This is what happens when successive US governments fail to tackle inequality. While millions of people live in poverty, a handful grow unimaginably rich. Wealth begets wealth, and they acquire political power to match. It was inevitable that one of them – now the richest man on Earth – would launch what looks like a bid for world domination…
I strongly agree that all of these are under threat or direct attack in the U.S., if that’s your point. But these are some of the measures by which academics evaluate whether governments are “democratic” nonetheless. The U.S. in particular was much stronger on these measures twenty years ago than it is today.