Deep Thoughts: Invisible Dictatorship 5 (how America is a dictatorship cross-dressed as a democracy) - serial essay by Adam Ash

VI. THE RIGHT TO PROTEST

17. In a democracy, you can protest if you disagree with the government

Now say you don’t run for office, because you don’t like the government, and you don’t want to join them. In fact, you are upset with your government. In a democracy, you have the right to protest. You can organize yourself into a protest movement. You can have a protest rally. You can march in protest.

All well and good. Democracy gives you the right to do these things. But doing these things can be risky. Ask any protester. During the last Republican Convention in New York, there were a lot of protesters, because New York has more Democrats than Republicans. What happened to these protesters? They got arrested. In fact, many New Yorkers who weren’t even protesters, got thrown in jail.

This is what’s supposed to happen to protesters in a dictatorship, but it also happens in a democracy. A democracy tells you that you have the right to protest, but often arrests you when you do.

Many people don’t like protesters because they think they’ll get violent. This is the reason the police arrest protesters, to prevent violence. Protesters can get so worked up, they destroy property. Car owners and storeowners as a rule don’t like protesters, because cars and windows are favorite targets.

Protesters sometimes commit symbolic violence, like burning the US flag. This is a popular pastime all over the world, but in America it’s frowned upon. Congress is always trying to pass a law against it. They give us the right to protest, but they wish we wouldn’t, and actively try their best to stamp out protests, and will defend any police action against protesters, just like dictatorships do.

Do protests work? Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t. The protests against the Vietnam War worked, because they stopped the war. But the protests against the Iraq War didn’t. The whole world marched in protest against the war in Iraq, millions of people all over the planet in the biggest protest in all of human history, but our leaders went to war anyway. They didn’t listen to the people of the world. They acted like dictators.

VII. THE PRESIDENT AS INVISIBLE DICTATOR

18. Who is the dictator?

Since the year 2000, when one of the three minority candidates in US history became president, we’ve had a government that’s startlingly different from the norm -- the most unique administration we’ve ever had, for a number of reasons.
It’s unique because it’s the first administration that’s openly challenged our Constitution, as well as laws promulgated by the US Congress.

It’s unique because it has reneged on international treaties like the Kyoto Protocols and the Geneva Convention with unilateral arrogance.

Its foreign policy is most unique. Previous administrations have acted dictatorially towards other countries in great secrecy, hiding their misdeeds from Americans. For example, we used to mess Latin America around as much as Russia messed around Eastern Europe -- killing the locals, training their army officers in torture, overthrowing their governments at will, and backing the most hideous dictators imaginable. All done in ways that kept the American people innocent of their government’s dark deeds. At the same time, our governments tried to be democratic at home.

The Bush/Cheney administration, on the other hand, has been openly dictatorial towards other countries, with brazen new doctrines like “pre-emptive war” and “extraordinary rendition” (kidnapping suspected terrorists and dumping them in countries where we know they’ll be tortured, sometimes doing it to innocent people). At the same time, they’ve been openly dictatorial in our country, too, with brazen new practices like warrantless domestic spying; classifying people as “enemy combatants” to get around democratic laws of habeas corpus; the president placing himself above the law by signing laws with signing statements, that give him the power to break the law when he wants to; and openly promoting the “unitary executive” -- or as it used to be called, the “imperial presidency.”

No wonder this administration is also unique in that it’s the most divisive presidency of modern times. The country is split down the middle between those who regard George W. Bush as a great president, a worthy successor to Reagan -- and those who think he shouldn’t be allowed to run a toilet concession.

Let’s take a look at this government, which for various reasons has disturbed the balance between “democracy” and “dictatorship” more than any other since our Founding Fathers, whose “democracy” ignored slavery and the genocide of America’s native population.

Back in those days, we were as bad as Russia under Stalin. Maybe worse. Our Founders were a band of elitist land-owners who wrote the Constitution to protect their property as much as to safeguard liberty. In fact, if George Washington hadn’t decided to retire from public life when he did, chances are we would’ve ended up with a succession of kings instead of presidents. It’s a measure of how bizarre our conceptualization works that we’ve romanticized our Founders to the extent we have.

So bear in mind that if you decide to measure the Bush Administration against the ideals of our Founding Fathers, there is not much to measure against. The Founding Fathers were OK with killing Indians and treating Africans like slaves, just as the Bush administration is OK with killing Iraqis and treating Mexicans like slaves.

NEXT WEEK: I'm still honing the next section -- about how Bush exhibits the behavior of a dictator rather than a representative President. Be ready around Wednesday.