George Bush's America...Laying the Foundation for Fascism

History has provided us with a very clear picture of the arc a democracy takes when it is being systematically destroyed from within. We watched this happen last September as the military seized power in Thailand, overthrowing the duly elected government.

There are a number of steps to this process, and rather like a recipe, following them will yield the desired result...A fascist state. And the political arc of the Bush administration is laying the foundation for a fascist state.

The first step is to invoke an enemy which is presented as a threat to the a country's very existence. This enemy presented itself to the Bush administration on a silver platter on September 11, 2001. A few short weeks later, with little meaningful debate, a cowed Congress passed the USA PATRIOT Act. Unfortunately the PATRIOT Act had less to do with patriotism or protecting America than it did with concentrating power into the hands of the President.

Next, an extra-judicial prison system is created. Such a system is, initially, populated by "enemies of the people". Since the populace of a given country doesn't really identify with this prison population, they fell safer and generally condone these extra-legal prisons. In the case of the Bush administration, this system is populated by "enemy combatants" at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, Baghram and other as yet undisclosed locations. The caveat here is that President Bush has reserved the right to declare anyone an enemy combatant.

The establishment of a network of paramilitary groups to impose the will of the government under the auspices of restoring civil order. We see this nascent system in the rise of US dependence on PMC's (Private Military Contractors) to provide services, both at home and abroad, generally performed by the military or duly established law enforcement agencies. The deployment of Blackwater Security forces to New Orleans.

Another essential ingredient is establishing a system of internal surveillance to be deployed against a country's population. We saw this with the revelations of Bush ordering a program of warrantless surveillance of US citizens outside the bounds of FISA and Title III. With this program being justified in the name of "national securitry", this cornerstone of dictatorial power may be freely wielded by the government as a blunt weapon to keep dissent in check.

With the infiltration of anti-war groups throughout the country by various government agencies, another stone in the foundation of a fascist state has been firmly set in place by the Bush administration. And with the definition of terrorism under the PATRIOT Act so broad as to include many activities considered as activism or civil disobedience, the definition of "terrorism" eventually will expand to include mere dissent.

The most glaring example of the next ingredient, the arbitrary detention and release of citizens, comes in the form of the Transportation Security Administration's "no-fly" list. This list includes peace activists, college professors, Ted Kennedy, and ordinary citizens. History has shown us that this list of potential enemies of the state only expands ever deeper into the life of the average person.

Threats to those who voice their opposition to government policies or are in positions to obstruct the implementation of increasingly oppressive government action is the next ingredient. We have seen members of the US government penalized for whistle-blowing on the ongoing corruption of US contractors in Iraq, a military lawyers career wrecked for opining that the GITMO detainees be given fair trials, threats against a law firm offering to defend the GITMO detainees pro bono. Most ominous, however was the abortive attempt to subvert the Justice Department by attempting to fire any and all federal prosecutors who place loyalty to the law and the Constitution above loyalty to party and president.

Control of the news media is crucial to any nascent fascist state. This process is underway in America with the increasing consolidation of major news outlets into fewer and fewer hands. But there are to many alternative outlets for that effort to be entirely successful. The alternative, as pointed out by Frank Rich and Sidney Blumenthal, is for the news well to be poisoned by a continuous stream of lies, misinformation, disinformation and dissembling coming from the White House.

Equating dissent with treason is another ingredient to this foul hell-broth. This has been used by the Bush administration soon after 9/11 when, then Attorney General, John Ashcroft gave his "You're either with us or you're with the terrorists" speech before Congress. And with the passage of the Military Commissions act of 2006, Bush now has the power to charge anyone with being an "enemy combatant". It is also worth noting that President Bush can delegate any member of the executive branch to define "enemy combatant" in any way they wish.

Suspending the rule of law while paying lip service to the rule of law is the final ingredient to this noxious brew. With the Posse Comitatus Act essentially gutted by the John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007, President Bush can declare martial law for any number of "crises" other than insurrection or invasion. Even more pernicious is the use of signing statements by President Bush in order to skirt, or outright ignore, the provisions of the laws passed by Congress and he signs into law rather than vetoing them as he should if he is in disagreement with them.

America is not yet fully down the road to a fascist state, and the transition will not be violent, as it was in Mussolini's Italy or Hitler's Germany. It will come on "little cat feet", whilst we are transfixed by the latest episode of "American Idol" or the mos recent stumble by any of a bevy of celebretards.

Thomas Jefferson said it best..."The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." Yet we, as a nation, have become distracted from that ideal and goal. Having been born in freedom we have come to take it for granted that freedom will always be there. It won't. We should allow no president the power the Bush Administration is attempting to gather to the presidency. Such power, in any hands, corrupts the wielder absolutely and will lead this nation down a path to oppression and tyranny.

Sources:

Fascist America, in 10 easy steps

An Examination of Bush Fascism

The End of America: A Letter of Warning To A Young Patriot, By: Naomi Wolf