USA ISSUES AUTHORITARIAN STATEMENT ABOUT VENEZUELA

US State Department issued a statement regarding yesterday's elections in Venezuela. The choice of words is very interesting (1): 

“The United States stands by the people of Venezuela, and their constitutional representatives, in their quest to restore their country to a full and prosperous democracy.”

“We will continue to take strong and swift actions against the architects of authoritarianism in Venezuela, including those who participate in the national constituent assembly as a result of today’s flawed election.”

According to political scientists and journalists, USA itself - not only President Trump - has become more and more authoritarian. During the spring, Los Angeles Times published a six-part series of editorials where it analyzed President Trump's authoritarian politics. In the third part of the series, the newspaper wrote (2):

"In a way, Trump represents a culmination of trends that have been years 
in the making.

Conservative talk radio hosts have long blasted federal judges as 'activists' and regulators as meddlers in the economy, while advancing the myth of rampant election fraud. And gridlock in Washington has led previous presidents to try new ways to circumvent the checks on their power  - witness President George W. Bush’s use of signing statements to invalidate parts of bills Congress passed, and President Obama’s aggressive use of executive orders when lawmakers balked at his proposals.

What’s uniquely threatening about Trump’s approach, though, is how many fronts he’s opened in this struggle for power and the vehemence with which he seeks to undermine the institutions that don’t go along."

Christopher Weber, Christopher Federico and Stanley Feldman wrote about the way authoritarianism is shaping US politics (3):

"As political scientists Marc Hetherington and Jonathan Weiler have argued, authoritarianism has become more strongly associated with Americans’ partisanship. Those who value deference to existing norms and authorities are more likely to identify with the Republican Party, while those who value those things less are more likely to identify with the Democratic Party. Hetheringon and Weiler suggest that these trends have arisen as issues where opinions are correlated with authoritarianism - such as terrorism - have become more central to the partisan divide."

Weber, Federico and Feldman predicted (3):

"...the growing salience of authoritarianism in American politics is likely to resonate in many ways - directly shaping attitudes, increasingly cleaving the parties, and ultimately shaping how politicians communicate to a divided American public."

Henry A. Giroux wrote in 2013 (4):

"...Noam Chomsky, Chris Hedges, Sheldon Wolin, Stanley Aronowitz, Judith Butler, Robert Scheer, Jeffrey St. Clair, Matt Taibbi, Angela Davis and David Theo Goldberg, among others, have long recognized the transformation of the United States from a weak democracy to a spirited authoritarian state. All of these theorists have challenged the permanent war economy, the erosion of civil liberties, the power of the corporate state, the moral bankruptcy of the liberal intelligentsia, the corporate control of the media, the criminal wars of repression abroad, the rise of the torture state and the increasing militarization of everyday life.

However extremist the Republican Party has become with its ongoing war on women, immigrants, young people, the welfare state, voting rights and all manner of civil rights, this should not suggest that the Democratic Party occupies a valued liberal position. On the contrary, policy in the United States is now being shaped by 
a Democratic Party that has become increasingly more conservative in the last 30 years along with a Republican Party that now represents one of the most extremist political parties to ever seize power in Washington."

"Both parties support bailing out the rich and doing the bidding of corporate lobbyists. Moreover, both parties reject the idea of democracy as a collectively inhabited public space and ethos that unconditionally stands for individual, political and economic rights."

SOURCES:

1) Sibylla Brodzinsky: "Venezuela heading for dictatorship after 'sham' election, warns US amid clashes" The Guardian 31.7.2017
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/30/fear-of-violence-hangs-over-venezuela-assembly-election

2) Los Angeles Times: "Trump's Authoritarian Vision" 4.4.2017
http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-ed-trumps-authoritarian-vision/

3) Christopher Weber, Christopher Federico and Stanley Feldman: "How authoritarianism is shaping American politics (and it’s not just about Trump)" 
The Washington Post 10.5.2017
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/05/10/how-authoritarianism-is-shaping-american-politics-and-its-not-just-about-trump/?utm_term=.18ae653cfc5b

4) Henry A. Giroux: "Has America Become an Authoritarian State?" 
Alternet 25.1.2013
http://www.alternet.org/has-america-become-authoritarian-state