The deployment of the Black-and-Tans was to backfire, and their reputation for brutality and reprisal attacks on civilians and property intensified the conflict in the south, leading to international condemnation. ibid.
Despite the war of independence raging across the island, Unionists in the north continued to lay the foundations for a new state. ibid.
1918: In Ireland, Nationalist demands for independence from Britain had already resulted in an armed rebellion in 1916, and the bloody fallout from radicalised public opinion. While Nationalists wanted to break from centuries of British rule, in the industrial north-east of the island, many Unionists feared the loss of their cultural and economic ties to Britain and the empire. The Road to Partition II
This was a royal visit like no other. The King and Queen had come to a land where a bloody war to win independence from Britain still raged, and a city ravaged by sectarian violence. ibid.
The Irish delegation succumbed to pressure and signed the Treaty. But deeply conflicted by its terms, Collins said that he had in fact signed his own death warrant. ibid.
Just two months later in August 1922 the civil war was to take a dramatic turn and claim its most high profile victim: Michael Collins. ibid.
Nobody knows who their counsellor is. Yes, Prime Minister s2e5: Power to the People, Jim to Bernard, BBC 1986
This money isn’t like the rates; it’s spent on what people actually want it spent on. ibid. Jim to Annie
Once you create genuinely democratic local communities it won’t stop there. ibid. Sir Humphrey to Bernard
Since 1832 we have been gradually excluding the voter from government. ibid. Sir Humphrey to Bernard
No government is going to reform the system that put it into power. ibid. Sir Arnold to Sir Humphrey
I think we’re all agreed that the nation isn’t quite ready for total democracy. ibid. Jim to Sir Humphrey, with political adviser
Many Americans see their country as the world’s moral arbiter … The notion that US citizens enjoy the purest, most untainted, democratic experience the world has to offer. Should the US Be Considered a Democracy? Youtube 15.10, Second Thought 2020
The US is not living up to the standards it sets for the rest of the world. ibid.
The richest three people own more wealth than the bottom one hundred and sixty million Americans. ibid.
Some forty million of its people live in poverty. ibid.
Representatives get to choose their voters; they can draw maps that exclude certain populations or packing in as many of a certain type of voter as possible. That’s part of the reason district maps often look so strange. ibid.
Outright voter suppression … levels that would cast doubt on the legitimacy of our elections if they took place in any other country. ibid.
You measure a democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists. Abbie Hoffman
‘And the government cracks down on this one segment, and they do so with brute force, sending in the stormtroopers essentially, and shutting down the milk plant in its entirety, and confiscating all the milk, regardless of whether or not it’s contaminated.’ Freedom from Choice, Youtube 1.18.14 2014
The California milk raids were not an isolated event. Over the past few years there have been raids all across the US to crack down on the sale of many organic products. ibid.
‘The problem with the US political system is that it revolves around money.’ ibid. Sheila Krumholz
‘People think we live in a free market society. And we don’t. Big government and big business are way too closely aligned today especially in the United States. And this you know is because of lobbying basically. We have cronyism, we don’t have capitalism.’ ibid. Mike Maloney
‘The revolving door is merely proof of the fact that when you give government and its agencies the power to regulate commerce it always, always, leads to corruption.’ ibid. G Edward Griffin
‘This isn’t a representative form of government. They only represent the most powerful and the people that give them the most amount of money.’ ibid. Gerald Celente
America is losing its democracy as our politicians trade their votes for campaign contributions from the corporate lobbies. We have a corporatocracy rather than a democracy … The Wall Street Journal … is the leading print mouthpiece for the corporatocracy … America’s corporatocracy is governed by vested interests rather than moral or economic principles … Americans today by large majorities support public education, Medicare, Social Security, help for the indigent, stronger regulation of the banks, and higher taxation of the rich. The problem is … with the failure of our government to translate American values into American policies. Jeffrey Sachs, Huffington Post 3rd December 2011