NOUN: A state in which the government exercises rigid and repressive controls over the social, economic, and political life of the people, especially by means of a secret police force.
Not so far off. Remove the secret part and it looks a lot what this country has degenerated into. It hasn't stopped either.
>>Not so far off. Remove the secret part and it looks a lot what this country has degenerated into. It hasn't stopped either.<<
No, "repressive" is the key word. There is a difference between repressive and instrusive. 46,375 regulations on toothpaste is intrusive. Hauling innocent dissidents to a work camp in Fairbanks is repressive. Census forms are intrusive. Electrical currents strapped to your genitals as you are forced to "give up" your correspondents is repressive.
The US government has become very intrusive. That is a bad sign, since repressive governments must first become intrusive. But the US is not repressive. And anyone who publicly proclaims that it is aids and abets our enemies. (fortunately, because we are not a repressive state, there exist no penalties for doing so.)