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Shades of an American Kristallnacht?
Watching the spectacle of the Republican primaries evokes deep sadness over the unavoidable truth that now, in the wake of Citizens United, it has become totally legal for rich people to run politicians the same way they might run horses or greyhounds. Just like that.
Maybe that’s what provides the eerie, zombie-like atmosphere in politics these days. You really have the sense that most politicians, especially the ones at the top echelons of power, are like old-fashioned Kabbalistic golems, animated out of clay by skilled magicians who can control them from afar.
Of course, that’s been going on for a long time. Remember George Bush, a wind-up man getting remote control instructions through his earphone in the 2004 Presidential debates?
But it’s getting worse and worse. That’s why I can’t stand to watch Gingrich and Santorum and all the other Republican wax model men mouth their lines on the stage these days. You know they’ll say whatever they’re told…whatever they think it will take to win.
Democrats, pay attention! You may be feeling dispirited and grumpy, not much in the mood to get all fired up about yet another election, but meanwhile, the Republicans are rabid to take back the White House. They’ve been busy as hell redistricting and installing those sketchy electronic voting machines all across the country.
It’s very possible that Mr. XY Zombie Republican could seize power in November, with the backing of endlessly deep pockets like the Koch brothers, Big Energy, and Big Finance, and the blessing of the Supreme Court.
What then?
If the Republicans controlled all three houses of government, they could ram through the legislation they’ve been concocting during the past decade or so: legislation powering up the assault on the environment, on health, on social services, destroying any kind of safety net for people, animals or the environment.
They could escalate the war on dissidents who dare to oppose their plans. In short order, the United States could turn into just another big banana republic, with a military-backed regime of elites governing through the indiscriminate use of fear tactics, with violence applied as necessary to keep the people in line.
It happened not so long ago in many countries in Latin America—think Chile, Argentina, Guatemala, El Salvador—in the 1970s, when wealthy politicians wielding military power and complete control over the ballot boxes ruled their countries with iron fists, “disappearing” anyone who might remotely be a threat, including thousands of innocent students. Often the shift from democracy to fascist dictatorship happened literally overnight.
Lately I have been re-reading Margaret Atwood’s marvelous sci-fi novel The Handmaid’s Tale, and finding it chillingly prophetic. In Atwood’s dystopia, environmental catastrophe has rendered the elites infertile, and pushed them to withdraw into gated communities where food shortages are common, and people are regularly hung in the public square to keep everyone fearful and docile.
The narrator remembers how just before her world fell apart, there were signs of repression: books being banned and burned, identity cards being issued and required, mobility restricted, media censored. All of a sudden, one fine morning, it was no longer possible for her and her family to get in their car and drive away to seek safety in Canada. All of a sudden, they were trapped in a nightmare that went quickly from bad to worse.
As in Germany before the Kristallnacht, none of us here in the U.S. wants to believe that anything could happen to destroy our cherished freedoms, our vaunted “American way of life.” We don’t want to admit, even to ourselves, the extent to which our freedoms are already being encroached upon, day by day.
Just last week, for example, there was an outrageous episode in Arizona, where the government declared a whole long list of books to be unsuitable for school use, and went so far as to direct the school librarians and teachers to pull them from the shelves, box them up and put them into deep storage.
Among the authors banned are some of my favorite writers—Gloria Anzaldua, Elizabeth Martinez, Paulo Freire.
Yes, that Paulo Freire, the famous Brazilian educator and free thinker who wrote Pedagogy of the Oppressed, a brilliant analysis of the way that traditional education indoctrinates students into conformity and submission to authority.
Freire proposed that instead of a banking style of education, where knowledge is deposited into students, who are then required to spit it back upon demand, education worth its salt should empower students to think for themselves.
Such a simple idea, but so powerful, too. Education should teach people to think for themselves, and to work with each other to come to consensus on issues of importance to the larger society.
