No, I think applying it to governments which do not meet the definition of authoritarian makes it meaningless, particularly when there are real authoritarian governments that you can easily contrast to (like for example the one in the country Snowden fled to).
Who exactly are you referring to as an authoritarian? The Obama administration?
The US government as a whole.
That sure seems like stretching the definition of that word to the point where it’s meaningless.
You think applying authoritarianism to a government as a whole is stretching the definition to being meaningless?
Alrighty then.
No, I think applying it to governments which do not meet the definition of authoritarian makes it meaningless, particularly when there are real authoritarian governments that you can easily contrast to (like for example the one in the country Snowden fled to).