When was it ever a democracy? Not being snarky. Obviously, it's constitutionally limited republic but what is the inflection point for you? Slavery? War of 1812? Civil War? Women's suffrage? Prohibition? The destruction of the native tribes? WW 1? WW2? Vietnam? Patriot Act? ...
When was it ever a democracy? Not being snarky. Obviously, it's constitutionally limited republic but what is the inflection point for you? Slavery? War of 1812? Civil War? Women's suffrage? Prohibition? The destruction of the native tribes? WW 1? WW2? Vietnam? Patriot Act? ...
Chris Hedges writes about this all the time - the rise of neoliberal capitalism started with the Powell Memo in 1970 and really progressed for 20 years with different institutions that used to provide a counterbalance to corporatism being co-opted. We see this in academia, labor leadership, healthcare monopolies formed and invited Pharma to the party, financialization in the investment/business communities, and the rise of the World Bank and the IMF as the loan shark of the world (800 military bases in 80 countries across the world 2020) - the US has built up these bases over time with the Greater Middle East experiencing the largest post-cold war build with bases in just about every country except Iran. We have seen the Supreme Court move to the right and our legal system imprison thousands of people who turn out to be innocent after the fact, and the war on drugs brought to us by the Reagan administration, forgot to mention that the US is one of the big dealers in the drug trade to fund their dirty war operations (see Alfred McCoy's work)... And then we have the Clinton administration rising from an historically democratic party and morphing to republican lite in most of his policy choices --- leading us to the precipice deregulated, market crashes and pretending he was some great savior to the democratic party by tacking right (still calling him a progressive, but no progressive policy to hang his hat on).
Maybe a better way to put it, with the very clear and sensible colonizing points you make above is that there were still people in position of power that could act to move us in a more democratic path, even in light of our history with the decimation of native people, African slave trade, War of 1812, the elite class of 1920's, and our history with interventions, coups, the Post-WWII intelligence networks allowing Nazis to be secretly relocated within the US and South America (Paperclip and Gladio), and leading up to the assassinations of Evers, JFK, Malcolm X, MLK, RFK, Fred Hampton. By Clinton and Bush jr. the game was overt, in your face and made clear --- hence the Patriot Act and Citizen's United, the fabricated Iraq war intelligence -- these opened up the spigot for more of the theatre of US political spectacle.
When was it ever a democracy? Not being snarky. Obviously, it's constitutionally limited republic but what is the inflection point for you? Slavery? War of 1812? Civil War? Women's suffrage? Prohibition? The destruction of the native tribes? WW 1? WW2? Vietnam? Patriot Act? ...
Chris Hedges writes about this all the time - the rise of neoliberal capitalism started with the Powell Memo in 1970 and really progressed for 20 years with different institutions that used to provide a counterbalance to corporatism being co-opted. We see this in academia, labor leadership, healthcare monopolies formed and invited Pharma to the party, financialization in the investment/business communities, and the rise of the World Bank and the IMF as the loan shark of the world (800 military bases in 80 countries across the world 2020) - the US has built up these bases over time with the Greater Middle East experiencing the largest post-cold war build with bases in just about every country except Iran. We have seen the Supreme Court move to the right and our legal system imprison thousands of people who turn out to be innocent after the fact, and the war on drugs brought to us by the Reagan administration, forgot to mention that the US is one of the big dealers in the drug trade to fund their dirty war operations (see Alfred McCoy's work)... And then we have the Clinton administration rising from an historically democratic party and morphing to republican lite in most of his policy choices --- leading us to the precipice deregulated, market crashes and pretending he was some great savior to the democratic party by tacking right (still calling him a progressive, but no progressive policy to hang his hat on).
Maybe a better way to put it, with the very clear and sensible colonizing points you make above is that there were still people in position of power that could act to move us in a more democratic path, even in light of our history with the decimation of native people, African slave trade, War of 1812, the elite class of 1920's, and our history with interventions, coups, the Post-WWII intelligence networks allowing Nazis to be secretly relocated within the US and South America (Paperclip and Gladio), and leading up to the assassinations of Evers, JFK, Malcolm X, MLK, RFK, Fred Hampton. By Clinton and Bush jr. the game was overt, in your face and made clear --- hence the Patriot Act and Citizen's United, the fabricated Iraq war intelligence -- these opened up the spigot for more of the theatre of US political spectacle.
Yes, America is nothing but poop! That's the idea I got from Matt's article too. Right on point!