Welcome to the VSD Narrative Threat Assessment Portal.

 

According to the latest exit polls, "THREATS" to democracy are of great concern to Americans. The strength of our democracy was top of mind for voters as they returned a surprising "split" result in the midterms. The Biden Democrats held on to control in the Senate and MAGA Republicans gained a narrow majority in the House. In key battleground states, election deniers mostly lost in their bid to impact the upcoming 2024 Presidential election. 

 

What continued to be interesting to us was that majorities of both parties still believed democracy would fail in America... for different reasons. These are important narratives to understand when you ask the question... 

 

"Is Democracy Threatened in America?"

 

The stories we tell over the next two years will determine if democracy in America is re-energized or not. This portal provides you with in-depth narrative threat analysis of the news stories we think are currently impacting democracy in this country. Based on this narrative analysis, VSD calculates the current threat level to democracy in America every two weeks and displays it on the VSD meter.

 

Our VSD threat analysis team is made up of moderate conservatives, independents and liberals. We identify with the majority of Americans who still believe our democratic norms are worth preserving. We believe that whatever happens to our democracy will depend on which of the two Make America Great Again narratives voters choose moving forward. The one that supports anti-democratic perspectives or the one that supports pro-democracy governance.

 

The Vital Signs of Democracy meter is intended to give you a quick snapshot of the current threat level to democracy in America based on our proven, proprietary Narrative Threat Analysis process. It provides a threat rating every two weeks based on our analysis of the myriad of news articles, social media posts and podcast transcripts that are reporting on the current challenges to our democracy.

 

Our Narrative Threat Analysis looks at a diverse, representative sample of these news sources every two weeks. It then sorts the viewpoints they contain into 10 key narrative threat factors and rates them for their individual threat level. We then aggregate the individual threat ratings into a master threat rating that is displayed on the Vital Signs meter.