Americans aren't facing a democratic collapse. We're living in its aftermath | Eric Reinhart

"For tens of millions of people, democratic life has been absent for decades as they endure precarious housing, inaccessible healthcare, unchecked policing powers, debt servitude, vanishing public goods, and near-total exclusion from meaningful formal political power. For others—the wealthy, the politically connected, the donors and oligarchs—the same system produces not insecurity, but insulation, along with a constant need to rationalize the deprivation of others upon which their power is predicated."

"The illusion in this case is that the United States still has a democracy to lose. The more unsettling truth is that Americans are not living under threat of future democratic breakdown; we are living inside the aftermath of one that has already occurred."

"This state of permanent panic rests on what Sigmund Freud called an illusion: a belief embraced not because it reflects reality, but because it satisfies a psychological need. The illusion in this case is that the United States still has a democracy to lose."

American political discourse maintains a state of permanent panic about democratic collapse, with weekly crises framed as breaking points and elections cast as final opportunities. This anxiety rests on a psychological illusion that democracy remains threatened rather than already eroded. For tens of millions, democratic life has been absent for decades due to precarious housing, inaccessible healthcare, unchecked policing, debt servitude, and exclusion from political power. Meanwhile, the wealthy and connected experience insulation and security within the same system. This disparity reflects not a democracy under threat but one that has already undergone breakdown. The fixation on imminent catastrophe serves as a psychological defense mechanism rather than addressing the reality of existing democratic erosion.

Read at www.theguardian.com