Democracy Is Dead in the USA

[SariesNightly]

Written by Chris Floyd
Sunday, 02 September 2007

Post-Mortem America: Bush's Year of Triumph and the Hard Way Ahead

It is, by any measure, a remarkable achievement, one of the greatest political feats ever. Despite Bush's standing as one of the most despised presidents in American history, despite a Congress in control of the opposition party, despite a solid majority opposed to his policies and his war, despite an Administration riddled with scandal and crime, despite the glaring rot in the nation's infrastructure and the callous abandonment of one of the nation's major cities to natural disaster and crony greed -- despite all of this, and much more that would have brought down or mortally wounded any government in a democratic country, the Bush Administration is now in a far stronger position than it was a year ago.

How can this be? The answer is simple: the United States is no longer a democratic country, or even a degraded semblance of one.

Again, look at the facts, the reality: Bush wants Congressional approval of his illegal surveillance; he gets it. Bush wants to launch spy satellites against the American people; he does it. Bush wants concentration camps and secret prisons with torture; he's got them. Bush wants to escalate a ruinous, murderous, unpopular war; he does it. He wants to declare people "enemy combatants" and imprison them indefinitely; he does it. Bush's spokesmen openly claim that the laws passed by the people's representatives are "just advisory" and "the president can still do whatever he wants to do," and there is no outcry, no action, no defense of the Republic against this overthrow of the Constitution.

http://www.chris-floyd.com/content/view/1272/135/

[whistle]

1. Democracy HAS BEEN DEAD in the United States since November 2000!

:yoiks: :hide:

[FreakinDJ]

4. Well said

you are absolutely right

Why have we not done any thing about it

[Jesse Hemingway]

5. Sorry Democracy was executed

On November 22, 1963 Dallas Texas 12:30 that is when we lost our democracy.

[shance]

18. Perhaps since November 22 1963

n/t

[daninthemoon]

2. Sadly, I can't get away from the same conclusion. All that's left

is for the emperors troops to march on the senate. The republic is in it's last throes.

[backscatter712]

3. It's time for America to start asking those questions...

Those questions that the Founding Fathers asked themselves back in 1774, the ones that we at DU are not supposed to talk about...

[Stuckinthebush]

6. Yup...The US is a sad empty shell of what it once was...

or what it once proclaimed to be.

There is no saving it, I'm afraid. I'm sure there are some who will say this is a defeatist attitude and they won't give up. They may be correct but I just don't see us coming out of this. What president (Dem or GOP) will give up the power that Bush took from congress?

It is finished. Now we just see how long the death gurgle will last.

[hashibabba]

14. That's what I've been thinking lately. Which of the candidates

will just grab even more power? Is there one who would do the right thing and reestablish our democracy?

[Greyhound]

16. There is one that has proven that he will do the right thing, even if it costs him his

office, his career, his party standing (such as it is), everything. He has proven this for well over 20 years with real actions for which he paid a real price.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

7. The Repugnicans designed a way to take over. It's taken them years....

Since Reagan. But they've succeeded. They began by putting in their people in school boards and continued on from there. Whom do I blame? Christians.

[snappyturtle]

8. Powerful article......three paragraphs I found particularly alarming:

"Thus the Administration's own spokesmen are now saying openly, in plain English, what they once only insinuated beneath layers of legal jargon: that the president of the United States does not have to obey the law of the land. He does not have to obey acts passed by Congress. He is free to act arbitrarily, to do anything whatsoever that he claims is necessary to "defend national security," in his capacity as Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces. There is literally nothing anyone can do – not Congress, not the courts – to stop him.

That is Bush's claim -- and it has been accepted. The American Establishment has surrendered to an authoritarian takeover of the American state. If this was not the case, then Bush and Cheney would have been impeached long ago (or least months ago) for their treason against the Constitution, their coup d'etat against the Republic. At the very least, they would have been mocked, scorned, censured and shunned for their ludicrous and dangerous pretensions to royal power. All manner of institutional, legal and political fetters would have been put upon them, as happened in the last days of Richard Nixon's presidency.

Instead, Bush's power has only grown with each new outrageous claim of unchallengeable presidential authority. It is too little understood how vital -- and how fatal -- Congress' acquiescence in all of this has been. By continuing to treat the Bush Administration as a legitimate government, to carry on with business as usual instead of initiating impeachments or refusing to cooperate with a gang of usurpers, Congress instead confirms the New Order day after day. Some Democrats may grumble, whine or bluster -- but they DO nothing, and their very participation in the sinister farce ensures its continuance."

[Loge23]

9. ...by and for the people

I think that the current administration is a "result of" rather than a "cause of".
It's the people of this country that let this happen.
We were pioneers, fiercely free, and inherently distrustful of authority.
Now we're followers, fearful of everything from bogus news reports to belt buckles (today's news about a cruise ship delay in Florida).
We gladly line up at airports like dutiful sheep, removing our shoes and submitting ourselves and our belongings for review.
We accept the corruption, the lies, the crimes of reputedly elected officials as part of the landscape. We ignore smart and honest men/women when they appear to "unelectable" due to their appearance or background.
We are too generous to bestow the current administration as successful perpetrators of a coup. The so-called president is far too incompetent to ever pull off such a feat.
We did it. We changed as a people. Maybe not "us" online here today. But all of us collectively.
We trust corporations to do the right thing and shake our heads at $200+ million parachute packages for failed CEO's.
We actually think we need hedge funds and believe Wall Street "geniuses" are worth the ridiculous bonuses that they take.
I don't know what happened - drugs, helplessness, apathy - whatever. But it's us. They are just the results.

[Greyhound]

17. I don't think I've ever read a truer post on this board.

A near perfect summation of the state of the union.
:kick::patriot::kick:

[Middle finga]

10. Recommended

[Summer93]

11. Concur - very sadly

[Amonester]

12. Imagine what would they have done to President Clinton if...

...IF just a tiny atom of what pretzeldent bu$che has done (or not done... for that matter)??

Now, why is it that because it's bu$che, we almost only hear crickets?

[bvar22]

13. Democracy died in the mid-80's during the Reagan years

when BIG MONEY bought the Democratic Party leadership.
There has been no effective opposition since then.
The USA became a Single Party State.


The Democratic Party is a BIG TENT, but there is NO ROOM for those
who advance the agenda of THE RICH (Corporate Owners) at the EXPENSE of LABOR and the POOR.

[jmp]

15. Democracy is dead in the DNC ...

Why should the country be different?

[Kablooie]

19. But it's alive and thriving in Iraq! --- or something --- like that?

[cali]

20. Yawn.

Yet another apocalyptic screed, filled with truths, half truths and conclusions with no evidence.

I am not saying everything's hunky-dory; far from it, but the conclusions the author has drawn are merely opinion, not fact, and too pessimistic.

If this is true, and you all buy it, why bother being involved in politics at all?

[Perry Logan]

21. You forget the 2006 election, the investigations, the resignations and prosecutions of Bushites, etc

Yes, the Republicans have dealt democracy a severe blow. But she's coming back...and she's pissed.