The Dictator: Is the U.S. an Autocracy?

We are coming up on the 11th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and the annual appraisal of where we are as a nation as a result. Better or worse? Safer or less safe?
Here is Sasha Baron Cohen's take on the subject. He is much like Michael Moore--more likely to use a sledgehammer than a light hand when making a point, even when the later would yield better results. It is not results they are after--it is the message, pure and simple.  So it is with brute force that they say what they mean.

And make no mistake.  Sasha Baron Cohen's movie 'The Dictator' is not a good movie.
But does he make a good point?
His character goes on a diatribe that is markedly out of place in terms of a comedy (even a dark one), and lacks the comedic timing of 'The Daily Show's sharp tongued well aimed barbs.  Here it is.  See what you think.

"Why are you guys so anti-dictator?
Imagine if America was a dictatorship. You could let 1 percent of the people have all the nation’s wealth. You could help your rich friends get richer by cutting their taxes and bailing them out when they gamble and lose. You could ignore the needs of the poor for health care and education. Your media would appear free, but would secretly be controlled by one person and his family. You could wiretap phones. You could torture foreign prisoners. You could have rigged elections. You could lie about why you go to war. You could fill your prisons with one particular racial group, and no one would complain. You could use the media to scare the people into supporting policies that are against their interests."

When does democracy become autocracy?  And are we there?