American democracy is dead
For decades, people across the world have had a negative view of America. We, however, are taught that America is the leader of the free world and is a beacon of democracy in a world where tyranny is everywhere. While this may have been true for a little while, the American principles of democracy and freedom have long been dead. With Trump being elected for a second time, we can see that American “democracy” is no better than the tyrannical regimes in history.
Trump’s crackdown on immigration has been nothing short of a failure. The tactics that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) uses are parallel to those of the Gestapo in Nazi Germany. ICE waits for people at immigration courts and detains them, violating their right to due process. They claim to be preventing crime, but on multiple occasions have arrested innocent people, including children. In August, ICE deported a four-year-old boy with stage four cancer, even though he was a U.S. citizen.
In authoritarian regimes, there is never really a “one-party” system. Instead, there have always been a couple of opposition parties that are nothing but puppets. They claim to be against the agenda of the sitting president/prime minister, but do nothing about it. The democrats appear to be turning into this party. Instead of making a notable stand for the people of this country, they wear different colors than republicans. They post on social media opposing policies, then submit and vote for republican bills because they include “10 quadrillion dollars” to Israel. Democrats search for compromise in something that would shock most Americans if they actually read into policies instead of blindly following whatever their leader says. As the saying goes, “scratch a liberal, and a fascist bleeds.”
Republicans are also wrong by calling democrats “Marxists” and “radical left communists.” This is the opposite of the truth. In most European countries, the democrats would equate to conservative and center-right-wing parties, while republicans would be considered far-right extremists. There is no left-wing in America because the Red Scare brainwashed an entire nation into believing that free healthcare, free school lunches, and aid for the homeless are equal to a dictatorship, when it is the opposite. This is not to say that all communist nations are good, but that most of them were following authoritarian ideas instead of real communism. It’s not communist to care for the less fortunate; it’s the bare minimum.
A message to government elites: the people want change, no pivots, and no compromises. The modern laws of America are finally being challenged by the people and some politicians, most of whom are socialists. It is becoming clear that the American justice system is being weaponized against the people. Workers, migrants, and even us students. Every decision the government makes may have the ability to jeopardize our future. We cannot let the issues of today ruin our tomorrow.
But how can tyranny be stopped?
The current methods of posting online and wearing colored buttons with slogans on them don’t work. Symbolic gestures mean nothing to the government. Mass protests are the only peaceful way to resist government oppression.
Instead of posting about civil rights on your Instagram story, attend a protest. Putting pressure on elected officials spreads the message. Don’t just call your representatives, show up to their offices and demand something be done. However, it is essential to remain peaceful while protesting; otherwise, the protests will be weaponized against the protesters. Some gatherings may be illegal, and maybe even the police will show up. But remember, not even the government follows its own laws.
B. L. • Sep 12, 2025 at 12:38 pm
I have a lot of time for this opinion. Let’s break this down point by point.
Let’s start with the initial claim “American Democracy is Dead”; Since when was it alive? America is not a democracy; it never has been, and it never should be. It is a constitutional republic that constricts its citizens from the will of the absolute majority in favor of what is morally right, because the absolute majority isn’t always morally right. In 1840, if slavery was put to a nationwide democratic referendum, the majority of people probably would’ve voted to enshrine it into the constitution. Slavery is wrong, and it always was wrong, but people used to think it was right. Heck, there are radical Islamic dictatorships in North Africa who still practice slavery at an even larger raw number than America ever did.
In a western, civilized society, it is easy to recognize what is right and what is wrong. If I were to pull someone random off the street in downtown Chicago and ask them whether they think it’s wrong to imprison someone for their political speech, they’d probably say it is. Yet, in another western country, the UK, we’ve seen thousands of people arrested over the past few years for openly dissenting to their governments disastrous immigration policies. We live in a haven of freedom and liberty, one which stands as the closest example to perfection one can get in an imperfect world. In any other foreign country, bar almost none, if you were to openly criticize the government as vehemently as you have here, you’d be arrested, and maybe even put to death. Humor me, respond to this comment and tell me where you’d rather be. Let’s say you could move your whole family to another country with no complications or barriers, where would you go? You’re perfectly content where you are. If you weren’t, you’d leave. It’s mediocre and plain ignorant to complain about living in a city which has repeatedly been rated the best city to live in (Naperville), in the best country to live in (America). It sounds pompous.
