1. A never-ending war on an idea with no official Declaration of War made by the Congress and no specific enemy, but necessitating a wholesale infringement on individual freedoms in order to protect the public from this unseen enemy.
2. Suppression of the press through threat of prosecution and imprisonment when they report on the mechanisms employed illegally in waging the above-mentioned "war."
3. A President who has given himself the power of a line-item veto so that he can unilaterally rule pieces of legislation he doesn't like "Unconstitutional," effectively usurping the role of both the Legislative and Judicial branches, and therefore nullifying the Will of the People.
4. A Congress willing to forgive and/or ignore all of the above, except in specific instances where Executive encroachment may interfere with their ability to hide their own illicit activities.
5. An opposition party willing to ignore whatever illegal activities its opponent may have used to rig the election process.
6. A situation where only a third of the population at best actually votes, making the majority of the public captive to the minority.
7. Widespread jerry-mandering that makes ousting incumbents realistically impossible.
8. A regulation infrastructure for the most part run by the industries it is supposed to be regulating, in many cases stifling smaller companies/innovative technologies that may be disruptive to the status quo, i.e. hurt the bottom-line of existing monopolies.
9. And let's not forget, a President who lost the POPULAR vote but won the Presidency anyway. More Americans voted for his opponent (Al Gore) than for him, but he won regardless.
This is a Democracy? Under what definition? How are we different from Putin's Russia?
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