We didn't get to this point by happenstance. It has been a twenty-four-seven decades-old effort; very single-minded, and brutally effective. And we have finally arrived. The 2012 elections have already been decided in favor of a neo-fascist-controlled Republican party. And it will mark the end of the American experiment with representative democracy.
Of course, eventually people will have to rise up and remove the criminal neo-fascist cabal, but unfortunately it is now going to be much harder to do. And this is the direct result of a complete breakdown of leadership on the Left, the Progressive "movement" and Unions, and an apathetic and dormant populace.
I've been following this trend for a long time, but with more intensity right after 9/11. That same year, after the enactment of the PATRIOT Act on October 26, 2001, it was clear that this day (today) would come. Many people have been sounding the alarm since then, but they have been largely ignored. And now, of course, the consequences cannot be ignored any longer.
Let me start with the 2012 elections. Even though we've had a Democratic president who has been governing as a right-of-center Republican, he's going to lose to a corporatist neo-fascist Republican candidate. The die is cast.
The drive to enact laws specifically designed as voter suppression tools has been brutally effective. The Supreme Court's decision (Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission) to remove restrictions on political spending by corporations will open the floodgates of unlimited corporate money which will support the neo-fascist right wing Republican party, almost exclusively. This also helps explain the massive wins by Republicans and Tea Party politicians during the 2010 mid-term elections.
In addition, the increasingly thuggish behavior of the Republicans towards Obama, and towards the poor and the working class, along with the total control the corporatist neo-fascists have over the U.S. media, will also contribute to an environment filled with intimidation, fear, confusion, and disillusionment; which will contribute to lower voter turnout.
The Neo-Fascist Process
Taking over the government: The corporations took over the government through a system of "legalized" bribery. Corporations finance the politicians with campaign contributions on the front end. On the back end, they ensure their financial interests by providing the politicians, their families and friends with lucrative positions in lobbying, public relations, and other corporate positions once the politicians leave office. As this system of corruption and bribery was perfected, corporations worked diligently to help enact laws (see ALEC exposed) that would help them consolidate their power on the politicians (of both parties). At this point, there is little the citizenry can do. The entire government is a cesspool of corruption, made up of bought-off politicians. It's done.
Weakening the populace: By now a lot of people understand how this happened. The bought-off politicians dismantled the proper function of government, which allowed the ruling class bag-men (i.e. Wall Street) to loot the country's treasury, which plunged the country into an economic depression, which destabilizes cities, counties, states, public education, the job market. This plunges the population into economic despair (by design). And it sets the stage for turning the populace into serfs of the ruling class (pretty standard stuff, when it's looked at in historical terms).
The Neo-Fascist Transition: What I described above is pretty standard stuff, when it comes to the subjugation of people, and the Founding Fathers knew it, and other leaders that came after them and continued the work of helping bring about a "more perfect union," also knew it. That's why you see many references in history, from the Founding Fathers, past presidents, and other leaders, about the fragility of democracy. Remember Benjamin Franklin's "if you can keep it" comment?
The Bill of Rights, and The Constitution were mainly designed to prevent the rise of tyranny. And of course, it applies to government and its relationship with the citizenry.
The wisdom manifested in the individual protections prescribed by the Constitution represents knowledge and experience accumulated during more than 2,000 years. So every single provision, and every single protection (no matter how small), in the Constitution was there for a very important reason.
So because the Constitution is basically designed to prevent the rise of tyranny, the first thing today's incarnation of tyrants would do is to weaken its protections. The incredibly radical U.S. PATRIOT Act, along with many other draconian laws weakening a slew of constitutional protections, is a first step in that effort (of setting the stage for the rise of a neo-fascist state).
The second step is to actually destroy government. That is done by first reclassifying government functions as functions that can be done by the private industry, and then use the bought-off politicians of both parties to help transition those functions to the private sector.
At this point, the stage is set and ready for the implementation of the neo-fascist order.
The New Corporatist Neo-Fascist Order
As it always happens in history, there is a significant segment of the populace who is not cognizant of these transitions. They represent no challenge to the neo-fascist.
But as the neo-fascist continue to turn their horrific and torturous oppressive apparatus on the populace, with the express purpose of subjugating, exploiting and enslaving it, there will eventually be resistance and push-back. So because they have shown that they have been extremely prepared all along as they diligently worked through decades to help bring about their rise, they are also prepared to deal with the uprising.
The curtailment of constitutional protections, the increased privatization of government functions, including the proliferation of for-profit prisons, the concept of "total information awareness," the rise of private security contracting companies, are all tools that will eventually be used to oppress the population.
These tools are being deployed right now by the government, and most people when asked about it may just shrug their shoulders and say the most dangerous statement to the concept of freedom, "if you haven't done anything wrong, then you should have nothing to worry about" if the government has access to all your private information, or they may express some minor concerns about privacy.
But they react like that not knowing that eventually all that power, all those information and surveillance tools will be in the hands of corporate private interests. And it will be used to control, persecute, intimidate, and subjugate people.
The incredibly fast rise of the building of private for-profit prisons across the country will play an important role. They will become "detention centers" which will be used to lock up an increasing number of people, for an increasing number of newly criminalized transgressions.
As the middle class is dismantled with brutal efficiency, the ranks of the poor will swell. The social safety net will also be dismantled, and this will cause many people who are weak, infirm, or not in good health, just to die off (as is starting to happen right now).
In the meantime, poverty will be criminalized (as is happening right now)... As options for the poor and homeless diminish (due to an increasing number of laws criminalizing poverty), they won't be able to find shelter, food, assistance. Even staying under the bridge, or at a park, or on the streets, will be criminalized.
They will eventually find themselves detained in these private for-profit prisons... And eventually they will be exploited by having to provide free labor.
Because of the "total information awareness" this new neo-fascist ruling class will have, they will be able to quash any resistance movement, a priori. They will use tactics like embarrassing and discrediting people on issues related to sex and other seemingly moral transgressions (remember they have access to every single thing you've written online, every picture, every communication). They will use economic pressure, so people will be blacklisted from getting employment. They will use their control of the media as a propaganda tool in order to demonize resistors. They will use quasi-paramilitary right- wing "citizens' groups" to intimidate activists, liberals, progressives.
And for those who decide to take to the streets in protest, they will use a slew of laws to charge them at the slightest transgression. When people cross the line and take more forceful action, instead of traditional criminal charges, they will be charged under draconian laws that will allow terrorism charges... This will be used to intimidate others.
As these things happen, many activists will also find themselves incarcerated or detained in these private for-profit prisons.
The Future
This is where we are heading, folks. It's happening right now, right before our eyes. Normal is no longer. If you think the political process alone is going to do the trick of preventing this from happening, you are in for a big surprise. And that surprise is likely to happen in 2012.
If people understood the gravity of the situation, by now we would have had millions of people taking to the streets protesting, and trying to stop the machinery, and demanding changes. Demanding that the privatization of government function stops. Demanding that the entire for-profit prison system be dismantled. Demanding that Wall Street crooks be prosecuted, and that the banks be broken up, and a temporary nationalization of the banking system. Demanding public financing of elections, and the complete removal of corporate influence in our government.
I for one refuse to accept that this scenario that I describe here will come to be without being challenged, and that the sociopaths trying to take over the country will be defeated. They will be defeated. The question is: at what cost? The longer we wait, the higher the cost.
--------------------------------