Isn’t that just what the Occupy movements have been trying to do? If Freire were alive, he would be out there in the thick of the Occupy action, inspiring the young to shake off the false animation of Zombiland, and insist on dancing to their own authentic beat.
This reminds me of another beloved science fiction book, A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle, where the sinister IT controls all the inhabitants of a city by forcing them to conform to ITS rhythm. Their hearts pulse to ITS rhythm, their eyes twirl to ITS rhythm, their thoughts are entirely subsumed by IT. The only way to break ITS control is to think for oneself, to be creative, resilient and determined.
The children Meg and Charles Wallace succeed in rescuing their father from the clutches of IT by dint of their own powers of creativity and love, with a little help from some eccentric and freethinking guides.
Will the science fiction we’re living through now have that kind of happy ending?
Oh right, this isn’t science fiction, is it.
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Show All"All of a sudden, one fine morning, it was no longer possible for her and her family to get in their car and drive away to seek safety in Canada."
Forget that, with Chancellor Harper in complete control of Harperland™, formerly known as Canada, there is now a guns 'n bibles Korporate dystopia rapidly forming. Dissidents beware. It would be like jumping from the frying pan into the fire.
Have you read the book, "Harperland" by Lawrence Martin? It is one of the scariest books I have read about Canada, Harper and his minions' dystopic vision for it.
Harper (Dear Leader) is a sociopath at best!
There is only one thing that appears to be wrong in this article: the fact that its author continues to teach at Bard College (or any college). Hundreds like her have already been fired, their professional career permanently destroyed (like mine) for trying to empower their students to think for themselves. Indeed, a dictatorship is around the corner. As Craig Roberts recently said in a CounterPunch article: "Americans in 2012, although only a few are aware, live in a concentration camp that is far better controlled than the one portrayed by George Orwell in 1984."
~ Kanassatego ~
I volunarily gave up lucrative oilpatch consulting to climb mountains for seven years - capital well spent - and long gone.
Now I depend on my wits and my hands, framing houses and the like - at my own pace, in my own way - and I have a seven year old son to support - Julie (Underacanoe), stays home and teaches Michael (Cloudrunner).
You can live on any salary except zero.
Best of luck,
Mike
====
Thanks, Michael, for wishing me good luck. To be honest, it took me several months or so to realize how lucky I am to have been fired by the immoral amerikkan apparatchiks who (which) now run the corporatized American educational system. Free at last! The only thing I regret is that I hadn't been fired--or that I hadn't resigned (like you wisely did)--a few years earlier. Still, when I think about American students, who are unlikely ever to be taught by such rare heroes of American academe as Chomsky or Zinn, I am not as happy as I could be and never will be. But there is only so much one can do. And I did try my best.
- Kanassatego-
You shouldn't be surprised that J B de H teaches at Bard college. More that any other college in the US, Bard prides itself on accepting students who think and are verbal, and encourages their students (as well as the fqculty) to build upon this tradition.
"The establishment" you refer to seems to mean some behind the scenes figures in the Republican Party who are generally in control of what it does, but are being rebelled against by people like Gingrich.
Would you please specify some of the people you claim are part of the establishment, and let us know why they are opposed to Gingrich?
Are you seriously trying to claim that Gingrich, a Washington insider for most of his life, is some kind of popular rebel?
Gingrich is universally regarded by people who have known him up close to be a selfish, corrupt little liar, a cheater, a fraud, a self admiring asshole, and a guy you wouldn't leave alone in your dining room lest he steal the silverware. In the campaign so far he has shown how he can smooth talk the boobs in South Carolina, but that people in the rest of the country are disgusted by his lying, cheating ways, and alarmed by his ready recourse to racism. When cornered, this rat bites, as he did to poor John King, who only asked him to comment on a major news story of the day.
