America's Managed Democracy?

Last week we considered whether America could become a totalitarian state. There seemed to be a solid mix of views: some people said "yes," America could become a totalitarian state; some people said "no," America could not become a totalitarian state.

Sheldon S. Wolin, a professor of politics at Princeton University argues that America is already a kind of totalitarian state. In his book, Democracy Inc: Managed Democracy and the Specter of Inverted Totalitarianism, Wolin claims that the totalitarian politics practiced in America is different than the totalitarian politics of 1930s and 1940s Italy, Germany, Japan, and Stalin era Soviet Union.

America is a managed democracy [read about it here and here]. What does this mean?

1. A political-religious mythology was created around September 11 that had primarily Christian themes -- an encounter with evil, a loss of innocence, and redemption and salvation of the American national state.

2. An immensely diverse American society was unified around the American Presidency and against a common enemy that makes us insecure -- this form of totalitarian politics is independent of any particular leader, which means that both George W. Bush and Barack Obama are both part of the process.

3. In order to save ourselves from evil, we imagine ourselves morally privileged. So, we take actions that are morally denied to others. For instance, the US government tried Japanese military personnel for war crimes because the Japanese soldiers water boarded prisoners as a torture technique during World War II. At the same time, the Bush administration authorized military personal to use water boarding, yet no one has been arrested or tried for war crimes and in fact the Obama administration has refused to pursue investigations of the Bush administration.

4. The inversion of democracy occurs when the chief executive (the US president) can carry out significant actions associated with totalitarian dictators  -- for instance, when the President can imprison an accused person without due process and sanction the use of torture and assassination and not be held accountable to the rule of law.

5. The resulting managed democracy is a political form in which governments are legitimated by elections, but active democratic politics are managed and diffused. That is, citizens are unable to form into political coalitions outside of normal politics -- citizens are politically docile and politically inactive, but at regular intervals around election season they vote in an election that confers legitimacy on the political process. Until the next election, citizens fade into the background of political decision making and focus primarily on their personal and private lives and desires.

What do you think?

Do you agree with any of the points above? Is America a managed democracy, which is a new kind of totalitarian government? Did September 11 become a mythological day for Americans? Are Americans morally privileged? To save ourselves, are all actions permissible? -- would we sacrifice our most cherished values (e.g. Bill of Rights and the freedoms it guarantees) for security?  Or is there a limit to what we as Americans will do in the name of security?