What is Democracy? Dictatorship?

Russia has elections that it says are free for its citizens. Russia has its president, its legislature, and its court system. The United States has elections for its president, legislature, and parts of its court system. What has been the difference between Russia and the United States? In the US, there has been an effective system of checks and balances between the three branches of government that prevent any one individual from having too much control or becoming a king.

In the US, there has been freedom of speech and freedom of the press. Those freedoms in Russia are more limited. The Russian state controls much of the press. Navalny was an example of a Russian citizen trying to express differences with the state. His voice was silenced by the government.

This year our president has done many actions that collectively have not been done by a previous president. While some of them have been stopped by a court decision, many have not. He claims to have a mandate from the American people when the results of the 2024 election show that is clearly not the case. His election was one of the closer ones in American history. I also believe that many who voted for him did not imagine he would do all that he has done.

His political party controls both the legislature and the Supreme Court. In my opinion, too many members of his party have been complicit with allowing him to seek to have the control of being a dictator or a king. So the checks and balances that have existed are currently not functioning.

In Russia, too many people have been complicit with allowing their president to be a dictator. Some of the ones that disagree are not willing to risk their lives to have a true democracy. Navalny was willing to risk his life.

In America, will our citizens be willing to stand up to our dictator wannabe? We have had more protections for free speech and free press, but our president is attempting to limit that. The speech and actions of all of us collectively will determine whether we remain a true democracy or whether we become a full-fledged dictatorship. I pray that the citizens of my country will have the strength, the patience and the wisdom to enable us to remain a true democracy. Our president claims to be a Christian, just as Putin claims to be a Christian (Russian Orthodox denomination). I cannot believe that the God that I know and love would think that either of those men are worthy of being president of their country.