What’s needed to stop an American dictatorship?

I understand civics is no longer taught in our local schools. Apparently, this is typical in much of the rest of the country.
Sad Truth About Why Civics Isn’t Taught in Schools Today
Civics Education Testing Only Required In 9 States For High School Graduation: CIRCLE Study | HuffPost
Teach civics in schools — but do it right - The Boston Globe
And where it is taught, it seems to be taught poorly, thanks to the Republican emphasis on testing. Teachers are inclined to teach to the test, instead of trying to impart a real understanding of the significance of those facts. I must confess to being one of those Americans who would have trouble picking out states on a map, although I could probably get them into the right region. Mainly because I never saw much point to it. Understanding basic principles is the important thing. And I'm not sure American ignorance of this is a new thing. Kids back in the day learned a highly ideological "patriotic" version of our history that mythologized presidents and glossed over the unsavory aspects. Some kids today are learning a highly ideological version that does the opposite. In neither case are they being taught to think analytically and critically, as opposed to
spouting back facts.

 

The polarization is alarming, although we've been through periods of it before--right before the Civil War, and during the sixties. One of the classics in political sociology, Political Man, by S.M. Lipset,in 1960 attributed the success of American democracy to the (then) fact that our consensus on basic democratic institutions was so great and our differences so small that people were willing to take the loss of elections in stride, knowing there wouldn't be drastic change and they'd get their chance eventually. Those days seem lost and gone forever.

 

I agree with your assessment of this. It used to be one side or the other would take losses in stride - very well put by you Tishomingo!!! No one was pounding their fists and raging over what were then considered small things. TODAY - it's the opposite. EVERY topic is "the end of civilization as we know it! " And it started in the 1980's - I've been a BIG-TIME follower of politics most of my life and the 80's were the turning point. When Ronald Reagan tore up the legal contracts of air traffic controllers and fired them, that said to ALL workers …………….. "You have NO RIGHTS. Legal contracts mean nothing anymore. You'll do as I say, and as you're TOLD."

That one move threw down the gauntlet to all U.S. workers - no matter what field you worked in. From that day onward - it became "us - vs. - them" and it lingers and festers to this day. But it spread to other topics like wide-open gun ownership / common-sense gun control, abortion rights / pro-life, environmental protection / roll-backs of environmental protections, financial industry regulations that protect EVERY INVESTOR / de-regulate everything & you're on your own, …………….. etc., etc. It's a hard & fast, black or white, NO COMPROMISE type atmosphere these days. It's unbridled HATRED in many instances. Things that in the past would have resulted in just a disagreement while drinking a beer together in a bar ………….. now can result in name-calling, vicious violence, gunfire and death!! How long can ANY society last with this type of hatred and division?

Not much longer, I fear.

 

It’s been legal for several years here WA State....We have corner weed shops now, no big deal.

 

What’s needed to stop an American dictatorship?

Maybe a question to be asked is would many Americans not care if there was a dictatorship if the dictator was on their side?

For me it goes against everything I believe, I’ve never really gone of the idea of a benevolent dictator adhering for to the school of thought that power corrupts. There have to be checks and balances in place and a major one of those is the ability of the community to remove a person from office in a peaceful way.

So I would be opposed even to a left wing dictatorship

But I often get the feeling that many on the right are not so committed to the democratic process if it begins having outcomes that they dislike.

When righting wingers point out that the US is a Republic not a democracy it does rather indicate that they’d be happy in a Republic that didn’t have democratic elements in it.

Then you have the silence many right wingers have in relation to gerrymandering and voter suppression which they don’t seem to condemn on principle but rather in the case of gerrymandering claiming ‘both sides do it’ as if that make it ok and in the case of voter suppression claiming only a desire for stamping out voter fraud even when they have no proof of it taking place and while all experts in the field say it is very insignificant.

You get the feeling there is no principled desire to safeguard the democratic process only a wish to find plausible excuses, however thin, to undermine it.

It raises another question – what has happened to American society that many in it would seem to be actively working against what many (including themselves) claim is one of its major guiding principles - ‘freedom’.

 

He did not say that. Your words again. Nasty peice of work.

 

As I say my fear is that the Democrats will gain power not use the precedents to subvert the system that have happened AND not do anything about them so then later on the Republicans get back in power and just carry on where they left off

That the real shit will just be delayed not stopped

 

I'm not overly impressed with Joe Biden myself and I do have my reservations about him in office, but I'm voting for him. We need to get Trump out of office and put an end to this clusterfuck. I hope Biden will put together a good competent staff who can "Make America Function Again" (MAFA?). So let's elect Joe Biden and hope that our fears aren't realized.

 

No, I don't want to live in the Confederate States offered by Trump and Pence.

 

newo

Oh I really think people should vote for Democrats including Biden but where they can they should support and vote for those in the progressive wing of the Party.

 

I agree, that's how we can bring about change. But real lasting change takes time. Many people won't vote for a progressive candidate, thinking they're too radical. But with time people's thinking changes and what's radical becomes moderate.

 

Democratic candidates need to speak forcefully about what they want to accomplish - not sound like they're asking permission or apologizing for their ideas. Speak with BALLS !!

And speak in terms that all people can understand - not in Ivy-League lawyer-speak. Not everyone is gifted intellectually, or has a huge vocabulary. Speak plainly. Get to the point - not hour-long speeches.

 

I feel like dictatorship is not remotely possible here, for which I am thankful. But the direction of the President's administration certainly has a dictatorial trajectory - even if it only mimics a dictatorship it's still unnerving.

 

When our free press is not interested in covering the doings of the White House, then we have a crisis. When the Press becomes promoter or Agent for the Executive.
This is not happening now.

 

Tis nice to walk to vote, even if it takes a bit of time, so long as the weather is OK.

 

All it takes is rigged elections, like Putin did in Russia.

 

The place the new location is at, it would be hard for a lot of people to walk to. Its in a fairly isolated area, compared to the school voting used to be held at, which is smack dab in the middle of the neighborhood. Another reason the GOP pieces of garbage decided to move the voting location in a primarily Democrat voting area.

 

Well what if the weather is rotten, and it's several miles to the polling place, and you're arthritic or otherwise physically unable to walk far?