Link: https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2026/oct/25/ten-days-shake-world-democratic-norms-pivotal-elections-brazil-israel-serbia-us

Brazil, Israel, Serbia and the US are holding elections within the space of 10 days. Will the authoritarian right cement its global gains, or can pro-democracy forces make a comeback?
Four elections on four continents within 10 days could profoundly reshape global politics, propelling the world further along its current authoritarian trajectory or marking a limited comeback for democratic norms.
In all four contests, basic democratic norms are at stake at a time when autocracy is advancing worldwide at an a...

The most immediate outcome of a Democratic win is therefore likely to be prolonged constitutional crisis before there is any recovery in democratic norms.

Do we want to return to democratic norms? Isn't that what got us here? The fascists have taken advantage of some of the flaws and contradictions inherent to liberal democracy to undermine liberal democracy. If we somehow get back to normal, what's stopping them from doing it again?

The problem with liberal democracy is the liberal part. Liberals want people to be liberated, to be as free as possible, and that's not necessarily a bad thing except that some people will use their freedoms to cause harm to others, to enrich themselves at the expense of others, to lie and cheat and manipulate to get what they want, and liberals aren't always very good at reigning those people in because doing so often requires limiting their freedoms and liberties in some way and liberals are very reluctant to do that. Liberals give these antisocial people an inch, they take a mile but instead of cutting them off the liberals just keep giving them more inches. And that's what's gotten us here.

Edit: let me put it this way: the fascists explicitly say that their intent is to completely destroy liberal democracy. They are very open and clear that they have every intention of totally annihilating liberal democracy, and even liberals themselves. And what do the liberals say in response? "I disagree with what you say but I'll fight to death for your right to say it." That just doesn't seem very smart to me.

Not really, the US model is just a particularly dumb model of democracy

But the rise of fascism isn't only a US problem.

The alpha version of democracy has a lot of exploitable bugs. It needs a patch or even better an entire rewrite.

So then the US model needs to end and be replaced with something else?

The problem is capitalism and human greed.

True, but barely anywhere else have the fascists had it this easy.