Is the USA still a democratic republic?

[Cory]

Is this still a dumb question?

a. Yes
b. Of course
c. Concern trolls are concerned

[Representative MJM]

The United States is a plutocracy masquerading around as a republic. Luckily, we live in a relatively free plutocracy compared to others seeing as we value our rights, or at least the idea of having them. Therefore, we are not to far gone, and things can easily be changed, movements can gain traction. If we get money out of politics, we can have a republic once again. America is not doomed to live out the rest of its days as a plutocracy until its collapse. This is just a bump in the road, and we have had many worse ones in the past that we have overcome.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

The US political system is basically an arena where countless special interest groups battle it out to grab as many goodies as they can from the the horde of Federal loot plundered from taxpayers. Some leverage votes (democracy), others leverage cash (oligarchy).

Wouldn't leveraging money be a plutocracy?

True. Thinking about it some more, I'd say the US is a combination of democracy, plutocracy, and oligarchy. The former two account for the majority of legislation and programs, but the latter also exists when you consider the minority of policy manufactured by the technocratic elite of policy wonks, think tankers, etc.

So the Roman Republic pretty much. Now what scares me with that comparison is who's gonna be the barbarians from the north to get rid of the USA.

Looks around.  Traditionally, barbarians of the invading sort, are heavily-armed groups who ruthlessly rule their immediate neighbors by fear and violence, threaten the borders, are well-financed and well-equipped, fast to adapt to changes, and are often co-opted by elements of the empire?

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

The United States is extremely dissimilar to the Roman Republic. Extremely dissimilar.

I noticed this in the news this morning:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/12/what-did-the-romans-ever-do-for-us-they-left-a-warning-about-the-virtual-water-trade/

[Antonio the Sixth]

At this point the term "flawed democracy" fully applies.

[The_Doctor]

The United States, economically, remains similar to its founding. A generally capitalist republic, with a lot of power spread around. It's fashionable to deride it as a oligarchy, plutocracy, or what have you, but the United States, relatively to most other nations, is a fairly free capitalist republic. Power is not concentrated in the hands of the richest (just see Mexico and India, as examples of what real power being concentrated in the rich means) and the system diffuses power across many channels.

The major changes in the United States, founding to present day, is the creation of the welfare state. The United States shifted from a self-sufficient basis to a welfare state basis, where people gain benefits based on the taxes of others. But even then so, it's far less of a welfare state than other developed welfare states. Other states (I'm looking at Europe) have failed to navigate the welfare state / capitalistic democracy balance capably, and have floundered. We have serious problems, but we haven't floundered like these nations.

It's still the best choice in the world to be an American, especially an educated college degreed American.

[Murica!]

The United States, economically, remains similar to its founding. A generally capitalist republic, with a lot of power spread around. It's fashionable to deride it as a oligarchy, plutocracy, or what have you, but the United States, relatively to most other nations, is a fairly free capitalist republic. Power is not concentrated in the hands of the richest (just see Mexico and India, as examples of what real power being concentrated in the rich means) and the system diffuses power across many channels.

The major changes in the United States, founding to present day, is the creation of the welfare state. The United States shifted from a self-sufficient basis to a welfare state basis, where people gain benefits based on the taxes of others. But even then so, it's far less of a welfare state than other developed welfare states. Other states (I'm looking at Europe) have failed to navigate the welfare state / capitalistic democracy balance capably, and have floundered. We have serious problems, but we haven't floundered like these nations.

It's still the best choice in the world to be an American, especially an rich white educated college degreed American.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Is this still a dumb question?

a. Yes
b. Of course
c. Concern trolls are concerned

[The_Doctor]

The United States, economically, remains similar to its founding. A generally capitalist republic, with a lot of power spread around. It's fashionable to deride it as a oligarchy, plutocracy, or what have you, but the United States, relatively to most other nations, is a fairly free capitalist republic. Power is not concentrated in the hands of the richest (just see Mexico and India, as examples of what real power being concentrated in the rich means) and the system diffuses power across many channels.

