section_path: Twenty-first century/Origins
section_name: Origins
paragraph_text: Origins
  
  Some have linked the war on terror and the Iraq War, started during the presidency of George W. Bush, as enabling later democratic backsliding under the first Trump administration.
  
  A resurgence of authoritarian, white-ethnic identity politics has been cited as well. Some have linked that rise to social media, Google, YouTube and other algorithms of the attention economy that prioritize more sensational content. The changing media landscape has also resulted in a loss of journalists, with local journalism being offered as a partial solution for political polarization.