Democracy Challenged

Representative government faces its most serious threats in decades

Not only do candidates from both major parties in the United States have starkly different views on the pressing issues of the day, including climate change, var, taxes, abortion, education, gender and sexual indentity, immgration, crime and the role of government in American life. They also disagree on democracy itself, especially one of its essential pillars - willingness to accept defeat at the polls.

starkly: 明显的

Those include a deterioration in the integrity of consititiutional democracy, manipulation of state election laws to limit or overturn the will of voters, and a global trend toward autocracy in places where democratic institutions once seemed solid.

deterioation: 恶化 [di-ti-ri-o-asian]
autocracy: 专制

These include the rise in political violence, especially on the right, election denial and its hold on many Republicans, disinformation and the profiteers peddling falsehoods, the people and money behind the Jan. 6 insurrection, the origins and popularity of leading conspiracy theories, and the partisan political motives of some leading jurists.

profiteers: 奸商, 获暴利者
peddling: 兜售
falsehoods: 谎言
insurrection: 起义, 暴动, 暴乱
jurists: 法学家