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Old 09-07-2022, 07:25 PM
HARDCORE HARDCORE is offline
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Unhappy Once Upon A Time

9-7-2022

[Personal Opinions]

Once Upon A Time, It Was Totally Our Country – TOTALLY!

So What Has Happen In This Nation When Men Like Thomas Paine, John Adams, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln And The Almighty Himself, Are Now Occasionally Vilified By Those Who Viewed Our Magnificent Tenets As A Threat To Their Filthy Attempts To Rewrite Our Illustrious And Perfected Constitution?

May God Still Bless The United States Of America!

Hardcore


PS: Rick dictated this to me so I could type them for him. He is still not feeling good at all. So He Will Be Dictating For Me To Type Them Up For Him To Proof.
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  #2  
Old 09-08-2022, 10:36 AM
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Boats Boats is offline
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Unhappy Is our deomocracy in perl - another point of view

Is US democracy in peril?
By: Barbara Gutierrez - University of Miami News@The U 01-18-22
Re: https://news.miami.edu/stories/2022/...-in-peril.html

University of Miami legal and political science experts weigh in on whether the country is in danger of losing its democratic values and practices amid ongoing tensions between political parties.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines democracy as “a government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised by them directly or indirectly through a system of representation usually involving periodically held free elections.”

The intention of the nation’s founding fathers was to make sure that there were enough checks and balances in the Constitution so that the political system in the United States would not slip back into a monarchy.

But now, the U.S. finds itself with an extremely fractured society and a polarized electorate with each political party entrenched in its own ideology. This was demonstrated in the Jan. 6, 2021 siege on the Capitol by a mob who believed former President Donald Trump’s assertion that he had won the 2020 presidential election. The mob wanted to interrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s electoral vote win, which was taking place inside the Capitol.

The divide is also evident in the growing number of bills introduced in several states meant to restrict or make it more difficult for some to vote. The Democrats are trying to pass legislation to stop these bills from being enforced but their efforts are presently stalled in Congress.

The state of the union has worried many political leaders, including President Joe Biden and former president Jimmy Carter, who penned the opinion piece “I Fear for Our Democracy” in The New York Times.

#1 Is our democracy in danger?

“Democracy is in peril,” said Frances Hill, professor of law and Dean’s Distinguished Scholar for the Profession at the University of Miami School of Law. “No neat phrase or concept explains why. It is certainly true that our society faces rampant economic inequality that excludes far too many Americans from their idea of the ‘American dream.’ It is certainly true that separating disinformation from shared facts and values poses new challenges to talking to each other and disagreeing with each other.”

Gregory Koger, professor and chair of the political science department, believes that “the deeper challenge we face is that democracy is based on the mutual agreement that we will choose our leaders through democratic elections. This means some voters end up consenting to leaders they did not vote for. This is the foundation of our political process. That is what is in jeopardy today.”

He pointed out that there has also been an erosion in the democratic process by misrepresentation. One such example, according to Koger, is based on the U.S. Constitution, which ensures that each state gets two senators regardless of the size of the state.

“This severely disadvantages Florida, which is now the third largest state in terms of population, but we get the same number of senators as Wyoming,” he said.

But the underlying reason for many of the present tensions in the U.S. can be attributed to its big demographic change, he noted. The country is changing from a majority white, non-Hispanic population to a more diverse country. By 2050, non-Hispanic whites will no longer make up the majority of the population, Koger said.

Many people are threatened by this transition and are trying to prevent a coalition of non-whites from gaining more power, he explained. Many of those voters felt further threatened by the election of former President Barack Obama, the first African American president.

When Trump ran for president in 2016, he was building upon that simmering discontent among non-Hispanic whites about where the country was going. From the beginning of his campaign, he promised to restrict immigration by non-whites and Muslims as the primary basis for his presidency, Koger indicated.

This pushback against minority representation seems to be evident in what is happening with voter suppression legislation. Enacted in 19 states and pending in many more, the voter suppressions legislation is an effort by politicians to pick their own voters rather than accepting the foundational principle of the Constitution that the people choose their own leaders, explained Hill.

“The state legislation is based on two foundational elements—voter suppression and vote nullification,” she said. “Voter suppression makes it more difficult for economically disadvantaged people of color to vote. These efforts to suppress participation are expressed through what might appear to be neutral language. Eliminating or limiting access to drop boxes might be considered applicable to all voters, but this kind of provision will be used overwhelmingly by people who are poor, who work in jobs requiring their presence at their workplaces throughout the day, so that they cannot access drop boxes or vote during early voting or even vote on election day.”

If people insist on casting their ballots with another historic effort to vote, then these new laws provide that a state legislature can nullify the choice of the voters and replace those choices with the preferences of the state legislature, Hill pointed out.

“These two types of provisions are direct assaults on democracy. They could severely wound democracy in the 2022 mid-term election and do even greater damage in the 2024 general election,” she said.

Last week, Biden addressed these efforts to suppress the vote. “We are facing the most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War. That is not hyperbole, since the Civil War,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be this way. It doesn’t have to be, for real. We have the means. We just need to show the will—the will to save and strengthen our democracy.”
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#2 It's also been pointed out that: The insurrection of January 6, 2021, demonstrated conclusively that tribalism in the United States has become dangerous.
By: Christopher Beem

He states that: The “other side” is no longer viewed as a well-intentioned opponent but as an existential threat. If we don’t change course, American democracy is far from assured.

