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The only thing standing between democracy and dictatorship in America
Alternet ^ | Feb 6, 2025 | Thom Hartmann

Posted on 02/06/2025 5:41:34 PM PST by where's_the_Outrage?

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To: where's_the_Outrage?

Thom can ESAD.


41 posted on 02/06/2025 11:21:43 PM PST by Enterprise (These people have no honor, no belief, no poetry, no art, no humor, no patriotism.)
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To: yuleeyahoo

“No, this is how unelected bureaucracies have their power smashed and are they put in their proper place.”

Exactly. The bolsheviks and the Nazis just co-opted the existing bureaucracies.


42 posted on 02/07/2025 3:35:20 AM PST by rxh4n1
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To: rxh4n1

” Pastor Niemöller wrote about this in 1930s Germany; to paraphrase: First they came for the government workers…”
That is hilarious. To paraphrase is to make a minor simplification of a phrase while keeping the original spirit and meaning. The original statement was “First they came for the Communists, but I did not say anything because I was not a Communist”. Communists in 1930’s Germany were being rounded up, jailed, and shot. The only government worker who has been shot so far is Donald Trump. Some good, dedicated government workers will likely lose their jobs. But all the employees of Lehman Brothers lost their jobs, because their company failed. All the employees of Arthur Anderson lost their jobs because the CEO drove the company off a cliff. Most of those employees were not involved in the actions that lead to the failure of the company, but they got fired anyway. Life is like that. Getting fired is a routine part of private sector employment. Government employees think they should have permanent guaranteed-for-life employment, whether they do a good job or not. That party is over.


43 posted on 02/07/2025 5:26:47 AM PST by brookwood (51 Intelligence Agents say Russia Influenced The 2024 Election)
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To: where's_the_Outrage?
Let’s be very clear: this is how dictatorships start. A guy who wants to be a dictator always begins by changing how the government works.

You mean like when Obama came in and said he was going to be transformational and then weaponized the CIA and FBI and DOJ? Actually, I kind of agree, Obaba did want to be a tyrant and he did change government to do it. Thank God for President Trump dismantling all those tyrannical tethers.

44 posted on 02/07/2025 5:46:08 AM PST by pepsi_junkie ("We want no Gestapo or Secret Police. F. B. I. is tending in that direction." - Harry S Truman)
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To: where's_the_Outrage?

“Let’s be very clear: this is how dictatorships start.”

Yup, those Nuremberg trials really signaled the start of a dictatorship.


45 posted on 02/07/2025 5:53:26 AM PST by rightwingcrazy (;-,)
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To: where's_the_Outrage?
his coup attempt
Scare quotes incorrectly omitted in the original . . .


46 posted on 02/07/2025 6:05:07 AM PST by conservatism_IS_compassion
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To: where's_the_Outrage?
Another “Democrat” prattling about “our democracy.”

The Constitution was composed and ratified by people who were wise enough to be determined to avoid pure democracy - which is why they defined (Article IV, Section 4)

The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government
their handiwork not as a “democracy” but as a republic.
47 posted on 02/07/2025 6:21:37 AM PST by conservatism_IS_compassion
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To: FlingWingFlyer

Been around for awhile.


48 posted on 02/07/2025 8:09:53 PM PST by sauropod (Make sure Satan has to climb over a lot of Scripture to get to you. John MacArthur Ne supra crepidam)
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To: Jim W N
Certainty not the Leftist totalitarian gov't Biden, Obama, and the Left have created.

And OBTW, America is a REPUBLIC, NOT a "democracy."

Democracy used to be a great word.

It used to refer to a government by the people : rule of the majority.

Now we can't really use that word anymore.

49 posted on 02/07/2025 8:21:00 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
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To: MinorityRepublican

Well the Constitution, the Supreme Law of our Land, refers to America’s governance as a “Republic” (”republican form of gov’t”, Art. VI, Cl. 2). The term “democracy is not in the Constitution.

A republic is a decentralized, representative, limited form of gov’t. Constitutional limitations on gov’t, separation of powers, bicameral legislature, state/local gov’t sovereignty, the electoral college, all support our republican form of governance.

A democracy is “majority rule” and tends towards the tyranny of the majority. Democracy is not a representative form of governance and fails to include the vast areas of decentralized population across our great nation. If we were a democracy, then NY, CA, and FL would decide every national election.

That is why the Left LOVES to call America a “democracy” and is loathe to admit we are a “republic”. The “Democrats” (unlimited gov’t) vs. the “Republicans” (limited/representative gov’t, at least in name).


50 posted on 02/08/2025 9:15:46 AM PST by Jim W N (MAGA by restoring the Gospel of the Grace of Christ (Jude 3) and our Free Constitutional Republic!)
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To: BradyLS

The only thing standing between “democracy” and dictatorship
is the US. Constitution !!!


51 posted on 02/08/2025 9:19:56 AM PST by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: Jim W N
The Left have stolen the words "gay" and "rainbow" from our dictionary.

Democracy - what I am referring to is a system that was invented in ancient Greece which means rule by the majority.

Now the word "democracy" belongs to the Left.

And today it means Orwellian totalitarianism.

52 posted on 02/08/2025 9:21:35 AM PST by MinorityRepublican
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To: MinorityRepublican

Democracy - rule by [the tyranny of] the majority - is distinct from a republic - decentralized representative rule.


53 posted on 02/08/2025 9:36:43 AM PST by Jim W N (MAGA by restoring the Gospel of the Grace of Christ (Jude 3) and our Free Constitutional Republic!)
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