Global Times' editor's note: Way before the United States held its midterm elections on November 8, its domestic politics has already become increasingly polarized and violent, and different interest groups could barely compromise to push forward policies that truly benefit social development. Through the lens of her research, Deborah Veneziale, an American journalist based in Italy, discusses with Global Times (GT) reporter Wang Wenwen the dangerous impulses of American political elites and the crumbling US democracy.

GT: You once wrote that the so-called democratic institutions of checks and balances are completely incapable of restraining the belligerent policy toward China from spreading. Why? Has US democracy become a tool for oligarchs if decisions cannot be made in the interests of the American majority?