LEEZA: Apt characterization of the Newt. Someone else offered a quote along the lines of, "Newt is an ignorant person's idea of a smart, thinking fellow." I have no idea how he attracts not one wife, but three! It must be the allure of his power, his money, and that some females seem to be OK with a domineering father figure. And speaking of the ladies, I listened to a radio show which explained precisely how Newt is getting around the bad press of abandoning wives while they were ill. Apart from the covert chauvinism, if not misogyny on the part of the fundamentalist Christian sects, the magic word is "Forgiveness," dutifully applied. Were women perceived as full partners in everything from public policy to the bedroom, Newt's particularly selfish betrayals would not be so easily dismissed.
What upsets me most about this creep is his very liberal use of the Truth. He has no problem lying about anything and everything; and like most bullying egotists, figures he wins the argument until someone stronger comes along to win the game of king of the mountain. This Pillsbury Dough-boy wouldn't recognize a SACRED principle, if it hit him between the eyes.
Siouxrose: "Newt is an ignorant person's idea of a smart thinking fellow" is very apt when considering in his victory speech he apparently said said that he had "grandiose ideas." It probably is a fact that many do not really know what grandiose means so "ignorant" as in an "uninformed" person would be more inclined to think Newt is a smart thinking fellow.
For clarity, I think that most here must know that grandiose means:
gran·di·ose [gran-dee-ohs]
–adjective
1. affectedly grand or important; pompous: grandiose words.
2. more complicated or elaborate than necessary; overblown: a grandiose scheme.
3. grand in an imposing or impressive way.
4. Psychiatry. having an exaggerated belief in one's importance, sometimes reaching delusional proportions, and occurring as a common symptom of mental illnesses, as manic disorder (Dictionary.com)
"More of the CD crypto-support of the Democratic Party."
-- rudyspeaks, 11:02am
_____________________
I think so too.
It's not a central message or theme of the article, which is a meditation on the eerie, irrational general complacency and moral apathy that descends on a populace when top-down authoritarian terror is ascendant, and is both personified and transmitted by its political demagogues.
It begins even-handedly enough: "...most politicians, especially the ones at the top echelons of power, are like old-fashioned Kabbalistic golems, animated out of clay by skilled magicians who can control them from afar."
One may quibble with the mystical and fantastic imagery, but at least this observation is compatible with the view that the superficial cover or camouflage of partisan electoral politics masks the deeper truth that the political class is a tool of a trans-partisan power elite or overclass.
But then this even-handedness is undermined by "Democrats, pay attention! You may be feeling dispirited and grumpy,... but... It’s very possible that Mr. XY Zombie Republican could seize power in November..."
The implication is that the Democrats are not themselves "zombies", but a principled, humane, and ethical viable alternative to zombies. They may be down and out-- feeling embattled, misunderstood, underappreciated, intimidated-- but just need a jolt of pep to shake off those blues and come to themselves.
Otherwise, IT stands a good chance of taking over and making ITs victory complete!
As it happens, I've been a fan of Madeleine L'Engle's "A Wrinkle in Time" series since I got that book out of the Philadelphia Free Library's children's section close to fifty years ago. So it's an old friend of mine.
While it's true that the spirit and persona of IT is amenable to rigid, controlling, hypocritical Republican types, the superficially kinder, gentler "IT" of the Democratic Party is just as zombified, soul-sucking, and terroristic.
Put another way, rich people run Democratic politicians exactly the same way they run Republicans-- like "horses or greyhounds".
It's just not so obvious or blatant, because this kind of patronage runs counter to the populist mythos and nominal ideology of the Democrats assiduously cultivated to attract and maintain support from ordinary unprivileged citizens.
The Republican base either approves, or is indifferent to, the fact that its political leaders are servants and allies of moneyed interests. Democrats, especially progressive-liberals, reject this relationship as inherently appalling and inappropriate. So the "money talks-- bullshit walks" relationship is deliberately mediated and submerged; it must proceed with discretion amounting to stealth.
I wish Ms. de Hernandez had stuck with her opening premise, and characterized the sinister IT as the totalitarian, trans-partisan overclass.
