"America As A One-Party State." (Republican)

[Elwood P Dowd]

We are at risk of becoming an autocracy in three key respects. First, Republican parliamentary gimmickry has emasculated legislative opposition in the House of Representatives (the Senate has other problems). House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas has both intimidated moderate Republicans and reduced the minority party to window dressing, rather like the token opposition parties in Mexico during the six-decade dominance of the PRI.

Second, electoral rules have been rigged to make it increasingly difficult for the incumbent party to be ejected by the voters, absent a Depression-scale disaster, Watergate-class scandal or Teddy Roosevelt-style ruling party split. After two decades of bipartisan collusion in the creation of safe House seats, there are now perhaps just 25 truly contestable House seats in any given election year (and that's before the recent Republican super gerrymandering). What once was a slender and precarious majority -- 229 Republicans to 205 Democrats (including Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent who votes with Democrats) -- now looks like a Republican lock. In the Senate, the dynamics are different but equally daunting for Democrats. As the Florida debacle of 2000 showed, the Republicans are also able to hold down the number of opposition votes, with complicity from Republican courts. Reform legislation, the 2002 Help America Vote Act (HAVA), may actually facilitate Republican intimidation of minority voters and reduce Democratic turnout. And the latest money-and-politics regime, nominally a reform, may give the right more of a financial advantage than ever.

Third, the federal courts, which have slowed some executive-branch efforts to destroy liberties, will be a complete rubber stamp if the right wins one more presidential election.

Taken together, these several forces could well enable the Republicans to become the permanent party of autocratic government for at least a generation. Am I exaggerating? Take a close look at the particulars.

<more>

http://www.prospect.org/print/V15/2/kuttner-r.html

Could the end be near? This article has been out a few days, so I hope it's not a dupe of a previous post. If it is, I just missed it.

[cprise]

1. Already a one-party state

If you can't turn people into property anymore, then turn property into people (corporations).

[Elwood P Dowd]

2. I know we are now, but for how long?

Will 2004 seal the deal? If we get a demo in the White House, will he be willing to go before the American people an explain in detail just what these repukes have in store for us? Clinton cut deals, caved in on many issues he could have stopped (NAFTA, WTO, Telecommunications), and basically left us holding the bag. Look what he left us!

[tkmorris]

3. Well

Think about the 9 possible candidates we started with. Really, compare their ideals, their ideas for the future, their records, etc.

Now look at who we have left. Do you really think things are going to change much? Sure, the worst Neo-con nonsense will be stopped but some will get through. And no truly liberal ideas will even be proposed, let alone managed through Congress.

Even if we win this year we are simply buying time, slowing down the rate of decay. I truly believe we look forward to a world of fear, war, crass capitalism, dog-eat-dogism, a period of corruption and back-room deals, revolutions doomed to fail before they begin, and the acceleration of the death of the planet and likely the human race.

We live in interesting times. And that old Chinese philosopher is laughing his ass off.

:nuke:

[Vogon_Glory]

4. I've Read Part Of That Article. Scary

I've read part of that article. It's scary as all get out.

Does anyone think that one-party regimes like Peron's Argentina, Mexico under the PRI, or Zimbabwe under ZANU-PF were well-governed?

:scared: :scared: :scared: