Verily, poor as we are in democracy how can we give of it to the world?...

[Viva_La_Revolution]

Verily, poor as we are in democracy how can we give of it to the world?...a democracy conceived in the military servitude of the masses, in their economic enslavement, and nurtured in their tears and blood, is not democracy at all. It is despotism - the cumulative result of a chain of abuses which, according to that dangerous document, the Declaration of Independence, the people have the right to overthrow...

Emma Goldman 1917
Sent to prison for opposing the draft


"I want to ask the president, ‘Why did you kill my son? What did my son die for?”

Cindy Sheehan 2005
Camped on bush's front stoop, waiting to ask her questions.



I'm proud to be a member of the gender :)

[oscar111]

1. Measuring Democracy: any sociologists know best measures for comparing us

to say, France or Norway?

How abut measures of freedom? I always thought the number of daily newspapers might be a good measure. Or ease of setting up a radio station.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

3. Good question...

I know I've come across some articles discussing this.

Google revealed...

A COMPARISON OF THE U.S. TO OTHER RICH NATIONS

The following statistics are a 1991 comparison of the United States with Northern Europe, Japan and Canada. The comparison is especially revealing because all these nations are more liberal and democratic than we are. Their voter turn-outs are 50 percent higher; their corporate lobbying systems are much less developed; their taxes are higher, their safety nets larger, their societies more equal, their labor unions stronger.

And what may depress many conservatives is that these nations beat us on statistic after statistic after statistic.

http://home.att.net/~Resurgence/8Comparison.htm


and

ESSAY by CHRISTOPHER COOK
European 'Conservatives' stand on left
Paris, France
The mass media in the United States seem obsessed with the notion that Europeans, after several decades of bumbling confusion, are throwing off the chains of socialism and embracing American-style capitalism. It's a nifty headline. But it ain't so, Joe.
Actually, the media propaganda (you gotta call it what it is) is one of the biggest frauds to come along since the prediction that modern technology would provide Americans with more leisure time than they would know how to use. As it turns out, unemployment is not leisure time.

And in Europe, political conservatism is not the same as free-for-all capitalism.

It is true that a year ago the French refused to put the socialists back in power, keeping the conservatives instead, in the form of President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Alan Juppe. And it is true that conservatives are running the governments in England and Germany (the other two European powerhouses). It is true, as well, that the conservatives won a narrow victory in Spain earlier this month, replacing the socialists after 14 years. But that still doesn't mean what the mass media in the U.S. say it means.

more http://www.populist.com/4.96.Cook.html

[oscar111]

4. Viva, 1st source is MAJOR. Wli, hi again

Viva that first source is a landmark. Amazing . Needs wider dissemination. Wolff .. i wonder if he can update it? '91 is a bit dated these days , tho still useful.

=======
Wli, good to see you on the boards again. Been busy lately, hope all is well.

[wli]

2. we're a fascist dictatorship, & that's all we've given to other countries