Also, you’re complaining about an administration that is so ineffective it can’t even deport as many people as Obama did by this point in his second term. Trump is as much a threat to democracy as Biden was, and arguably every other president since Ronald Reagan. Trump’s rhetoric is just more violent and rash than theirs was. The Cheney “George W. Bush” administration is solely responsible for actions that directly lead to the deaths of millions of innocent people in the middle east, and yet you probably see them as better than Trump just because Bush was a less provocative speaker. I agree with your assertion that the violation of illegal immigrant’s due process is wrong. Everyone in America is entitled to due process, and for a politician to say any less is to violate their oath of office, which warrants removal from said office. I’m not saying that Trump or Pam Bondi should be removed from office, but I’m also not saying they shouldn’t; that’s for the courts to decide.
I also want to address your comparing Trump and his administration to the Gestapo. As a Jew, this undermining of the suffering of my ancestors, even though it may be unintentional, makes me sick. The American government has never done anything nearly as bad as Hitler did, and to even attempt to insinuate that they have only goes to show an overwhelming lack of knowledge in this area. Spend a little while reading a book about the Holocaust and all the pogroms that proceeded it, not just someones random random anti-Semitic rampage on the internet about how it “wasn’t that bad”.
You also claim that our sending money to Israel is somehow a negative. Israel is the only beacon of democracy and freedom in a sea of evil and savagery. In Israel, every citizen, a quarter of whom are Arab, all receive free healthcare and the right to vote. Women also aren’t forced to shut up, wear head coverings, and have an innumerable amount of children, mostly because Israel isn’t the theocratic hellhole that nearly every country surrounding it is. It is also important to address the claim that Israel is somehow committing genocide against the Arab population in Gaza. Israel is at war with Gaza, and it doesn’t control the land to which it is attacking (obviously). Definitionally, genocide occurs when a government and/or powerful group actively target and attempt to eradicate another group which they dominate. If Israel wanted to kill all the Gazans, they would’ve carpet bombed every square inch of it right when the war started, but they don’t. Anyone who’s watched the Gaza war from an impartial perspective knows that Israel (Netanyahu) has done everything in it’s power to prevent the deaths of Gazan civilians. Gaza is only 141 square miles, yet it is packed with 2 million people. Out of this massive population, only 60,000 people have died in the war. Out of those 60,000, 20,000 were terrorists. That means that the ratio between civilian and terrorist deaths is only 2-1, one of the most humane records in the books. Compared to the acts of Muslim leaders nearby, Netanyahu’s actions make him look worthy of a Nobel! The doctrine of Hamas is nearly identical to that of ISIS, an organization that killed somewhere in the realm of 500,000 Arab Christians just because they were non-Muslims within the last two decades. There is a difference between Hamas and ISIS though, and a markedly important one. Hamas was democratically elected in Gaza after Israel cooperated with the U.N. to finally give them the freedom they’d been begging for for decades back in 2006. When Israel did this, they uprooted 15,000 Jewish people from the city, some of whom had deep roots in the area, and forced them to move to the Israeli mainland. Israel gave the Gazans their freedom, and they’ve since proven that they can’t handle it. October 7th, along with all the other uncivilized barbarism that has been so commonplace in Gaza over the past 15 years proves the need for an outside administration to take control over the region. Israel was fine with holding a stalemate on its border with Gaza, allowing them to live their backward way of life in peace, until they came over and killed 2,000 Israeli citizens. Israel is doing what it has to do to defend itself. The ultimate goal of Hamas is to conquer Israel, and kill every Jew it can in the process. This necessitates the disarming and eradication of Hamas, lest Israel fall. I couldn’t think of a more moral way to spend our taxpayer dollars when it comes to foreign policy. I’m glad that there is bipartisan consensus on this issue here in America.
You’re right about the Democratic and Republican parties both being right-wing, I just disagree with your claim that that is negative. I couldn’t be gladder that nobody with any real power in this country is pushing for Socialism. Socialism and Communism cannot work hand-in-hand with human nature. Both ideologies demand the cessation of any private ownership of anything in favor of total community control. People own things, and they will not accept those things being taken from them. Socialism in particular has lead to a lower quality of life in EVERY COUNTRY where it’s been implemented. Don’t get me started with the whole “that wasn’t real Socialism/Communism” argument, because it’s the closest we can get in a world where leaders will always be greedy and selfish. Both ideologies will always lead to totalitarian dictatorships. This has been proven time and time over. I don’t even need to bring up any examples, because you know exactly what I’m talking about. Socialism and Communism are the most pronounced threats to the human race and its continuous advances present in the modern era. If you want change, then I’m sorry, but the best you can do is demand the overturn of the wretched SCOTUS decision Citizen United vs. FEC. We shouldn’t have bribery in politics.
