LogFAQs > #896724149

TheCyborgNinja posted...

If you're talking about the USA being a democracy, uh... there's nothing left to defend. It's a very successful authoritarian setup that creates the illusion it's completely free when nobody actually has any say. Most "democracies" are like this though. There are enough luxuries and rights that nobody really cares. Therein lies the trick.

Yea... No. Not by a longshot. Want to see a democracy that really has become an authoritarian set-up? Look at China. This... is just bellyaching that you didn't get your way.

Anyways, as a certain famous quote goes 'Democracy is the worst form of government barring all others'. It's really true. With both regular re-elections and term limits on at least some positions (which REALLY needs to become universal) it's very difficult to establish the long-lasting legacies which turns Democracy's into D.I.N.O.'s (Democracy In Name Only) in which a single person or political party has seized an overwhelming amount of power making it impossible to oppose them and for them to silence dissenters. Imagine if the Democrats got so powerful that you basically had to vote democrat or have your entire reputation tarred and feathered until you submitted. That wouldn't be a democracy; that would be an oligarchy.

It's nice to think that a benevolent dictator could gain absolute authority and then proceed to not use it. After all, if you look at the Kim's it seems like an easy bar to hurdle past since you just have to do BETTER than that; right? Well... It's not that easy. How would you approach America's obesity problem in a manner that wouldn't tick off a lot of people? If you choose to do 'what's right' can you really say that it's what's right for the nation and/or world, or what's right for YOU? Even if you manage to pull it off and become a truly beloved leader and good ruler (and they certainly existed); what's to prevent your successor from being a tyrant who launches nukes at Canada and rounds up all the Bronies to be sent to 'Brony Re-Education Camps'?

There is a great photo I recall seeing that I can't link now due to Google losing a certain legal battle; but it showed a grocery store in America side by side with a Russian grocery store. The American store is stuffed full of thousands of goods of multiple varieties while the Russian one had, like, three loaves of bread on otherwise-empty shelves. Just look at Venezuela as well for what happens when Socialism takes over.
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I am the gentle hand who heals, the happy smile who shields, and the foot that will kick your ***! - White Mage