The major changes in the United States, founding to present day, is the creation of the welfare state. The United States shifted from a self-sufficient basis to a welfare state basis, where people gain benefits based on the taxes of others. But even then so, it's far less of a welfare state than other developed welfare states. Other states (I'm looking at Europe) have failed to navigate the welfare state / capitalistic democracy balance capably, and have floundered. We have serious problems, but we haven't floundered like these nations.

It's still the best choice in the world to be an American, especially an rich white educated college degreed American.

No, that's incorrect. The poor still have a better living standard here than most other countries. They also have more economic viability here than other nations. They also have access to community colleges, etc, and other areas to pursue their vocations - at highly cheap prices. There are many avenues to prosperity for many Americans, and while we're in a difficult time, we're also the richest nation on Earth that has a consumption economy (70% of GDP) and the average American's living standards are still higher than they were in 1960, and still higher than many parts of the world.

This liberal need to racialize everything around the mythical white American male (racially, I am not) is annoying. It's over the top, it fails to realize that not everything is class or race based, and that America still objectively is better off than other countries and her own past, in many, many ways.

[The Mikado]

Of course it is. Some random ~20,000 voters in Virginia removed the second-most powerful man in the US Congress from his job and seemingly-inevitable rise to Speakership just this past year and voted in an obscure professor from an obscure university who spent less on his campaign than Cantor spent on steak dinners. That happened six months ago. Powerful people are punished and flushed out of office by voters at rates that would have been literally unbelievable 15 or even 10 years ago. We have a freshman Senate class of 13 this year. 13! That's nearly 40% of the Senate class this year who are freshmen.

[Murica!]

The United States, economically, remains similar to its founding. A generally capitalist republic, with a lot of power spread around. It's fashionable to deride it as a oligarchy, plutocracy, or what have you, but the United States, relatively to most other nations, is a fairly free capitalist republic. Power is not concentrated in the hands of the richest (just see Mexico and India, as examples of what real power being concentrated in the rich means) and the system diffuses power across many channels.

The major changes in the United States, founding to present day, is the creation of the welfare state. The United States shifted from a self-sufficient basis to a welfare state basis, where people gain benefits based on the taxes of others. But even then so, it's far less of a welfare state than other developed welfare states. Other states (I'm looking at Europe) have failed to navigate the welfare state / capitalistic democracy balance capably, and have floundered. We have serious problems, but we haven't floundered like these nations.

It's still the best choice in the world to be an American, especially an rich white educated college degreed American.

No, that's incorrect. The poor still have a better living standard here than most other countries. They also have more economic viability here than other nations. They also have access to community colleges, etc, and other areas to pursue their vocations - at highly cheap prices. There are many avenues to prosperity for many Americans, and while we're in a difficult time, we're also the richest nation on Earth that has a consumption economy (70% of GDP) and the average American's living standards are still higher than they were in 1960, and still higher than many parts of the world.

This liberal need to racialize everything around the mythical white American male (racially, I am not) is annoying. It's over the top, it fails to realize that not everything is class or race based, and that America still objectively is better off than other countries and her own past, in many, many ways.

Liberal?! Really?! How dare you insult me like that!

[justfollowingtheelections]

This country has always been a plutocracy.

[The_Doctor]

The United States, economically, remains similar to its founding. A generally capitalist republic, with a lot of power spread around. It's fashionable to deride it as a oligarchy, plutocracy, or what have you, but the United States, relatively to most other nations, is a fairly free capitalist republic. Power is not concentrated in the hands of the richest (just see Mexico and India, as examples of what real power being concentrated in the rich means) and the system diffuses power across many channels.

The major changes in the United States, founding to present day, is the creation of the welfare state. The United States shifted from a self-sufficient basis to a welfare state basis, where people gain benefits based on the taxes of others. But even then so, it's far less of a welfare state than other developed welfare states. Other states (I'm looking at Europe) have failed to navigate the welfare state / capitalistic democracy balance capably, and have floundered. We have serious problems, but we haven't floundered like these nations.

