US democracy and institutions are decaying (adversarial state-media reading)

The position holds that American democracy and institutions are decaying from within, and that this is proof that the US model is failing. Its advocates speak of hypocrisy and double standards, of a crisis of democracy and a so-called democracy, of elite impunity and decline, and conclude that the United States has no standing to lead.

The position appears in coverage of the conflict over US domestic governance and a series of related topics: interior immigration enforcement, political violence, the Epstein files and elite networks, the midterm elections, turnover in the cabinet, federal courts and executive power, the independence of the Federal Reserve, and press freedom. In all of them it is carried by the same 12 publishers from China.

Two positions answer it. One holds that US institutions, due process and democratic norms are under threat from within, with real and accelerating damage to the rule of law. The other holds that the administration is lawfully carrying out the mandate voters gave it, and that resistance is an attempt to overturn a democratic result. The events of recent months include the Supreme Court blocking restrictions on mail ballots, new executive orders on birthright citizenship after the court upheld it, a plan by immigration authorities to buy electric shock gloves, and the appointment of a loyalist as acting intelligence chief.