If we may indeed be rescued by "powers of creativity and love, with a little help from some eccentric and freethinking guides", those "powers" and "guides" are not to be found among Democrats, even the supposedly "progressive" kind.
The United States is traveling a path which ends with an authoritarian government. And it's minimally democratic institutions are less democratic today than they were a few decades back. But to invoke the image of Kristallnacht does not add anything to a critical analysis of American democracy today. In fact, the image of an American Kristallnacht may well diminish a critical analysis of American democracy. For one thing, this use immediately invokes Goodwin's Law and a Reductio ad Hitlerum. For another thing, the United States today is an empire in decline, not a rising empire like the Third Reich. The United States is more likely to become a military dictatorship than a militaristic political dictatorship. Third, the United States currently lacks a strong fascist movement and a fascist party. It's fascist movements are pissant copies of the historical originals. The Republican Party remains the party of the oligarchs, just like the Democratic Party. In other words, the United States lack -- yes, lacks! -- the left-right polarization that catapulted the Nazi Party to power.
Times are bad. They are even dangerous. But the ascendency of a Hitler is, fortunately, a historically rare event.
You're dead wrong. Do you think fascism/nazism died with Hitler? Absolutely not. If anything it gave sympathizers, conservatives Dem and Repub alike, the perfect template on how NOT to implement them. They learned NOT to have showy leaders, NOT to have blatant political parties. Those are things that can easily be identified and fought against.
They also learned to call everyone ELSE Nazis, thereby taking the use of the word out of meaningful circulation.
Hitler was not an anomaly. That's how the right, and especially the religious, try to paint him. He was the natural extension and logical conclusion of conservative christian power. And now they're completing their decades long goal.
(And btw, it was the Weimar Republic that was analogous to the US, not the Third Reich. WR was in decline just like the US. The Third Reich arose when the right took control as a result.)
I agree, Kane. Wilhelm Reich explored why and how it was, that his own people, an intelligent people fell to Hitler's collective rage. He concluded that societal conditioning (or automatic programming) forces people to give up their natural instincts and instead live robotic lives. Thus their true impulses remain endlessly suppressed, and this leads to a sort of artificial existence. unmoored from their inner Truth, they seek answers, rules, and law through outside authority figures. In other words, the mass psychological path is paved for the political equivalent of a strong father knows best authoritarian leader.
Also of parallel note: This time, instead of aiming the collective hatred for all the reduced standards of living (which Amerika is only beginning to get a taste of) at the Jews, a number of targets are being put in place from the poor Mexican (or South American) immigrants, to the Muslims, to the Black boys living in Ghettos, always the reliably racist fall-back position.
One can always fine deviations in any analogy made between two time periods. What's chilling here are all the ominous parallels! It provides FALSE comfort not to notice them.
"Do you think fascism/nazism died with Hitler?"
Nope. Didn't claim that they did.
"If anything it gave sympathizers, conservatives Dem and Repub alike, the perfect template on how NOT to implement them. They learned NOT to have showy leaders, NOT to have blatant political parties. Those are things that can easily be identified and fought against."
In other words, we'll have little or no direct evidence that a fascist movement or party will take power because, well, THE MAN knows better. Thus, you seem to be claiming that the United States will have a fascist political system but it won't look anything like a fascist political system.
Let's call this the "fascism that dares not speak its name." One does not need to provide evidence showing that a creeping authoritarianism will result in a fascist coup. We only need to intuit it. In fact, we must intuit this existence of this fascism because, well, there wont be direct evidence that it exists.
I think you are offering a conspiracy explanation for this political result. One may reasonably doubt your assertions precisely because they invoke a conspiracy.
The Weimar Republic is not analogous to the United States today. The fact that you made that claim demonstrates that you know little to nothing about German history and the Weimar Republic.
...the ascendency of a Hitler is, fortunately, a historically rare event...
Unfortunately, that is plainly not true - at the same time as Hitler ruled Germany, Russia had Stalin, Italy had Mussolini, Spain had Franco...
Something in the 30's/40's spawned fascist dictators like rabbits - economic collapse would be a good guess - not unlike what we're experiencing right now.
Like so many commenting here - I too cannot believe how fast the wheels fell off the 'rights/freedoms/rule of law' wagon -- bloody hell.
Gardenmorcal:
You said that you are a Green but will vote Dem because the Greens cannot win. I believe that a large number of people voting Green is the best way to move the Dems in a more progressive direction. Also, check out Bill Moyers' program on Crony Capitalism in this issue of CD. That should convince you that we are in the third term of the Bush presidency and voting Dem is counter-productive.
Some excellent postings above that I wish to acknowledge:
To minitrue, Jan 22 2012 - 3:14pm: Hats off to your 2001 far-sightedness!!
To Leezasky, Jan 22 2012 - 4:38pm: sharp observations regarding our glorious military, "the most powerful military force in the history of the world" (YEAH!! Let's give our military a big hand!), as our media never tires of telling us!
This gem in particular:
"The leaders of the US military... have turned the "defense" department into a bottomless money pit, and the "defense" industry into the best example of a state planned economy since the demise of the USSR. They have ruthlessly abused the trust of the American people to extract ever increasing amounts of money to waste on useless "weapons systems" while being unable to protect the nation's largest city and their own headquarters against a bunch of box cutter-wielding fanatics on 9/11."
You got that right about 9/11! 9/11 is the smoking gun about the criminal class that has been ruling this country and is now driving it into the ground.
However, I diverge from Leezasky, Jan 22 2012 - 5:04pm, in that I believe that commenting politically (whether it be in the form of venting one's rage or with the cool means of analysis (I do both)) is extremely important to clarify matters and bring others on board, for one must know what to do and not be alone in order to act politically. Furthermore, Leezasky, I trust, knows
perfectly well that commentary and action are not mutually exclusive.
As for Ms. Browdy de Hernandez, she writes in jbrowdy, Jan 22 2012 - 3:18pm:
"I want to clarify that I agree with those who are saying the Democrats are as scary and zombified as the Repubs. In fact the original version of this piece, on my blog Transition Times, started with an observation about the tremendous disappointment those of us who voted for Obama feel about him now. I don't blame him personally--he's in an impossible situation ..."
This clarification leaves me utterly skeptical; indeed, it does not agree at all with this passage in the article: "Democrats, pay attention! You may be feeling dispirited and grumpy, not much in the mood to get all fired up about yet another election, but meanwhile, the Republicans are rabid to take back the White House."
If one really believes that the Dimwits are cut out of the same corrupt cloth as the Repugnants, countenance the same imperialist foreign policy, have no regard for international law and treaties, are in contempt of the Constitution no less than the Repugs, et cetera, one does not appeal to the Dimwits' attention for anything.
As for the author's exculpation of Obama ("I don't blame him personally"), it only further erodes her credibility as a political analyst, and brings her more into line with the political apologist.
"If the Republicans controlled all three houses of government, they could ram through the legislation they’ve been concocting during the past decade or so: legislation powering up the assault on the environment, on health, on social services, destroying any kind of safety net for people, animals or the environment. "
And in what way does this differ from what the Democrats are going to do if they control all three branches of government? Oh, right, Democrats will just lie and tell us that's not what they're going to do, meanwhile crafting the legislation to do exactly what the Republicans would do, only a little more slowly with a lot more obfuscation thrown in.
"...the Republicans are rabid to take back the White House."
What? When did they lose it?
Those who are organised get the government they want; those who are disorganised get the government they deserve. For many people outside the USA, the USA has behaved as a fascist police state endorsing criminal activity since the US marines invaded the Philippines back in Theodore Roosevelt's time. The same loud cockerel came come home to roost in 2000, though it has long been scratching at your door. Your Constitution will not protect you unless you protect your Constitution.