It's still the best choice in the world to be an American, especially an rich white educated college degreed American.

No, that's incorrect. The poor still have a better living standard here than most other countries. They also have more economic viability here than other nations. They also have access to community colleges, etc, and other areas to pursue their vocations - at highly cheap prices. There are many avenues to prosperity for many Americans, and while we're in a difficult time, we're also the richest nation on Earth that has a consumption economy (70% of GDP) and the average American's living standards are still higher than they were in 1960, and still higher than many parts of the world.

This liberal need to racialize everything around the mythical white American male (racially, I am not) is annoying. It's over the top, it fails to realize that not everything is class or race based, and that America still objectively is better off than other countries and her own past, in many, many ways.

Liberal?! Really?! How dare you insult me like that!

Liberal because your answer was the general liberal answer. The Left has almost always centered their arguments around race or class in terms of identifying this nation's ills. Your answer is the generic liberal shorthand answer.

[pbrower2a]

I was concerned about America becoming a plutocratic oligarchy.

This scares me more:






In view of this graphic, I shudder at how America has gone. Yes, I can register shame at the obscenely-large percentage of Democrats who think it acceptable to threaten the family members of the accused, stick someone in a coffin-sized box, threaten physical or sexual violence (sexual violence against a helpless person is one definition of rape), waterboard someone (although most Americans don't understand what it is), compel unwelcome nudity, slam someone into a wall (good for causing broken bones and cartilage), or deprive someone of sleep (a damaging act that leaves no physical scars but can truly mess a victim up).

Maybe we Americans have had it too soft in that we have never had experiences with a KGB, Stasi, Securitate, Mukhabarat, SAVAK (Iran under the Shah), BOSS (Apartheid-era South Africa), State Research Unit (Uganda under Idi Amin), CDR (Cuba) or DINA (Chile under Pinochet). I wish that someone with experience with life under fear of an unaccountable secret police could tell us what it is like to live in fear. OK, there was the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission that I added to the list of defunct secret police organizations in Wikipedia and explained how it fit among the KGB, Stasi, Mukhabarat, and BOSS -- questionable activity by an unaccountable organization subservient to unaccountable politicians. Mississippi was basically a single-Party dictatorship until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 took effect.

It is the REPUBLICANS who scare me. Maybe the older ones are from the Gerald Ford-Hugh Scott-Charles Percy era in which the Republican Party was a center-right opposition to a center-left Democratic Party.  Torture usually serves a totalitarian, authoritarian, racist, or mad ideology. I can't quite place Idi Amin on the Left-Right spectrum, but he was certainly mad.

Republicans seem to hold rectal "feeding" excessive. Maybe they would also consider whipping, amputations, burnings, and summary executions excessive, too. They show a near-majority (48%) support for putting someone in a coffin-sized box for several days and majority support for every other abominable deed depicted as torture. Every one of those deeds is a crime.

Our political system operates on basically a majority-of-a-majority system on anything not specifically prevented in the Constitution or mandated by a decision of the Supreme Court, and now that Republicans are soon to have a majority in both Houses of Congress, have a majority of Governorships, and have majorities in a majority of State Houses...

[The_Doctor]

Actually the Russians have demonstrated to great effect why threatening the close ones of terrorists seem to work. A hijacker group was sent the testicles of a member of one of the families of the terrorists. In a box. They let the hostages go.

Now, this would be illegal under our laws, so we can't do that. And that's a good thing. I would however - if the relatives consented - create a mock situation where the relatives would seemingly be in danger unless hostages were let go / the terrorists surrendered. A sort of prisoner's dilemma type deal.

Terrorists are inherently cowards. They may be willing to die but they're not willing to let those close to them be in any danger. I'd wager a good sum of money that 80-90% of the same terrorists would behave similarly to the terrorists faced by the Russians in a similar situation.