I was talking politics with a coworker a few days ago and said something that didn't really sink in until after I had said it. I was born in June of 1979, which means that for nearly my entire life minus just 6 months there has been a Bush or a Clinton in the White House. Kind of scares me to think our government is run by such a small group of people and essentially members and associates of two different families. I’m excited about the prospect of this not being the case this fall!There are essentially three styles of government:
1. Autocracy - Single self-appointed ruler.
2. Oligarchy - Small elite segment of society rules.
3. Democracy – Majority rule largely directed by the citizens.
Our current system puts us right between an Oligarchy and a Democracy.
May 22nd, 2008 at 5:53 pm - Edit
I have been considering that a bit myself, having been born in 1980. That in and of itself is the reason that I couldn’t in good faith vote for Hillary. I haven’t even looked at her platform, because I think its time both of those families got out of politics. I think you might have been forgetting the terms of Reagan, but still. Some of the people I work with (mostly the interns) are at that point where they were born at the end of the Reagan era, imagine for them never knowing anything but Clinton or Bush.
Whats even scarrier is to think that if Hillary were to somehow win 2 terms, that would put the Bush Twins and/or Chelsea right about the age necessary to get elected. If we don’t stop the Regime as I like to call it, we could conceivably go at least another 64 years, we could make it 80 if we got Jeb in on the action, swapping back and forth between the two family lines. Could we really call ourselves a democracy at that point? Can we at this point?
And by the way, I think you left out the 4th major form of government.
Theocracy - a form of government in which a ‘god’ or ‘deity’ is recognized as the supreme civil ruler.
I would say that our form of government also has distinct ties to Theocracy in it.