With George Bush in office, once again we have seen an exponential growth in Executive branch power. As the power of government as a whole is limited, and as power in the executive branch increases, power is sucked from the other two. In a system designed to limit the absolute control of government by a serperation of powers, we currently have in administration a group aptly trying to re-write the concept of our government.
During the first four years in office, the Bush Administration enjoyed an American political anomily- total GOP control of the House and the Senate. This came
timely, as soon thereafter came time to appoint THREE Supreme Court justices. Now lets go into review:

The GOP has President Bush in the Executive Branch
The GOP has majority control of both houses in the Legislative Branch
and finally: The GOP has the opportunity to appoint 3 of 9 Supreme Court Justices.

We work in a system of checks and balances- no one person or party gains too much power, as power is divided between three separate branches, each with the power to check the other two. Now, as the GOP gained control of the Executive and Legislative branches, they gain the control to write and enforce laws. The only remaining check is the ability to interpret and determine the constitutionality of those laws. With GOP sympathizers in the Supreme Court, the GOP attains the ability to- write, executive, and determine what laws mean. Is there no difference, then, in a dictatorship (in which one ruling party writes, executes, and interprets laws) and our democracy (in which one party has the ability to write, execute, and interprete laws)? This was only a temporary situation, as our recent votes ousted GOP majority control in both houses of our legislative body. However, laws have been passed, during the time of our "democratic dictatorship", that have expanded the power of the executive branch even further, that have completely missed the eye of the American people. Many of these powers were included in the Patriot Act, which was passed out of fear of a terrorist attack, and holds provisions that expand the power of the executive branch in ways that have nothing to do with combating terrorism (particularly a provision curtailing judicial review of executive actions). I won't get into details of those provisions, as I feel it would benefit the public more greatly to look into it themselves (complete texts of the Patriot Act, although lengthy, are available onlne) to see the laws

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