Know your political philosophies

Congress and the White House have continued their inexorable march to the health care sea, completely unencumbered by the desires of the American public. One television commentator suggested that this indicates that we are now living in a dictatorship. I took his point, and yet knew that he was wrong. This is not a dictatorship; it is totalitarianism.

See if these characteristics fit the past year. In totalitarianism, the state recognizes no limits to its authority and tries to regulate every aspect of public and/or private life. It is characterized by one-party rule and an overlay of authoritarianism, where citizens are marginalized and have no say in the decisions that are made by the state.

Often, the single party takes the form of a personality cult. It remains in power thanks to the state-controlled media, which disseminates their official ideology, often defined as a pervasive scheme of values promulgated by institutional means. They seek to restrict open discussion and they do not tolerate criticism, instead attempting to regulate and restrict free speech.