And that's precisely what's *not* happening in the US as of September 2003.
What is happening is that Americans are *regaining* their sense of governance by the rule of law. Resistance to the Patriot Act, the $87 billion for the Iraq rathole, and the rest of the Bush Bullshit is *increasing,* not decreasing! Even some of the elite is coming around to the idea that it has to restrain the rest. The country is moving *away* from tyranny, not toward it, or at least that's the way it looks at this point.
The American democratic process is getting control over the bastards, fitfully and slowly, but it's doing it. As it did over Jim Crow with the civil rights movement; as it did over post-WW II anti-communist hysteria at Peekskill and the Army vs. McCarthy TV show and the anti-HUAC movement of the '50s; as it has again and again.
Watch and learn, Bill. I assume that at least some of the Australian news media are reporting what's going on here rather accurately. Or you could look carefully at some of the better US media that are available on-line, such as the NY Times or the Washington Post. (It takes some skill and knowledge of the US political scene to dig out the nuggets of real information from the crud surrounding them, but it can be done.) Or better yet, you really ought to come here for an extended visit, and check out the scene first-hand. Nothing like being in the Belly of the Beast to see what Jonah is up to.
(BTW, I don't understand your last sentence in the above-quoted paragraph at all, and I read it about 5 times.)
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org __________________________________ Music, the greatest good that mortals know,
And all of heaven we have below. -- Joseph Addison, A Song for St. Cecilia's Day