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Poor Americans need to end decline of democracy in US: Analyst

Tuesday, 05 February 2019 6:38 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 05 February 2019 7:00 PM ]

Abayomi Azikiwe

Americans need rise up against the US government for its attacks on civil liberties and for weakening democracy in the country, says an African American journalist in Detroit.

A new study by a US-based non-governmental group showed that the US was rapidly losing its democratic freedoms.

PressTV-US democracy declining under Trump: Study

American democracy is on decline due to Trump’s constant attacks on democratic values, a new report has warned.

Press TV interviewed African American journalist in Detroit Abyomi Azikiwe about the study. He agreed with it, stating that democratic freedoms in the US had been eroding for quite a while.

"I agree with the study. Real democracy has been declining in the United States for some time now," according to Azikiwe.

Azikiwe criticized the US government for turning the country into a police state in which the freedoms of the people from all walks of society were being restricted more and more as each day passed.

"You have increasing surveillance of peoples from broad spectrum of the political landscape inside the United States.They are unleashing police and security forces, both local, state, as well as federal authorities," said the editor at the Pan-African News Wire.

Azikiwe said in a phone interview with Press TV on Tuesday that people in the US "can be arrested and held without being charged. They can be denied their right to legal council."

He said poor people were the more liable to suffer from the declining democracy.

"The wealthy in the country are not subjected to the same kind of scrutiny and persecution as those among the working class and the poor," he said.

Azikiwe suggest that masses stand up and force the government to stop the diminishing of democratic values.

"It requires a new democratic movement in the United States where people from the lower social echelon decide to gather together and put pressure on the government in order to reverse the current situation," he said.

He said more and more people were starting to understand the need for mobilization due to the demographic shift.

"I believe this is taking place because of the demographic shift in the United States. The population is becoming more people of color," he said.

"It is also a reflection of the changing attitude on the part of a lot of people inside the United States," he concluded.

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