More Democratic" lesser of two Evils" propaganda. I thought Common Dreams was supposed to be an alternative news source. How come I never see anything about the Green Party. Jill Stein is running a forceful campaign but nothing about heron your site.
The last couple of decades have seen "Green Parties" worldwide.
Reinhold Messner, perhaps the world's best climber, was for a time a member of the Green Party in Germany.
In his book "Antarctica", he recounts that he left the Green Party - never having accomplished a thing.
Perhaps the Green Party idea is as dead as representative democracy - and the time has come for OCCUPY, which is a worldwide movement, to take their shot.
If they don't - I don't know who will.
JFK thought politics the highest calling. Today it is not.
Tomorrow may be different. Mankind is at least as political as religious.
Manysummits
=======
As soon as America is spelled with a "K", I've already been lost because it makes me think the speller is lost in an Abbie Hoffman 60's.
If we had of become more Abbie Hoffman in the 60s, we would not have Barry Obama in the 21st century.
My observation is that the dissatisfied millions seem to have set up many "third parties" who all compete with one another for a larger slice of the small pie available to them. The result is a scattering of the powerless who are ignored by the press and the Big Red One (that pretends to be two).
Suppose, just suppose, that all these disaffected people and groups were to decide to form a coalition party. Instead of fighting each other for prominence, they combined into a single, if diverse, party.
This could have two effects. Conceivably, but unlikely, they could win.
Alternatively, they could be a force large and powerful enough to force the Big Red One to vie for their support, or at least pay serious attention to them.
If they were courted by the Dim half of the BRO, they could insist on human rights legislation, return of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, intact and functioning, to the Halls of Government, removal of the misnamed, illegal and unconstitutional Patriot Act and its successive clones, restoration of habeas corpus and posse comitatus, etc., as the price for support. That would be a start and the coalition could grow in power as the people saw it working. The next election cycle could see a serious three party run for the important offices.
Or, we can keep on bitching about the BRO while we pursue our own special interests. The BRO will continue to ignore us.
I think Occupy is a good place to start, then build on it.
These are just the thoughts of a tired old man, who remembers the United States back to the ending of the Great Depression. Then, we were citizens, not subjects or serfs, and we had dreams, many of which we turned into reality during the twentieth century. Now, in the twenty-first, we have regressed back to the unlamented "Guilded Age," and most of our advances are in the process of being dismantled or crushed by greed and the lust for power of a few.
I see all the young faces of OCCUPY - and I realize I too am past my prime.
I certainly can hardly imagine having the energy of my thirties.
But then - perhaps we have something still to contribute - perhaps, more than we dare believe.
But the future belongs to the young - and they must seize this opportunity.
OCCUPY - stick to your guns. You must be different - we cannot survive your not being different.
Manysummits
========
Excellent points, especially, "I think Occupy is a good place to start, then build on it."
That's my hope and it may be our only hope. For now, Occupy is an educational movement that is focused on illuminating facts and principles but it wisely avoids elevating or endorsing identifiable leaders and the demagoguery they would attract. This is the heart of democracy - each one teach one - and it has worked splendidly for Alcoholics Anonymous and Wikipedia. (Read "The Starfish and The Spider".) As the message spreads, that heart of knowledge and understanding may grow and awaken people to their power. At that point, it may move from the university of the streets to the ultimate battleground: the WORKPLACE, the only place where democracy can effectively confront and restrict oppression.
You and I remember that It worked in the 20th Century. But then the union rank and file started taking their hard-won share of their productivity for granted, stopped paying attention, and awoke in the 21st Century on a downward spiral into the 19th Century.
The author of this column is either terribly naive or terribly misguided. There is no appreciable difference between Democrats and Republicans. A look at Obama's record should show her that.
I intend to exercise my right to vote by voting for a third party candidate or by writing in a name. The 2008 election taught me that as long as we vote for Dems or Repubs, we will never improve American society.
If you're going to cast a write-in vote, why not make it for Rocky Anderson and the Justice Party?
