We have all been confronted by the increasingly regal/dictatorial predilections of the Bush Court (I think the term "administration" should be reserved for those who actually do think of themselves as presidents). And that got me to thinking:

If Bush came out tomorrow and annointed himself Emperor of America, what percentage of the population would support him unquestioningly, even if he removed the United States Constitution from the National Archives and shredded it on live network TV?

Well, the results of the SRLC can give us a little inkling into this. After all, in this straw poll conducted in Bill Frist's home state, President Bush actually got over 10% of the vote as a write-in candidate. Now, I know that John McCain had obediently encouraged a write-in campaign for Bush (maverick, my ass!), but writing in Bush for 2008 is regardless a sign of tolerance for dictatorship. So we have a baseline of 10% at the SRLC who openly endorse dictatorship. I'll bet that there are a bunch of others there--probably all the Brownback supporters, for instance--that may have voted for their candidate of choice, but would have absolutely no problem with a Bush Empire.

And, of course, the SRLC is comprised of just the politicos. Lots of non-politicos probably wouldn't really care if Bush had a surveillance camera installed in every bedroom in America as long as they were kept safe from terrorists who are just sure to hit their small town in Alabama any day now...yessiree, any day now. So all in all, I would estimate that at least 20% of Republicans would either support or wouldn't mind the concept of a dictatorship.

Kind of puts our nation into focus. Don't we have to start valuing democracy ourselves before we export it at the barrel of an M-16?