IF THE U.S. ISN'T A DEMOCRACY, WHAT IS IT?

[This is a companion article to Is The U.S A Democracy?] (https://stopcontinentaldrift.blogspot.com/2018/10/is-us-democracy.html)

Although the U.S. isn't a democracy, it certainly is different from authoritarian states like Russia and Saudi Arabia.  All American presidents rail at the press, and feel it is unfair, but so far as I can tell, members of the press are not assassinated, as they are in Russia and Saudi Arabia.  Also it is rare that reporters are jailed though it does occur:*
But assaults by politicians only account for 4.5% of the total number of physical attacks in 2017. Including attacks by police officers, 70% of the total number of physical attacks against journalists in the U.S. occurred at protests and rallies.

Who was attacking all these journalists at protests? In five cases (19% of the attacks at protests and 11% of the total attacks), the assailants were law enforcement officers. But in sixteen cases, the assailants were protesters — either white nationalist protesters or anti-fascist protesters — who objected to a journalist’s reporting.
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While the First Amendment is a unique and powerful protection that virtually all other countries lack, the state of press freedom in the United States is increasingly perilous. It’s vital that we continue to monitor any and all attacks on journalists, and we plan on even more coverage in 2018.*

So we have a largely free press.  Also in spite of attempts to keep various groups of people from voting, 10s of millions do and the elections often turn out surprises like the election President Trump himself.

Also a characteristic of the U.S. is the dominance of business that is largely given a free rein to behave as they please and supported by the Supreme Court.  There are also "truth in advertising" food requirements such as strawberry jam must have some strawberries or juice in it. Also required is a cursory meat inspection.  But consider the Hobby Lobby case where the Supreme Court  gave permission for a company to go into a law and pick and choose which parts of the law they intended not to obey.

One aspect of the business nature of our country is attempts to keep wages low.  thus there are attempts to freeze the Minimum Wage or even get rid of it.  If wages take a sudden rise, it is likely that the stock market will sustain a decline.  German auto companies feel that the American South is a third world country and have built many car factories there.

Sometimes industry is reined in somewhat such as by the passage of the Clean Air Act of 1963 (and later amendments)** and the National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program (NAPAP)*** that resulted in what is called CAP AND TRADE**** of sulfur dioxide emissions by power plants.  Although CAP AND TRADE worked well on sulfur dioxide emissions, there are strong forces  in industry against applying it to carbon dioxide emissions.

In addition to the Republican party being the supposed party of business, it is also the party of conservative religion.  Thus the Republican party wants to control not only abortion but also contraceptives and limiting the freedoms of groups like homosexuals.  In the past there have been cries of "Freedom OF Religion does not mean Freedom FROM Religion" directed at Atheists.

I'm not sure what you can call us.  Perhaps a Capitalist Democracy?

* .https://pressfreedomtracker.us/blog/34-arrests-44-physical-attacks-and-more-chilling-numbers-us-press-freedom-trackers-first-year/
** https://www.epa.gov/clean-air-act-overview
*** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Acid_Precipitation_Assessment_Program
**** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emissions_trading