The Formation of the American Police State.

Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo Bay and the Patriot Act share one thing in common: they represent the culmination of events that led to the creation of an American police state. In all of the research and publications that have been written about the government response to 9/11, there is a surprising historical disconnect when discussing the oppressive measures that were put into place during the Bush administration, as if measures taken during prior administrations had not happened. In this paper, I propose to examine in detail how the post-9/11 police state was linked to the overall historical trend in post-Revolutionary War America to expand state power at the expense of democracy. It was political movements, which delayed and resisted the expansion of state power during the 19th and 20th centuries. The United States government was able to undermine democratic movements and in so doing, set the stage for the police state, which has appeared in post-9/11 America. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]