Inside the United States

It is often said that the U.S. is a young country. While it's true that "American" as a nationality is very new compared to other nationalities, the U.S. regime, having existed in a continuous, unbroken series of democratic transfers of power since 1776, is relatively old. Of major European and Asian countries, only Britain is older.

It's a remarkable feat, especially considering that prior to WWII, democracy was a rarity, and now it is in some ways the world's default political system, and I think it's obvious that the U.S. was a critical part of that change.

However, I think that the U.S. while still free and certainly not totalitarian, is at least, no longer a leader in either of the two sides of Democratic-Republicanism: An effective electoral and political process, A simple, efficient legal and constitutional process grounded in natural rights. Both of which are superior in the Nordic and some other European countries.

I believe that our history has made us too complacent and trusting of government. I developed politically during the G.W.B. years and was deeply disturbed by the used of the words freedom, liberty, and patriotism.

Americans have become used to these words as part of our identity, but we can't let them be used as Pavlov's bell when they've been redefined to have the opposite of their original meaning.

The switch to using language that is normally applied to the third world, applied to the events that are going on in the US, is jarring. I don't know if anything will come of it but it's fascinating and I can't wait to read the rest of the series.

I would strongly encourage US citizens (and citizens of liberal countries around the world) to continue to press firmly for their civil liberties. But let's not convince ourselves that the situation is (yet) anything close to the genuine authoritarian regimes (or indeed totalitarian regimes) that still abound on this planet.

Anyone else get hijacked to some creepy ad page?