Democracy is a brand that should always be synonymous with the United States of America. And yet, because of former President Donald Trump's extraordinary efforts to undermine democracy, it appears the world is looking elsewhere for guidance. A world that in the past three decades has witnessed the Soviet Union's collapse, free elections around most of Latin America and the Arab Spring awakening across the Middle East is now witnessing democracy's wholesale global retreat.

In its annual assessment of democracy's health around the world, Freedom House warns that Trump's bad example, the pandemic and associated economic insecurity have helped empower authoritarian governments. Instead of continuing to serve as a beacon of hope for struggling democracies, the United States became an example of how not to do it.

"After four years of condoning and indeed pardoning official malfeasance, ducking accountability for his own transgressions, and encouraging racist and right-wing extremists, the outgoing president openly strove to illegally overturn his loss at the polls, culminating in his (Jan. 6) incitement of an armed mob to disrupt Congress's certification of the results," says the 2021 Freedom House report, "Democracy under Siege." It adds: "Trump's actions went unchecked by most lawmakers from his own party, with a stunning silence that undermined basic democratic tenets."

Freedom House assigns a grade to each country based on objective criteria that include political pluralism and participation, government functionality, and respect for civil liberties and political rights. In 2010, the United States received a grade of 93 out of 100. In 2020, the grade had dropped to 83, putting the United States on a par with Panama, Poland and Ghana.

The downgrade is partially the result of what Freedom House termed political corruption and conflicts of interest, lack of government transparency, and punitive immigration and asylum policies. Not every assessment was negative, however. The report praised the judiciary, including Trump-appointed judges, for impartial rulings rejecting GOP efforts to overturn the Nov. 3 presidential election with baseless claims of fraud. It also noted the willingness of some Republicans to defend democracy in the face of Trump's attacks and the insurrection.

"Yet it may take years to appreciate and address the effects of the experience on Americans' ability to come together and collectively uphold a common set of civic values," the report says.

Equally worrisome is the message received by despotic regimes around the world that the U.S. model of freedom doesn't quite live up to all the hype.

President Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe said on Jan. 7 that "the U.S. has no moral right to punish another nation under the guise of upholding democracy."

Coming from the leader of a country that scored 28 on the Freedom House scale, that speaks volumes about the decline of U.S. leadership and its once-positive example around the world.

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