it seems really knee-jerk and unreasonable for him to isolate his successor

The Chief of Police is a bender, and the elite SWAT-type teams are
benders. This is absolutely cause for non-benders to be mistrustful of
the government,

The council, which is what's supposed to make the nation qualify as a
republic, is based on the four nations. This is an inherently
bender-specific structure.

This is true. We've seen no evidence that a diplomatic approach has been tried yet.

You're correct in an extremely technical sense, which is course the best kind of correct, but I would argue that if rule by unelected appointed officials who are chosen by foreign autocracies falls into the definition of "republic" then the definition isn't particularly useful.

Well, lets go down that list.

Uh… yes?

I dunno, @avclub-0fe01c8a5bcc308ca6bca874fd4caaab:disqus  Tenzin doesn't seem distant from the city and its issues at all.

It would be more accurate to say that there COULD BE a lot of weight to them.

The Equalists don't advocate genocide, because they aren't killing anyone.

I'm actually more interested in the Korra/Bolin dynamic.

A minor objection, if I may; there's perfectly good reason for normal
citizens to be training in techniques to be used against benders.

Frankly, I don't even think you can justify calling the place a 'republic.'

What makes the Equalists a massive criminal syndicate in the eyes of the everyday citizen?

By 'those guys' I was of course referring to the Republic City cops, not the Equalists.

It's not clear that the CITY has any say in the governing of the city. I think the only guy on the Council who is FROM the Republic is Tenzin.
Maybe home rule should be talked about before you even get into apportioning seats based on bending and non-bending.

I'd like to note that Hiroshi Sato is, in fact, Daniel Dae Kim.

The problem with the raid is that it validates what Amon's saying and increases his support in the eyes of the populace.

Compared to a real-life police raid, that raid was incredibly gentle and executed with surgical precision and an enormous amount of restraint.

Aang was meant to be raised and trained in isolation. He was denied that
chance, but that represents his understanding of how the Avatar is
supposed to be raised.