Can we honestly say we are a democracy in the full sense of the word

[KlatooBNikto]

when we have the following:
1. One President after another has lied on important matter without
any consequence. I am especially talking about Lyndon Johnson and the Gulf of Tonkin "incident" and Bush and his WMD's.
2.Presidents have embraced plausible deniability as a shield and
Congress has simply acquiesced in this practice.
3. Presidents have control of black bag projects with unknown amounts of funds and no accountability to anyone.
4. Presidents have in the past assassinated foreign leaders with or without the full knowledge of Congress as the Church Commission has stated.Has that practice now come back to our domestic arena?
5. The CIA's practice of destabilizing foreign governments by planting stories and defaming foreign leaders may have come home in the form of buying off the Press as it is clear that many of our socalled Press people are simply shills.
6.That we now have a pack mentality in our press that simply repeat comfortable lies and gang up on anyone that is brave enough to tell the truth.
7.That we have reached a point where a Rumsfeld can say he is seeking Total Information Dominance without anyone even questioning him what this means.

[Mika]

1. I'd settle for direct elections

:shrug:



_________________________________

The GOP's Axis of evil

Universal health care

Universal education

Democracy

_________________________________

[Red State Rebel]

2. Technically, I believe we are a Representative Republic

Am I correct on this?

[KlatooBNikto]

3. You may be correct to use that term but only if you concede the

probability that our representatives have been rendered toothless.

[Red State Rebel]

14. unfortunately......

[no name no slogan]

4. No. We never have been, and never will be either.

The US is a republic, not a democracy.

A Republican form of government relies on leaders, elected by and from the population, to represent it in decisions made on its behalf. In a democracy, EVERY person has a hand in the decisions the government makes. Democracy is practical in small groups, but next to impossible in a nation of over 200mil.

Our constitution does not allow for a democracy-- it explicitly establishes the Republic as our form of government.

True, it is possible for our Republic to take on "democratic" elements: our leaders are elected by the general public, and there are not restrictions on who can vote (other than age and, in some states, criminal record). However, our nation has never had a democratic form of government, and it's quite doubtful that it ever will.

[KlatooBNikto]

6. Conceding that we elect represntatives who supposedly act on our

behalf ( A Republic), do the practices I have mentioned automatically flow from it?Then, if transparency is lost, what is the point in keeping up this pretense and simply have a fascistic government?

[el_gato]

10. We don't have a constitutional republic either

That all died years ago at least since the creation of the FBI.

[BlueEyedSon]

5. Every generation must fight for transparency and accountability

"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."
Thomas Jefferson

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

7. In 'Murka, it's spelled Democra$y. AKA an oligarchy.

Or, Plutocracy.

[mmonk]

8. No

its officially over.

[KlatooBNikto]

9. The question is has it been over for a long time and we are just waking up

to the fact because of the brazen acts of Bush and his partners in crime?

[el_gato]

12. The mask has slipped, perhaps intentionally

As Frank Zappa said, "The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion."

[Zhade]

11. We're a plutocratic empire, not a democracy. So, no.

NT!

[sweetheart]

13. precisely indeed...

Whomever has the most dollars can buy the favours of the global
miliarist empire... and that simply don't fit the word demos at all.

It seems that a fair democratic republic, would be quite a challenge
these days.

[ghostsofgiants]

15. No you can't...

For the simple fact that you don't have a national independent group that oversees the elections. That's kind of a must-have for democracies.