Fear for American democracy

[Liberal_in_LA]

http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/election-blog.aspx

Fear for American democracy

September 11, 2008 | 5:11 PM Mark Sawyer

I may sound alarmist but this campaign makes me fear for American Democracy. My thesis: We are on the edge of becoming a one party state. Many one party states have some token opposition but there is no real serious challenge to the power of the dominant party and that is where we may be going.

If the Democrats do not soundly defeat the Republicans at all levels including the Presidency the US will have become a defacto one party state. That means that no matter how poorly the Republican Party performs in economic, social and foreign policy they will not face any serious challenge and thus there will be no real check on their power or sanction for corruption. Given the growing power of the imperial presidency and a Supreme Court that McCain/Palin will tilt rightward, the Republican Party will be able to use the levers of government to consolidate their power and to insure that while the Democratic Party will survive, it will never represent a serious challenge to their dominance. Others have argued this but few are talking about how critical the 2008 election is in stopping Rove's plan for a one party state. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1316/is_10_38/ai_n26706626

The litany of failures of Republican government at the federal level are too long to list. The Republicans have fallen asleep on regulating the economy and banking. This led to the worst housing bubble and banking disaster in decades. The fact is, the problems we are facing are nothing short of corruption as CEO's have taken millions in bonuses while ships sink. This is not the first time. Remember Enron?

Our foreign policy is a mess. We have gotten involved in a war under false premises and have spent trillions of dollars and lost over four thousand American lives. Only the war profiteers like Halliburton and Bechtel have benefited from the war as the US debt has exploded.

As the US economy flags and the deficit explodes Republicans want more tax cuts for their wealthy friends.

[1Hippiechick]

1. Republican party: The Ultra rich and the ultra stoopid of our society - no in-betweens. n/t