United States of the American Dictatorship?

[Imran Siddiqui]

Read the text of the Patriot Act (and for that matter, read news articles of some of the consequences of it) and tell me the US respects rights.

Then give me proof that the Patriot Act has taken away our 'rights'.

When I see countries like the UK have a camera in every toilet (well, basically ), I don't see how the US is any less free than them.

[muxec]

USA is democracy, and if USA security force USA citizen to be checked, they do this worrying about their lives.

[Az]

Actually, Imran, I don't see how placing cameras in goverment buildings or public places is infringing on anyone's "rights".

[Ming]

Big Brother is watching

[Capt Dizle]

The US is a representative democracy and since our incumbant representatives are almost always re-elected because of the influence of monied interests you can fairly say something stinks but we are not a dictatorship.

[Ming]

I think some people are also ignoring the fact that in many states, the Democrats are in power... and that the federal government is only part of the equation.

Individual States have many powers within their boundries that the Federal Government can't touch. So even the ever so weak argument that since one party controls three branches of the federal government, that makes the US a Dictatorship, is even more of joke, since they don't control all the states.

[Thrawn05]

Originally posted by problem_child
Anyway the Electoral Colleges apparently do the actual votin, so its more like a Republic (where only an elite get to vote) then a democracy (where every common joes vote counts)

This was safe guard put in place so that people's emotions don't determine who is elected president. It also helps prevent Communists from gaining power.

[Kramerman]

Originally posted by GeneralTacticus


What happened to the rights of those 1000+ Muslim-Ameircans who were arrested after September 11 and haven't been heard from since?

hmm... has this not happened before??? and aren't we still a republic???

I remeber a time when thousands of Japanese were forcfully detained... ah yes that happened 60 freaking years ago during WWII...

I remember a time when it was illegal to speak out against the federal government under punishment of imprisonment... ah, that was the Alien Sedition act of 1798... yup, it was all down hill from there

Please... America, in times of distress and war has often had to sacrifice civil liberties in order to promote security... you can call this a police state, Id like to call it common friggin sense. And everytime, everytime those liberties have been returned. sometimes automatically, and sometimes through protest and legal action, but either way the system works.

I could never see how the vast and extensive system of checks and balances hard-wired into out government could ever fail to the point of the government to turn into a dictatorship, under the nose of the citizenry that his been so afriad of such a government since its birth well more than 2 centuries ago.
Besides, we all know that we will always have the second amendment , as long as gun tote'n hicks like me are around! .

Kman

[Odin]

The U.S. Won't become a traditional dictatorship. It will become what I like to call a Corperate Oligarchy sine corperations have all the power. I see Japan turning into one of these too. I expect peolpe to come to there senses by 2030.

[Odin]

Originally posted by Thrawn05


This was safe guard put in place so that people's emotions don't determine who is elected president. It also helps prevent Communists from gaining power.

No, it gives the republicans the advantage since less populous states (Alaska, North Dakota, Utah, Nevada, etc.) usually go Republican. I like the parlimentary system over the Congressional system since you vote for the party, not for individual people. Seats are apropreated by what % a party got.

In the U.S. I think a hypothetical parliment would be
35% Democrat
35% Republican
20% Green
5% Libertarian
5% Other

Another problem is that incumbents gerrymander districts.

[JCG]

The U.S. is not a dictatorship, and it's still significantly far from becoming one. I believe theargument has already been made by others, so I'll leave it at that.

That doesn't mean that it's a "perfect" democracy or any such thing, far from it too, but it's not a dictatorship.

[GeneralTacticus]

Please... America, in times of distress and war has often had to sacrifice civil liberties in order to promote security... you can call this a police state, Id like to call it common friggin sense. And everytime, everytime those liberties have been returned. sometimes automatically, and sometimes through protest and legal action, but either way the system works.

So you call it common sense to lock up people based on their ethnicity/religion/whatever, with no charges being brought against them an dno indication whatsoever of what's happened to them, or even that they still exist? I'd have thought America was beyond that stage by now, and the fact that the media doesn't seem to mention them at all is rather disturbing...

[Jaguar]

I'll use one of your quotes to answer another.

Originally posted by GeneralTacticus
What happened to the rights of those 1000+ Muslim-Ameircans who were arrested after September 11 and haven't been heard from since?

Originally posted by GeneralTacticus
Source?

[Ming]

Originally posted by Odin
In the U.S. I think a hypothetical parliment would be
35% Democrat
35% Republican
20% Green
5% Libertarian
5% Other

20 % Green....



What the heck are you smoking... can I have some too.

[GeneralTacticus]

I'll use one of your quotes to answer another.

My source is the Australian media after September 11. No-one has mentioned the issue since.