Fareed’s Take: Is America Sliding Into Illiberal Democracy? | CNN2.0

⚠️ Fareed argues the administration is flouting laws and norms—citing the abrupt H‑1B $100,000 fee via “national security” without standard notice‑and‑comment—as part of a pattern eroding checks on executive power
🏛️ Examples include firing inspectors general without stated cause, unilateral tariff and USAID moves, regulatory threats toward media and law firms, politicization of DOJ, and domestic military use—unprecedented in scope since Watergate, he says
🧩 Structural gaps: Unlike many democracies with independent prosecutors and election bodies, U.S. systems depend heavily on norms, lifetime‑tenured judges picked through partisan processes, and weak insulation from politics
📉 Diagnosis: Scholars like Steven Levitsky cite success‑induced complacency—American exceptionalism dulling reform impulses—plus leadership failures that ignore real risks of democratic backsliding
🔎 Core claim: The U.S. is moving further than peers toward illiberal democracy, where rule of law and constitutional constraints are steadily undermined, demanding introspection and institutional modernization

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