Has the republic died?

[mix]

em

[mmonk]

1. So far.

[sam sarrha]

2. dead and stinking

[magellan]

3. Yes.

We have a unitary executive that works ruthlessly on behalf of the corporations and war profiteers without regard for the rule of law or the people. I don't know what that's called but it isn't a constitutional republic.

[mix]

5. a virtual democracy

is what we have become

all the trappings of democracy and freedom, but the substance is absent

is there hope? does it start with a candidate, or what?

[magellan]

8. I always like to believe there's hope

But in face of the facts I find very little room for hope. To change what's gone wrong with our government would take sweeping acts of reversal that would cut straight into the very mechanisms that put most of our elected officials in power and keep them there. Short a revolution, it just isn't going to happen.

[manic expression]

9. These sorts of things wax and wane

If you're a fan of capitalist social democracy (FDR, LBJ, etc....), this too will pass and more liberal people will take power. Actually, it's already happening.

The only variable now is how liberal the next Democratic president will be.

[mmonk]

11. Crimes against the constitution and the disassembling

of government checks and constitutional protections might not be the wax and wane of polar partisan politics but the end of a system.

[manic expression]

12. It's happened before

Check out what they did to people who spoke out against WWI. Socialists were locked up and had their offices trashed and burned by the authorities. Displaying a red flag was a serious offence in many states. There's more but you get the drift.

Nothing we haven't seen before.

[magellan]

13. "More liberal" in relation to the GOP which has gone far right

...isn't satisfactory to me. One step forward, two steps back: the overall direction is clear. The will of the people is being manipulated to accept the best on offer, but left of the GOP is still right. And the abuse of power to favor the MIC won't be undone because too much of the government has been compromised.

[manic expression]

15. Bill Clinton wasn't the most liberal of fellows

he signed welfare out of existence and supported free trade. That is somewhere around where the pendulum can swing. Some of the front-runners of this election are at least as liberal as Bill Clinton.

If you want to talk about abuse of power, talk about Nixon, which arguably defined the US government more than anything else.

[magellan]

18. Yes, that's the problem

"Some of the front-runners of this election are at least as liberal as Bill Clinton."

Which isn't really liberal. Of course at the time I thought BC was the cat's meow -- dynamic, charismatic, and he stood up to the Repugs and their designs of oppressive barbarism. But back then I didn't look beneath the surface. I didn't understand NAFTA or about corporatism and all the other things that he stood for that would prove very very bad for this country. Not so bad as a GOP president, but bad enough, and some of what he did gave them the power to make things far worse under Bush**.

Hindsight is 20/20.

In order to change things we'd need to undo much of what's been done since Nixon. That's why when I look at things realistically rather than optimistically, I see little hope. I see what could have been, and the convoluted mess of corporate cronyism and gangland style militancy that passes for government these days because over the years greed and corruption have become the accepted norm.

We don't have a constitutional republic anymore, except as window-dressing.

[tblue]

4. Either that or it's hibernating.

[havocmom]

6. Since Cesar is declared above the law

and Citizens have no protection from the law, yes, yes it is dead.

[manic expression]

7. It's trying to preserve and strengthen the ruling class' position

it's called Bonapartism. It happens every once in awhile; it's kind of natural in a bourgeois system.

[Union Thug]

10. It's been dying since the Ray-gun administration. nt

[orpupilofnature57]

14. Lest we forget the philanderer ,that saved us for a spell.

We chose to judge him, instead of sticking to the record, he never fucked around on u.s.

[Nay]

16. The corpse is rotting. All that frantic activity you see are the

maggots running around.

[mix]

17. that is bleak

understandable though

our republic has its origins in conquest and slavery, and still battles with these issues

i believe that w/o addressing the sins of the republic, we will die a slow death, a moral death