it hurts. Russia and China are only "autocratic" because they're not American-backed autocracies. The U.S. loves them some dictators, as long as they're "our" dictators. And compared to some of American's finest democratic exports, Russia and China are veritable democratic utopias. The U.S. has the longest and most successful record of "squelching open debate", "pursuing dissidents" and "compromising rules-based institutions" in countries all over the world. Russia and China haven't taken advantage of "democratic retreat"; they've taken advantage of the fact that the U.S. is in the process of losing pretty much every vestige of international credibility. Every country with the privilege of having been gifted with American freedom and democracy over the past 17 years is a shithole, bombed out, sucked dry, drenched in blood, and overrun with sadistic death squads.

It can be frustrating to read such Freedom House drivel, until you realize that what they mean by democracy isn't what people like you and me think of as democracy. The "political consensus" of the last 70 years is simply this: "The U.S. on top, and f*** the rest of you." Democratically-elected leader the U.S. doesn't like? Kill him. The threat of some resource-rich country going Commie? Arm some death squads and kill them. Some country standing up for its own sovereignty and rejecting U.S. demands? Say they've got WMDs, load up the bombers, and kill them. Or just sanction them and (hopefully) watch them die a slow death.

Russia and China's stand for national sovereignty (which is what Freedom House et al are really moaning about) has been promoting open debate and empowering dissidents globally by providing an outlet for those alternative voices that Western media ignores and censors. All the while, Russia and China have been desperately lobbying for a real rules-based system, otherwise known as international law. The only reason Russia is charged with "election-meddling" is because ordinary people are sick and tired of the "political consensus" status quo. Because that status quo will not give airtime to their opinions - and Russian media does to some degree - it must be Russia's fault that they feel the way they do. But it's not. It's the fault of the Western establishment for screwing things up so badly that their own people are sick of it.

For 70 years, the U.S. has exported its own brand of "malign influence" throughout the world. Its "animating force" has been the barrel of a gun, or a sharp blade held to the throat. But nations like Russia and China, who know a thing or two about the reality of this kind of freedom and democracy (just look at Russia during the 90s), have gotten smart. They are indeed demonstrating "increasing sophistication and reach", simply by telling the truth. Russia hasn't meddled in European elections. They have not "cultivated ties with xenophobes" or threatened their neighbors. That's the U.S.'s M.O., as well as their allies'. Just look at Ukraine, a country overrun with neo-Nazis who torture and kill people for "sympathizing" with Russia.

Against the threat of real Soviet-like totalitarianism (which threatens the U.S. itself more so than it does Russia), the best solution is not traditional U.S. meddling and military invasion; it is what Trump proposed in his presidential inauguration speech:
We do not seek to impose our way of life on anyone, but rather to let it shine as an example for everyone to follow.
And if the U.S. can't live up to its own example, it certainly has no business messing with other countries' business. Full stop. If Russia and China want to expand their influence by making win-win deals with other nations, that is infinitely better than zero-sum American democracy. Meanwhile, even though Trump has the right idea, the "freedom bombers" still refuse to give up their claim to world democracy-domination. See Joe Quinn's Obnoxious, Arrogant, Imperial America in Syria. These people are really determined to watch the world burn.

Still, according to Freedom House, Trump's administration had made a "sharp break" from this "political consensus" of cluster-bombing nations into a state of terminal freedom and democracy, preventing said nations' own democratic will from taking shape, and ensuring any so-called democracy takes the form of U.S. vassalage. And that is the highest of compliments. Freedom House can feel free to cry itself to sleep. If Trump were actually able to put an end to the U.S.'s self-defined role as democracy-promoter world wide, the world could breathe a sigh of relief.