The reply: nothing good.
Consider a brand new examine from Transparency International, an unbiased nonprofit group that, in response to its web site, “work[s] to show the methods and networks that allow corruption to thrive, demanding better transparency and integrity in all areas of public life.”
On Tuesday, the group launched its annual Corruption Perception Index, a score-based system that “ranks 180 nations and territories around the globe by their perceived ranges of public sector corruption. The outcomes are given on a scale of 0 (extremely corrupt) to 100 (very clear).”
The United States is available in a tie for twenty seventh place — with Chile. Both have a Corruption Perception Index rating of 67.
By approach of comparability, the least corrupt nations — Denmark, Finland and New Zealand — all have a rating of 88. Among the nations with more healthy scores are most of the main democracies of Western Europe, together with Germany (80) and the United Kingdom (78).
The United States’ Corruption Perception Index rating had been on the decline for a number of years. In 2015, the US was at 76. In 2016, 74. By 2020, the US was all the way down to 67, the place it remained in 2021.
Why? Simple, in response to an evaluation from Transparency International:
“The nation’s lack of progress on the CPI may be defined by the persistent assaults in opposition to free and honest elections, culminating in a violent assault on the US Capitol, and an more and more opaque marketing campaign finance system.”
Turns out {that a} former president — and undisputed chief of the Republican Party — actively undermining what was a free and honest election has penalties. Real and lasting ones.
The Point: American democracy withstood Trump’s try and override it in 2020 — however solely barely. The scars from that try — and the continued work to boost questions in regards to the validity of the election — stay.