Is Democracy in trouble?

[samq79]

Yesterday, I read this thread http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x402966 and it really got me thinking.

Is it possible that Democracy - real TRUE democracy - is an impossibility in our great nation. The more that special interest and bureaucracy dictate public policy rather than the constituents, the further we get from the representative democracy on which this country was built. We've gotten to the point that, although the democrats now have a majority in Congress, they're still tiptoeing around the capitol building as if afraid to wake the sleeping monster. The 100th congress is being so careful to make sure they don't step on toes that they're watering down everything they stumped about in the 2006 election. A non-binding resolution opposing a troop surge, hearings on illegal actions by the Attorney General and the FBI. These are all steps in the right direction, to be sure, but Congress needs to find an issue and attack it with the vigor and intensity they had during the campaign.

If we as a country oppose the president's actions in Iraq as much as the polls suggest that we do, you'd think we would have elected democrats to congress to do something about it. Wait...hold on a second...WE DID. Democrats have to stop standing behind the spectre of congress past and get out their ideas. The checks and balances have to be reestablished, and the president has to be told in no uncertain terms that he cannot do anything he wants with complete impunity. The emperor has to be convinced by congress that he is no more than an elected official just like them.

To the republicans who have stood by the democrats in their plans to oppose the bush war plan, I am impressed, but I kind of feel like you're going out on a limb for no reason if your comrades in blue don't get to the point. It's been said before, but the investigation of Clinton didn't kill anyone, but he was still impeached. Bush is at 3000 lives and counting, and he lied to the American people just like Clinton did. Instead of correcting this error, Bush seems blissfully unaware of the loss of life and is instead plowing forward with an insane agenda, which, unchecked, will draw lines in the sand that all the diplomacy in the world cannot undo. It's not for me to judge whether Bush is impeachable, but many people much smarter than me have weighed in on the matter.

So Dems, don't quake in your boots when Cheney tells you that you'll be sorry if you cut off funds for the troops. Don't buy into the propaganda that you are against the troops. You want them home, comfortable and safe with their families. They want to send them into the warzone. You want them to have more than adequate rehabilitation and medical facilities, and they just want to throw around blame for the recent failures, while not worrying about how it gets fixed. I'm not saying that impeachment is the solution, but Congress has to step up and take the reins away from the White House, so we can steer this country away from disaster.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. If the Separation of Powers cannot be restored and respected, that

alone compels a response of "yes".

[whistle]

2. Fascism is what has been pushed on the U.S. since FDR died

....it is only recently mainly under Bush/Cheney that fascism has come out of the closet and openly attacked our democracy

[JanusAscending]

3. In my opinion,

Bush and the repukes are the ones in trouble! Don't they realize that when in 2008, a Democratic President is elected, HE will have the same powers that have been stolen from the Americans? Now if shrub and rove have plans in place to steal the election again, and we let them, then we are definately in BIG trouble. Should he start something with Iran, we will also be in trouble due to Marshall law!WE ARE THE ONES WE'VE BEEN WAITING FOR!!! Time for action instead of reaction. DC edited for grammer

[Doctor_J]

4. It's already dead

There was a glimmer of hope on November 8, but that's been extinguished. Our elections are rigged, the invasion that 60% of the people are against is still in progress, we've spent two generations worth of our tax money on an invasion, the administration is impervious to the rule of law, and the media is an arm of the white house. What exactly is left here that can be called democracy???