Are you a watchdog of your country's democracy?

I’m very sensitive to it. I’ve lived in countries that have no democracy to speak of like pre-perestroika Poland, and a short time in Haiti. I’ve visited in communist East Germany, Cuba, Hungary. The East Bloc governments were especially pernicious in the way they spied on the people, enlisting people who had run afoul of the laws and controlled the citizens in every aspect of their lives.

I’ve seen an insidious trend in the direction toward a plutocratic, surveillance state in the US since the 1970s, the “No Knock Law,” being the first that comes to mind. The militarization of our civilian police departments. The CIA’s illegal espionage operations on college campuses in the 70s. The FBI provocateur plants at peaceful anti-war demonstrations with the explicit purpose of provoking violence in the 1970s. The broad reach of the NSA in tapping US citizen’s overseas phone conversations since the mid 1970s. The evolution of corporate control over our election campaign process, and the recent antidemocratic coup FCC vs. Citizens United. The acceptance of “Lobbying” our lawmakers, which in many cases is no less than out and out bribery to circumvent the will of the people. And now the Patriot Act in all its succeeding incarnations. FISA and its “court,” the FISC. And now, thanks to Edward Snowden, we know about PRISM.

Yes, I watch. I also watch a different America entranced by their TV shows, celebrities, and their ridiculous self absorbtion on Facebook, Twitter, their obsession with voluntarily revealing every detail of their lives onto the net while their democracy is being stolen in broad daylight. It’s beyond me.

I’m all bark and no bite.

Americans have forgotten that freedom isn’t free. Sometimes in our history the currency has been blood. Sometimes it’s been the dedicated purpose of individual’s lives. Unfortunately, we live in an era of ignorant complacency.

Yes, by keeping aware and voting. People undervalue the power of voting and decide to leave all the voting up to the person who will vote for someone because they seem nice, or handsome or simply because they belong to the same party.

@Espiritus_Corvus Great answer, couldn’t agree with you more.

@Espiritus_Corvus: Brilliant. This bears repeating.

“Yes, I watch. I also watch a different America entranced by their TV shows, celebrities, and their ridiculous self absorbtion on Facebook, Twitter, their obsession with voluntarily revealing every detail of their lives onto the net while their democracy is being stolen in broad daylight. It’s beyond me.”

Hide from the government or get off grid and libs call you nuts.
Participate on FB and you’re giving it all away for free.

I am concerned about the country, of course, but it would be nice to actually get truthful information from the government instead of a whistleblower for a change.

I keep up to date on current affairs, I write to the editorial page of my local paper. I express my opinions to my congresspeople even when the are condescending In their replies, I vote,

Anything the government does requires watching. I agree with @Espiritus_Corvus about the steady erosion of our democracy and I see it getting much worse before it gets better. The checks and balance thing doesn’t work when one group has its’ thumb on the scale. In the latest revelation we have an Executive branch being rubberstamped by the Judicial branch while Congress, knowing what is happening, sits by passively.

Congress writes laws that are, in my opinion, unconstitutional. The Executive, not content with this, makes secret interpretations of said law and the Judicial throws out any challenge to the laws that comes from the people.

And all the while, they lie through their teeth to the people they ostensibly represent.

There are calls now, as usual, to “throw the bums out” but that will do absolutely no good without substantial reforms to the system. We need term limits, an end to lobbying (you get a paycheck sir or madam. Anything else is a bribe), removal of all forms of corporate or special interest financing of campaigns, an amendment stating that corporations are not people (and do not belong in our government) and that money is not free speech and, the elimination of the onerous requirements put forth by the Republican and Democratic wings of the Corporate Party to keep others out of politics to create their own little monopoly on governance.

Yep, a lot to overcome but anything less is just pissing in the wind.

Thanks for all your great answers.

I sincerely hope that Edward Snowden is able to hide successfully. It’d be somewhat ironic if he required a totalitarian country like China to do so.