General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Authoritarian State Yet? [View all]phleshdef
(11,936 posts)If this were an authoritarian government, we wouldn't even be able to have this discussion, which many people are having, widely and openly, on the Internet and on television and everywhere else.
The people of the United States have the power to elect people to all 3 branches of government that could hypothetically do away with any program or surveillance activity that we don't want them engaging in. Yet the general knowledge of these programs has been around for 7 years and we still have many of the same people who voted for the Patriot Act in office.
Its not authoritarian when the people continually elect and re-elect a majority of the governing body that isn't trying to do away with activities that some of us believe oversteps what the limits of government authority should be.