Finally, please reconsider where you look to find information. I double checked all of my numbers and stats with credible sources. Try to look deeper than the surface level of an issue as contested as this one is in the future. The American system is the best we can get; trying to tear it down will get us nowhere.
Sean Smith • Sep 9, 2025 at 11:10 pm
You realize that we have a 2 party system right? The only parties that don’t benefit are those not apart of the left and right. Also, may I remind you, OBAMA deported MILLIONS more than trump, and unlike ICE, the N@Zi’s would just kill them, we aren’t, and we’re sending them back. It’s not hard to become a legal citizen. Yes we’re the beacon of the free world, but you have to understand that “democracy” as a whole is flawed. Using the words “n@zis” or “fascist” doesn’t prove anything. Same could be said of someone called your a “communist.” It is what it is and it’s happening, nothings gonna change it. Live your life lol and just move forward
Mason Dang • Sep 11, 2025 at 3:59 pm
No, ICE isn’t “sending them back”, they’re often sending migrants foreign prisons thousands of miles away from their countries of origin. For example, recent cases included migrants from Vietnam, Jamaica, Cuba, Yemen, and Laos being arbitrarily sent to prisons in Eswatini. On top of that, you have migrants from Venezuela being shipped to a mega-prison in El-Salvador. Furthermore, as of mid‑2025, roughly 86‑90% of immigrants in ICE detention are held in facilities owned or operated by private companies.
Secondly, have you ever gone through the process of becoming a naturalized citizen or being granted asylum? If not, how could you know that it is ‘easy’? I can tell you, that these processes are long and difficult, often times taking months to years. The reason people are drawing parallels between ICE and Nazi police is because even as immigrants are going through the so called ‘correct channels’, they are still being targeted, sometimes outside courthouses. If you see the increase in family separations, unwarranted arrests, destruction of due process, and arrests at schools and hospitals as ‘normal law enforcement’, then it’s clear you lack empathy for the one’s being targeted by these policies. People don’t say the word fascism because they are simply upset or uncomfortable, they call it out because that is what they are seeing. Yes, it’s true that Obama deported millions. That is similarly indefensible. It’s not about partisan politics, not just because both major parties are complicit, but because recent escalations violate international asylum protections under the 1951 Refugee Convention.
The reason you can sit here and tell us to ‘accept it’, is because you don’t have anything to worry about. But for the rest of us, ignoring the problem and ‘just moving forward’ isn’t an option anymore.
Ezequiel Martinez • Sep 12, 2025 at 1:23 pm
The republicans aren’t even deporting people back to their own countries. They’re trying to get alligator alcatraz built and deport ALL latinos. This is proven by a tweet from part of the Trump administration, along the lines of “The alligators will have 65 million meals!” This isn’t the number of undocumented immigrants in the country; this is the number of Hispanic people registered in the U.S., including children. Also, the places that they’re being sent are very similar to Germany’s concentration camp system.
Sushanth Shanmugam • Sep 8, 2025 at 8:23 am
Please respect all sides of the political spectrum. It is necessary in order to show the due regard to fellow peers that are Republican and support President Donald J. Trump.
Mason Dang • Sep 6, 2025 at 4:09 pm
I agree with most of the points you make here, and I think it’s especially important that you brought up the red scares as part of the reason why there is no American left wing right now. But what I have to push back on is the idea that America was ever a “leader of the free world”, even for a little bit. America was built on stolen land, by enslaved Africans. It’s foreign policy has been about maintaining global hegemony since the beginning. There was no point in time where America was a champion of freedom, in fact the only thing it has championed is being the biggest plight on the global south. Furthermore, I’d like to point out that free lunch in America is a direct result of the Black Panther Party, a militant black power organization. The progress we attribute to that period of time wasn’t won by holding up signs or asking policy makers to be better, because those aren’t “the only ways to resist oppression”. That progress was won by creating alternative solutions where the state had failed to provide for its people, and this is important to remember because even in supposedly better times (such as the Obama era), agents of American hegemony were in the Middle East wiping out populations for oil, in Latin America causing regime changes in the name of containing socialism, and in Africa extracting profit. It’s not that things were okay until Trump came along, it’s that American systems, from politics to economy, were founded on racism and exploitation and continue to function as such. Trump just makes it hard to ignore, because the imperial boomerang has come home.
Ezequiel Martinez • Sep 6, 2025 at 10:57 am
Thank you for writing this!
Aryan • Sep 5, 2025 at 2:13 pm
Honestly, this is sadly true. I feel like America needs a fresh start when it comes to a trustworthy government and policies.