The US isn't a democracy, it's a constitutional republic or a liberal republic. You can also argue it's an oligarchical republic. Democracies don't really exist in practice, countries are too large and people too apathetic for it to function.

Except Switzerland, I think it is, or at least it was until sometime in the '70s.  They had everybody get together to vote on everything.  I could be getting them confused with other small countries, so somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

Quote

CHENEY: I think part of what we did right was to take the fight to the enemy, to treat this as a war, not a law enforcement problem, which is the way these kinds of things have been treated before we arrived...

this is the important quote right here:   "War On [crime]" (as-legal-loophole)




--> the supreme court said, sorry. you can't have your cake and eat it too.

when you declare "War On [crime]" this allows you to use military assets against common criminals..
and it removes the detainees' rights to legal counsel and/or a fair trial..
(cool deal)..
..but now you have to stick to the geneva conventions, because YOU called it a "war".
you can't have it both ways.  



up until now, the president's lawyers had been telling him he COULD have it both ways:
that the detainees had no rights under the civilian legal system, because they were prisoners of a "WAR"..
..but they (ALSO) had no rights under the geneva convention because that only applies to "international" conflicts.  

and this was not a fight between "nations", so really, this was NOT a "war" (hehe)

(the idea was, the "War On [crime]" loophole placed the president in a position not covered by law..
..so he could act like hitler, if he really wanted to, and it would be perfectly "legal".
he would only be bound by his own ethics , which of course, were granted to him by God the American People.  
he was "off the leash", legally speaking.  and would only be judged by God History)

((they were wrong.   now he's guilty of war crimes: "D'OH!"))

Quote (Gal Dukat @ Oct. 01 2006, 8:41 am)

Except Switzerland, I think it is, or at least it was until sometime in the '70s.  They had everybody get together to vote on everything.  I could be getting them confused with other small countries, so somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

IIRC they still do alot of votin on a national scale.