Can you be a little more specific?
Well, I don't really want to rehash old discussions, but for example. Many Americans stand by the right to bear arms. Now, apart from whether that itself is a good thing or not, the underlying reason is self-protection from others and the state. Many laws in the States concern property, privacy laws. The government can't just barge into your home, search all your stuff and slam you in handcuffs without cause and proper procedure. Now this is a good thing. It's democratic and all an d it protects the individual from the state.
Now the part that genuinely scares me is the Patriot act type of decisions. And many, many members of the public supporting it. I mean, the CIA goes abroad and just kidnaps a citizen of another nation (little riot a month ago about that German guy), takes him or her back to the States or Gitmo, and just keeps them there for years. No legal support, no due process, no human rights. No fucking nothing.
And that could happen to me as well. To you, to my old dad, to my school teachers. Now, admittedly, since none of us are known terrorists or have connections with terrorist organizations, the chance is slim that the CIA will appear to drag us off to Cuba, however, the problem is that they reserved themselves the right to do so. I mean, we're talking about the self-proclaimed leading nation of "the free world", bastion of democracy, land of the free and brave, and not only does it's government take a walk in the park with basic democratic cornerstones, they're getting away with it to boot.
And yes, honestly, that kinda scares me. I'm thinking "what's next?". Looking at the whole international situation, at how the Bush administration managed to, almost singled-handedly, completely ruin the US' image in the world with their absolutely disastrous foreign policy, the end isn't in sight yet, either.
S O F I said:
I don't think people in the US aren't critical of the government. Where do you get this notion from? If you're alluding to this tazing situation, puff, keco, and the other dudes represent the opinion of the minority in the US. Most people have been very critical of the handling of the situation by the security guards, hence why most likely the charges were dropped against the kid.
True, in this case. And I don't wanna put labels on people but this type of criticism often tends to come from the same corner. But yeah, maybe a bad example. It hooks in on my previous point, though. That many/some people are apparently Ok with their government giving themselves more and more authority in the light of, well, whatever big scarecrow tactic they conjured up now. Whether it be terrorist alert orange or some obnoxious kid asking a nasty question being labeled a "security risk".
One should always ask their government the question:
"Oi...why the fuck you did that like that?"
And never ever ever ever ever just accept what they feed you. They, the established order, always have more to gain (cough, Haliburton, cough, Blackwater security, cough) and more to lose (everything). And they'll slither themselves into some big twists and turns to get out of it.
Hence is why a proper democratic nation with a people that has their heart and brain in the right locations will never trust their government. By basic principle of democracy you can't allow yourself to fully trust them.