Well, I just typed in a long post that immediately got lost. Guess I'll watch that next time. What a waste of effort.
To summarize: Believe. Don't give up. Sing songs of protest. Fight back. Don't give the bastards the benefit of believing they can win.
Now, see if this one disappears into cyberspace too.
Another post lost. Well that's one way to discourage open commentary. Not sure what's up, but it illustrates what could happen if TPTB intentionally target internet users and disrupt discussion. Not saying that's what happened here, but it is sure discouraging to write detailed posts and have them disappear.
1) A Wrinkle in Time made a big impact on me back in 6th grade, we need more such books for young people.
2) We need more protest songs. I sing em, I write em, they are powerful.
3) Don't ever give the bastards the gift of believing we will not overturn their power. The Occupy movement is already doing so.
I'd say more, but feel snakebit by two lost, long posts.
If you don't speak it (or sing it), no one will hear.
I was singing songs of the 60s (Graham Nash, Neil Young, Steven Stills, Bob Dylan, P.F. Sloan/Barry McGuire, etc.) along with my own stuff last night in a local coffee shop visited primarily by college age students. They were receptive.
"The Times They Are A'Changin'" is 50 years old this year. Food for thought. We need more protest songs; they can help propel and galvanize the movement, even if most radio stations wouldn't play them (unlike the 1960s, when songs like "Ohio" were on the airwaves.)
The Occupy movement IS changing the world. The last thing we need to do is become fatalistic about it at this point and give the Powers That Be a big gift on a silver platter. The battle is just beginning.
...In short order, the United States could turn into just another big banana republic, with a military-backed regime of elites governing through the indiscriminate use of fear tactics, with violence applied as necessary to keep the people in line....!!could!!!???
Is marching to the beat of one's own drummer good enough? Granted it's a necessary step. But is it sufficient? We already have 350 million Merkans marching that way. They THINK they've chosen das kapital on their own accord. They say: "Well, I'm not listening to YOU, I'm marching to my own beat." They THINK it's their own drummer, even though it's not. This is the reality today.
We on the far left have a fix for this. We demand not only that people march to their own drummer but we also notify them about where they should march to. Because we don't want them marching into the shackles of the elites. Like 350 million Merkans did over the past thirty years. So there are two critical pieces here. That people think it though for themselves, and if they don't arrive at solidarity, then please, let's open a debate. Notice how the elites deny us both pieces. And some only mention the one piece, leaving many to fall into the liberal scattering cat trap.
You make me sick, Ms Browdy de Hernandez!
"If the Republicans controlled all three houses of government, they could... "
Well, your Democrats took over and made a lot worse the international aggression, the slide to the totalitarian state, the corporate theft, and their totally paid-for and sold President officially canceled the rule of law by declaring the fascist privilege of low, middle and high justice by personal fiat. In one word, they made much worse the outlaw and fascist character of this country compared to the Bush administration. So what is this "the Republicans could..." nonsense?
Have you no shame, you "Democrats"? Shilling for continued dictatorship just to keep in power?
There is no difference between Twiddledum and Twiddledee, and the most dangerous of the two are those that do not declare upfront, like the "Republicans" do, that they are insane.
...voting is nothing more than a brief chance to register our disgust with the corporate state. It will not alter the configurations of power. The campaign is not worth our emotional, physical or intellectual energy.
Our efforts must be directed toward acts of civil disobedience, to chipping away, through nonviolent protest, at the pillars of established, corporate power. The corporate state is so unfair, so corrupt and so rotten that the institutions tasked with holding it up—the police, the press, the banking system, the civil service and the judiciary—have become vulnerable....chris hedges...
republican=democrat.
i agree somewhat.
we had the coup in 2000. who knows who was involved? i don't. i do know the fix is in - no matter who wins the white house.
my guess is that we won't have anyone head the republican ticket who is on the road now. it wil be jeb bush.