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#3: Is the United States a democracy or a republic?

Yes, the United States is a democracy, since we, the people, hold the ultimate political power. We’re not a “direct democracy,” but we are a “representative democracy.”

This is where our history education might add some confusion. We are commonly taught that democracy is a product of ancient Greece. It’s their word – demokratia – after all. The city-state of Athens is credited with implementing a system of government of and by the people, whereby eligible citizens would congregate to make decisions. They’d make these decisions themselves (or “directly”), not through any elected representatives.

That system of government, better understood today as direct democracy, lives on in the United States in the form of ballot initiatives and referenda. Some states and localities afford their citizens the right to use these measures to directly enact, change, or repeal laws themselves.

More commonly, we exercise our political power in a different way: by voting in elections to choose our representatives. That’s representative democracy.

The Constitution does not use the term “democracy.” It’s true. But as Eugene Volokh notes in the Washington Post, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Noah Webster, Justice James Wilson and Chief Justice John Marshall all used the word. These scholars understood representative democracy – the American variety – to be democracy all the same.

Or: Is the United States a Repubic?

Yes. The United States is a republic because our elected representatives exercise political power.

History also tells us that Rome was a republic, unlike Athens. When its monarchy was overthrown, Rome developed a republican system of government whereby citizens elected officials who were empowered to make decisions for the public. That’s the core of how our government works. While “democracy” and “republic” have been historically pitted against one another, the reality is that the two terms enjoy considerable overlap.

So, which term should I use?

It’s really up to you. In practice, the word “republic” has the same meaning as the term “representative democracy.” And a representative democracy is a form of democracy in the same way that a Granny Smith apple is a form of apple. We wouldn’t say it’s inaccurate to use “apple” to describe a Granny Smith apple, so it’s OK to follow in the footsteps of Jefferson, Adams, Webster, and Chief Justice Marshall and simply call our “representative democracy” a “democracy.”

But it’s also accurate to call the United States a “republic.” It’s mostly about your preference of words. Hopefully, this post will help lower the heat in the online debate. Let’s put our energy toward working to fix our government so it represents the people!

So in short: What type of government is the US, exactly?

To be very specific, the United States could be defined as a “federal constitutional representative democracy.” You might also call it a “federal constitutional republic.” Let’s break those terms down.

Constitutional: Our system of government is considered constitutional, because the power exercised by the people and their representatives is bound by the constitution and the broader rule of law.

Federal: Our government is also a federal system, since power is shared between a national government, representing the entire populace, and regional and local governments.

These two terms can come in handy when you want to get really exact with your description. It’s accurate to call our government a “federal constitutional republic” or a “federal constitutional democracy,” but it’s probably overkill to be that specific. These terms just help us further define our governmental structure, especially when comparing the United States to other countries.

Bonus: Is the United States still a democracy/republic?

In the literal sense of the word, yes. In practice, the answer is more complicated. In 2016, The Economist Intelligence Unit downgraded the United States from a “full democracy” to a “flawed democracy” in its Democracy Report, an annual study of the “state of democracy” around the world.

There were a number of reasons the nation’s rating fell, but one of the most important was the American public’s declining trust in government. Our system of government depends on citizens being able to freely elect leaders who will represent their interests. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen. In a study published 2014, two political scientists found that, on average, the policies representatives pursue are not in fact dictated by public opinion. This is the mark of a flawed democracy/republic: election without true representation.

In 2021, the International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (IDEA) classified the United States as a "backsliding democracy" for the first time.

One reply was:

America's political system is broken. Lobbyists write our laws. Big money floods our elections. And the revolving door is spinning faster than ever. Right now, we're seeing how systematic weaknesses in transparency and accountability are leaving us all in the dark.

We can fix the system and protect American elections and interests by passing Anti-Corruption laws across the country. postd by the Action Brigade.

Note: Basically though - the United Sates is both a democracy and a republic.
[for now]. Times are changing - Big money drives the system and has for
decades. Voter's get a line of shit to pump them up - but in the long run
all the get is M.O.T.S. (more of the same!
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Personal: As for me - "it is broken" - and changed by: Big Money and Corporations.
The People don't stand a chance - & yes big money is and will always be a factor.
Donations are nothing compared to the rich - who want to be richer!

Having political connections - is what runs this country and feeds the system
and to gain a financial boost.
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We The People are only nothing more than a footnote - donating into a system
that is driven by money.
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We are nothing but a footnote in our system - taking the heat - from
the future leaders who will in the long bleed us dry - in the end.
While their gains - are our losses.
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Nobody thinks about that - do you?
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Boats

O Almighty Lord God, who neither slumberest nor sleepest; Protect and assist, we beseech thee, all those who at home or abroad, by land, by sea, or in the air, are serving this country, that they, being armed with thy defence, may be preserved evermore in all perils; and being filled with wisdom and girded with strength, may do their duty to thy honour and glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

"IN GOD WE TRUST"
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