In 2010, the United States received a score of 94 out of 100 in Freedom in the World, Freedom House’s annual report on political rights and civil liberties, a ranking that placed it among the world’s most democratic nations. A decade later, the report dropped the U.S. score by 11 points, citing significant erosion in American civil liberties and rights.
Both the Democratic and Republican parties claim that they have the best interests of the nation and its people at heart, and they are equally adamant that they have the best policy solutions to address the nation’s problems and challenges. Each volume in the Across the Aisle reference series examines the stated policy positions and actual voting/legislative records of the two parties (they are not always the same) on important areas of public policy, both historically and in the present day.
This volume of Across the Aisle, on the parties’ records and rhetoric concerning the protection of American civil rights and liberties, sorts through the rhetorical clutter and partisan distortions that typify so many disputes between Republicans and Democrats and provides an accurate, balanced, and evenhanded overview of the parties’ attitudes and records on vital civil rights and liberties questions pertaining to voting rights, political representation, abortion, guns, free speech, and other high-interest issues.
