How is the US beginning to resemble a dictatorship?

Question

Serious answers please. I hear people say that we are on the road to dictatorship, yet I see no parallels with any other historical dictatorships.

Could anyone give me some examples?

So far I have Secret Prisons. Ok, but are American citizens being held there? THis is an important question, because as I understand the definition of dictator, he actually has to RULE over the people he dictates to.

Capturing people on the battlefield and holding them for possible intelligence value doesn't seem to me to rise to the level of dictatorship.

If some of those people are American citizens, then the Constitution explicitly calls for their execution for treason.

And so far as I can tell, they are only being held for their intelligence value. Under the law of warfare and the geneva convention, it is permissible to hold summary executions of these individuals.

Ok, another guy said that because Reagan wanted a third term, that means he was a dictator. But what does that make everyone's favorite democrat, Frankllin Roosevelt? He was elected four times. Thankfully he died in his fourth term before he could do any more damage.

Answer 1

First of all we are no where near a dictatorship. However, certain things are happening IMHO which bother me and point in that eventual direction unless halted: (1) secret prisons; (2) secret spying programs without warrants; (3) withholding truth from Americans; (4) acting with impunity.

Answer 2

We are holding US few citizens that were captured within the US with out charges, trials or attorneys.

Yes it is only a hand full of people (5 or 6), but if there is proof that they did something, fine, try em and fry em. Otherwise this is a violation of the constitutional rights of these citizens in so many ways.

If they unconstitutionally arrest those people and hold them without charges, trials or attorneys and no one holds the government accountable for the constitutional violations that it is committing what is to stop the expansion of this program from suspects that they really do not have anything more than suspicion against to imprisoning political dissidents.

They have already violated the freedom of speech by creating "free speech zones" during certain events, making free speech elsewhere at these events a crime.

Answer 3

we are not. We keep getting closer and closer to a pure democracy and further and further from the republic set up by our for fathers. They knew the average person was dumb that is why only prominent land owners could vote. Also they knew even the land owners would not take the time to understand issues that is why they voted for a representative they trusted to do that as his job.

Now almost every major vote follows the news polls of the average person. When people vote against the polls the news tells everyone this kind of instant feed back really gives the power to the average person who knows little and takes it away from the representatives. This is where all our problems are coming from.

Name one major vote where congress did not follow the news poll in the last 5 years I bet you can't. that is not a dictatorship that is a democracy.

Answer 4

I've studied history and military history for more years than many of you have been alive .
In every conflict there are things that get tightened up.
President Roosevelt put Japanese Americans in concentration camps , listened into the enemies's communications , imposed rationing , made workers undergo security checks , ect.
He was a DEMOCRATE .

I've asked before , Name one American , thrown in jail for speaking his mind by whatever form of communication , or being from the middle east ?
I got no answer .
It's our government and if it starts becoming unbearable , we'll change it , by ballots or bullets , whatever it takes and we don't need any help from anywhere else .

Answer 5

These people absolutely DO NOT know what dictatorship is and the United States of America does even come close to becoming a dictatorship. These idiots have been paying too much attention to the left wing news media, listening to Air America and the rest of these mal-adjusted nut jobs and they have definitely been smoking
those funny cigarettes.

Answer 6

Rome over extended itself and was destroyed largely by decadence, there is a parallel. Not many democratic countries have degenerated into dictatorships but the economic disaster that you may be engineering currently could easily bring about a new rise in Fascism that could lead directly to a dictatorship.

Answer 7

I don't expect that you will understand this but I will try anyway, we have at this moment one party rule. The repuglicans have taken every advantage of this and have allowed things to happen to make the presidency stronger then it should be. Our system of checks and balances has been strained to the max. He is just a military coup away from becoming a full dictatorship. Hopefully that will not happen and the voters will turn out in droves this election to end this very serious and dangerous situation. We need at least one of the houses of congress to be placed in a democratic majority in order to put some checks on this mad man, and restore the checks that are so badly needed.

Answer 8

First, I highly recommend watching the movie V for Vendetta.

I am not aware of any serious changes to our laws or society that would lead us to dictatorship.

However, the attitude of Bush and the Republicans (whom I voted straight ticket for last election) seems to be a bit too conservative for my taste.

I don't like the "with us or against us" attitude. I don't think we are to the level of desperation in the fight against terrorism where that kind of attitude is necessary.

The fact that Bush is staunchly pro 2nd amendment is comforting. The first act by a true dictator will be to disarm the population…see Hitler, Stalin, Mao.

The actions I do not like are the patriot act, the wiretapping etc… I am ok with it to some degree as long as the oversight is with the Judicial branch, not the executive or military.

Answer 9

A dictatorship is a form of government in which absolute power is concentrated in a dictator or a small clique, or a government organization or group in which absolute power is so concentrated, or a despotic state.

Absolute power is now concentrated in a dictator, Bush, and a small clique (of neocons--Rice, Rove, Cheney, and the SOD). The government is controlled by one party, so we have a one-party state dictatorship. Bush does what he wants, including breaking laws and Constitutional principles. Bush and his clique also rule through propaganda and lies (thus following in the footsteps of Franz Joesef Goebels of the Third Reich).

I'd say that the USA now resembles the dictatorship of Papa Doc Duvalier in Haiti from about 1956 to about 1986.

Answer 10

I believe the feeling on this is that Bush by wiretapping Americans making International Calls and holding Prisoners without a trial at Gitmo and claiming them to be enemy combatants (they were arrested in foreign countries) instead of giving them US or Geneva Convention Rights makes him "on the road to resembling a dictatorship". That is their belief. Many disagree.