We believe that our current political discourse has dangerously exceeded our time honored, moderate guardrails that have governed debate in America since the Civil War. Since that time, America has vacillated between moderate conservative and liberal policies. If one party moved America too far to the right or left, our system adjusted itself in the next election and brought our governance back to a more centralist position that was aligned with the views of the majority of Americans. Our narrative threat analysis is telling us that is not entirely true anymore.

We offer the Vital Signs of Democracy meter as a way for ordinary citizens to keep track of the current threat levels to democracy in America based on the stories we are telling in the news.

We analyze threats to democracy on a broad spectrum of political issues like voting and election certification, majority vs. minority governance, Supreme Court rulings, the health of our system of checks and balances, the regulation of social media news platforms and much more. We rate individual news articles from Threat Level 1 to 10  based on the threats to democracy they are reporting on.  We then aggregate the ten individual ratings into one VSD master threat level rating every two weeks. 

The threat level we calculate and publish is based on our narrative ARC concerning the state of democracy in America. These five threat levels represent five "narratives" that describe possible futures for America. Our threat level ratings for individual news articles and the VSD master rating are as follows:

Extreme Threat Level 9-10 – America has become an autocracy.

• One party maintains absolute power and offers only rigged elections.

• Political dissent and freedom of choice are suppressed.

• Climate change is denied.

• The judicial system issues rulings that reinforce autocratic governance.

• News and social media platforms post only approved stories.

• Immigration in and out of the country is tightly controlled.

• Students are taught a state approved curriculum.

• Women and people of color are considered second class citizens.

• Corruption is rampant.

• Only law enforcement and military units have weapons.

• America is NOT involved in defending freedom around the world.

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Very High Threat Level 7-8 – America is leaning towards autocratic rule.

• One party attempts to make it impossible for the other party to win an election.

• Gerrymandering voting districts and suppressing votes in opponents strong holds.

• Supreme Court rulings represent political positions rather than non-partisan perspectives.

• America’s system of checks and balances is ineffective in holding political and cultural law breakers accountable.

• Some states attempt to control educational curriculum.

• Women and people of color struggle to be represented.

• The impacts of climate change are ignored.

• Unregulated gun sales and open carry.

• America only engages with global challenges when it benefits the United States.

High Threat Level 5-6  – Stalemate.

• The efforts of both parties mostly cancel each other out.

• There is no clear direction for America moving forward.

• Little progress is made on important issues like health care, education reform and economic disparity.

• Some gun regulations and open carry.

• America’s stagnation results in a loss of influence concerning global issues like climate change, immigration and illegal invasions.

Moderate Threat Level 3-4  – America is leaning towards democracy.

• Voting and election certification are working for the most part.

• Supreme Court rulings are mostly based on non-partisan interpretations of the constitution.

• Health care is a right not a privilege.

• Congress passes laws the benefit the majority of Americans.

• Women have the right to choose.

• Minorities make progress towards acquiring real economic power.

• The impacts of climate change are beginning to be addressed.

• There is a ban on assault weapons. 

• Gun ownership regulated with limited open carry

• America is a force for good in the world.

Low Threat Level 1-2 – America is a pure democracy

• Full bi-partisan support for fair elections.

• Supreme Court rulings based on non-partisan perspectives.

• Political law breakers are held accountable by our system of checks and balances.

• Low cost health care is available to everyone.

• Climate change is being addressed as an existential threat.

• Safety net for financially challenged citizens.

• Gun ownership limited to handguns, no private ownership of military assault weapons or open carry.

• America is fully involved with its allies in mitigating the impacts of immigration and opposing illegal invasions of free nations.

 Our narrative analysis perspective is based on national polls that show

a majority of Americans agree with the following tenets about democracy:

• All citizens have the right to have their vote counted and certified by a non-partisan board of election officials.

• America is governed by the majority opinion, while allowing for dissent from the minority.

• America should maintain the separation of church and state.

• Women have the right to choose what they do with their bodies without interference from state or national governments.

• Our system of checks and balances should protect the American people from radical, extremist policies from either the right or left.

• Our judicial system should consider legal arguments from a non-partisan perspective.

• Social media, Internet and cable news platforms should be regulated so they do not intentionally publish disinformation, lies and violent rhetoric to make greater profits.

• Appropriate measures should be taken to drastically reduce carbon emissions and transition to renewable energy sources.

• Super PACs should be prohibited from anonymously contributing unlimited funds to candidates and referendums.

• Reasonable laws should govern the sale and open carry of fire arms.

• Private ownership of assault weapons is prohibited.

• America should join with allies around the world to address global challenges like climate change, immigration, economic stability, and the unwanted aggression of one state towards another.

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