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originally posted by: intrepid
originally posted by: xuenchen
Most (if not all) "definitions" seem to be coming from similar Progressive sources.
It's been happening for over 100 years.
That's a pretty convenient statement. Impossible to back up but convenient. That way ANY source that doesn't back up your point of view can be poopooed.
originally posted by: onequestion
Yes, I'm saying it,
Our democracy is a lost cause with an uninformed and politically inactive populace.
Unless good people inform themselves and start taking political action in their local communities and on a larger scale then democracy cant work.
The power brokers and political elite know this. Thats why they're kids are in privately funded school systems, thats why our education system is garbage and im talking across the board all the way to state colleges.
This is why our media is full of propaganda and lies. This is why we are kept in perpetual war.
This is why our economy is ALWAYS on the brink, its to keep us in a perpetual state of survival so we don have the drive to activate.
IT CANT WORK PEOPLE! Stay informed! Constantly inform everyone around you! Find common ground with people instead of pedantically debating individual points and looking for reasons to divide.
originally posted by: xuenchen
originally posted by: JimTSpock
a reply to: xuenchen
Nazis are ultra right wing communists are ultra left wing. That's what I got in school. And right and left meet and become virtually the same at the extremes. Totalitarian states.
True Conservatism has limited government, therefore authority is limited.
And maybe onequestion's assessment of the school system is correct.
Many people are confused with the definitions of "Left / Right".
Naziism and Communism both use very similar programs to achieve "Socialistic" goals.
Even many big corporations use "Left Wing" style programs.
Perhaps it's time to re-assess the spectrum.
Most (if not all) "definitions" seem to be coming from similar Progressive sources.
It's been happening for over 100 years.
originally posted by: LeoStarchild
Interesting. Considering the Constitution, We are a Republic...Not a democracy. The constitution does not even mention 'Democracy' once in the document.
Unless I am wrong, I will wait for a rebuttal.
If you want the most technical term, our country is a constitutionally limited representative democratic republic.
so from the founding or in the mid 1780s until the mid 1830s we referred to America as a Republic. From the 1830s until the modern era we referred to it as a democracy, but then when Joe McArthur came along he started, he and some of his advisors, and Karl Rove really got on this big time, said, "wait a minute, calling this a democracy sounds too much like the Democratic Party. We should call it a Republic because that sounds more like the Republican Party." And so the talking point on right wing radio has been, and Limbaugh's been pushing this for 20 years now, has been that we don't live in a democracy, we live in a republic, and that you shouldn't call it a democracy, it's a republic. And the reason why is because they like the word republic because it sounds like republican and they hate the word democracy because it sounds like democratic. And ... that's the bottom line, we live in a democratic republic.
originally posted by: Klassified
a reply to: JimTSpock
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
Section 4 of the constitution...
"The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion; and on application of the legislature, or of the executive (when the legislature cannot be convened) against domestic violence."
Francis began his career as a preacher, but after several years of service, he was ousted by a congregation that disliked his tendency to describe Jesus as a socialist.
en.wikipedia.org...
Bellamy's account[edit]
In Francis Bellamy's recollection of the creation of the Pledge, he recalled "At the beginning of the nineties patriotism and national feeling was at a low ebb. The patriotic ardor of the Civil War was an old story ... The time was ripe for a reawakening of simple Americanism and the leaders in the new movement rightly felt that patriotic education should begin in the public schools."[12] James Upham "felt that a flag should be on every schoolhouse",[12] so the publication "fostered a plan of selling flags to schools through the children themselves at cost, which was so successful that 25,000 schools acquired flags in first year."[12]
en.wikipedia.org...
originally posted by: intrepid
a reply to: xuenchen
If you check the VAST majority, fascism is considered right wing. Has been since forever. Obfuscation will not change that. You DO know that saying something doesn't make it true, right?
originally posted by: Metallicus
Here is an old newspaper listing for the communist rules for revolution.
Sound familiar?
When The New York Times ran an article on this piece back in 1970, it had already been circulating for about twenty-five years. The Times reported that neither the National Archives, the Library of Congress, nor university libraries had a copy of any such document. When Montana senator Lee Metcalf looked into the issue back then, he checked with the FBI, CIA, and the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee; he found that "exhaustive research" had proved the rules to be "completely spurious," and he declared that "the extreme right also follows rules, one of which is to make maximum use of false, misleading and fear-inspiring quotations."
Nonetheless, numerous members of congress have received copies of the Communist "rules" list from alarmed constituents over the years and, believing that nobody else was yet aware of them, have inserted them into the Congressional Record. This list has also been reproduced in many newspaper columns and letters to the editor. Read more at www.snopes.com...
originally posted by: onequestion
Yes, I'm saying it,
Our democracy is a lost cause with an uninformed and politically inactive populace.
Unless good people inform themselves and start taking political action in their local communities and on a larger scale then democracy cant work.
The power brokers and political elite know this. Thats why they're kids are in privately funded school systems, thats why our education system is garbage and im talking across the board all the way to state colleges.
This is why our media is full of propaganda and lies. This is why we are kept in perpetual war.
This is why our economy is ALWAYS on the brink, its to keep us in a perpetual state of survival so we don have the drive to activate.
IT CANT WORK PEOPLE! Stay informed! Constantly inform everyone around you! Find common ground with people instead of pedantically debating individual points and looking for reasons to divide.
Nowhere is the word "democracy" mentioned in the Declaration of Independence or the U.S. Constitution. How could that be? Our government is a democracy!
a democratically-based government was seen as superior to the monarchies of Europe.
So of course DEMOCRACY is a form of government that gives power to the people. But how, when, and to which people? The answer to those questions changes through history.
The Greeks are famous for practicing DIRECT DEMOCRACY, a system in which citizens meet to discuss all policy, and then make decisions by majority rule.
But how could direct democracy work in a large, diverse population spread over a geographical distance? Generally, the answer has been that it can't. In its place, the AMERICAN FOUNDERS put "indirect" or "representative" democracy. In this system, REPRESENTATIVES are chosen by the people to make decisions for them.
The Founders preferred the term "REPUBLIC" to "democracy" because it described a system they generally preferred: the interests of the peopled were represented by more knowledgeable or wealthier citizens who were responsible to those that elected them. Today we tend to use the terms "republic" and "democracy" interchangeably.
Democracies have come in many shapes and sizes as reflected by the different answers to questions of how, when, and to which people power is given. And although it is not mentioned in the Declaration of Independence nor the Constitution, democracy clearly links to "rule of law" to form a basic principle that profoundly shapes American government.
The following countries or regions are categorised by the Democracy Index 2012 as Full democracy:[65]
Norway
Sweden
Iceland
Denmark
New Zealand
Australia
Switzerland
Canada
Finland
Netherlands
Luxembourg
Austria
Ireland
Germany
Malta
United Kingdom
Czech Republic
Uruguay
Mauritius
South Korea
United States of America
Costa Rica
Japan
Belgium
Spain
The Democracy Index is an index compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit, that measures the state of democracy in 167 countries, of which 166 are sovereign states and 165 are United Nations member states. The index is based on 60 indicators grouped in five different categories: electoral process and pluralism, civil liberties, functioning of government, political participation, and political culture. In addition to a numeric score and a ranking, the index categorizes countries as one of four regime types full democracies, flawed democracies, hybrid regimes and authoritarian regimes.