{"id":44871,"date":"2019-03-29T08:14:49","date_gmt":"2019-03-29T13:14:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=44871"},"modified":"2019-03-29T08:14:56","modified_gmt":"2019-03-29T13:14:56","slug":"toto-i-dont-think-were-in-kansas-anymore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=44871","title":{"rendered":"\u201cToto, I Don\u2019t Think We\u2019re in Kansas Anymore\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cToto, I Don\u2019t Think We\u2019re in Kansas Anymore\u201d<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"\"\/<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Recently, an American colleague commented to me, \u201cWe no longer live in a democracy but a dictatorship disguised as a democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is he correct? Well, a dictatorship may be defined as \u201ca form of government in which absolute authority is exercised by a dictator.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The US today is not be ruled by dictatorship (although, to some, it may well feel that way.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, if that\u2019s the case, what form of rule does exist in the US?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At its formation, the founding fathers argued over whether the United States should be a republic or a democracy. Those founders who later formed the Federalist Party felt that it should be a democracy \u2013 rule by representatives elected by the people. Thomas Jefferson, who created the Democratic Republican Party, argued that it should be a republic \u2013 a state in which the method<\/em> of governance is democracy, but the principle<\/em> of governance is that the rights of the individual are paramount.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He argued that, \u201cDemocracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty one percent can vote away the rights of the other forty nine.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At that time, Benjamin Franklin has been credited as saying, \u201cDemocracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for dinner.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Very well stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Americans still legally vote, and it may well be that the voting is not altogether rigged, the US could be regarded as a democracy. Of course, to be accurate, it could also be defined as a bureaucracy \u2013 rule by officialdom, and\/or a plutocracy \u2013 rule by the very rich. Both of these descriptions are undeniably accurate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cToto, I Don\u2019t Think We\u2019re in Kansas Anymore\u201d Recently, an American colleague commented to me, \u201cWe no longer live in a democracy but a dictatorship disguised as a democracy.\u201d Is he correct? Well, a dictatorship may be defined as \u201ca form of government in which absolute authority is exercised by a dictator.\u201d The US today […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[204,7934,253,6228,24866,2238,4335],"class_list":["post-44871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-liberty","tag-democracy","tag-dictatorship","tag-elections","tag-international-man","tag-mob-rule","tag-plutocracy","tag-republic"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44871"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44872,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44871\/revisions\/44872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}