I believe national days of protest should be slated across the United States both before, and on Election Day. Key would be NOT to disrupt voting in any fashion, but to have a clear presence that is a protest against sham elections - as well as the insane amounts of money that get spent and the shilling of the mainstream media for elitist, puppet candidates.
Of course, waiting until election day to protest these sham and criminal campaigns is not enough. But the idea of a general mass protest on election day has occurred to me in the past as being a good idea, and may well occur of its own accord.
Winning elections still matters to individual politicians, and that's why voting still has some hold on their policies.
However, a difference between a Democratic and Republican victory generally makes almost no difference at all to the people who bribe politicians. The method is pretty simple, and one can check it just by looking at major campaign contributors. If any entity with a large pocketbook wants one or another policy in place, they simply contribute to all candidates who might win.
It's business, as per the Corleones. We hear even from some of the best analysts that the financiers "liked" Obama better, and that's why they paid him better. The truth is likely a combination of various factors. They may have known McCain was in their corner already, and no one likes to pay extra if something is in discount. They may have felt McCain could not win, and so merited less money. Obama's camp may have been bothered by the political cost of massively betraying his most natural base. Let's face it: he can pander as fast as he can, but he can't look white, and that matters to a broad section of the Right. So the banks might have had to pay more to float a campaign over the difficulties of having to lie as a Democrat as opposed to as a Republican.
On the other hand, he may have just promised the banks more of what they wanted.
PS. If we're going to mention Kristalnacht - and why not? - it seems like we should include some of the other relevant angles -- probably more relevant angles. What of Obama's claim that he can legally kill people without trial or the renewed claim that the government can hold people without trial?
This may not be as obviously racist as Arizona's recent policies, but then again it may. Have a look at who gets murdered by the US state outside of and away from a war zone. They are Muslims and people associated with Muslims or held to be associated with Muslims -- not terrorists or, for the most part and for the time being, Euro-American-White-Christian-looking leftists.
No evolutionary psychologist or even simple biologist as far as I know would say that Neanderthals were human or homo sapiens in the least, and that's why any mating with them would produce significant problems. This about the Neanderthals taking care of their own, I haven't seen any objective evidence to back that up. But this was always true of modern humans or homo sapiens until at least a dozen or maybe even a half dozen millennnia ago with no violence, let alone war or other confilcts, no rape, or any other psychopathic behavior. Europe or worst case scenario and the Middle East is where all abnormal behavior and all of the worst illnesses originated. They may have spread elae where later after European colonization. Also Europeans were also without violence until at least a dozen millennia ago from 40 millennia ago when Europeans began. All people were naturally non violent; we have been conditioned to be violent by hiearchal systems. We need to look at the systems which created these problems. Not some individual. Truly egalitarian socieites produce the best life for all with rule by all.
Pedagogy of the Oppressed website
http://www.pedagogyoftheoppressed.com/
This is what is contributing to the over-all malaise: people being too lazy, not interested or just plain brainwashed and thus incapable of thinking for themselves - reasoning, questioning, not taking 'no' for an answer, connecting the dots, using plain common sense. Everything seems pre-chewed, pre-thought, pre-planned.
The possibility of repression by the elite is very real and the American public have only themselves to blame if it occurs. To be wilfully unaware or ignorant of Government activities within their own country or in the world at large gives that Government the ability to do its worst without opposition. Think about US actions in the world. How many of these repressive governments as mentioned in this article were in fact placed in power by American money and military support? Don't you think that should have been a wake up call for Americans or did they think their Government would only repress others but not themselves? I'm sorry but I feel that Americans' problems were definitely made in America!
i believe it's a mistake to lay all of this on the laps of republicans. after all, 93 US senators, democrats and republicans voted for the NDAA and obama signed it. the government has been hijacked. neither party is representing the average american citizen. i've been terribly disappointed in obama. in my view, he's essentially continued the bush/cheney agenda. obamas supporters (puppeteers) are essentially the same bankers and global corporations who are funding mitt romney. we're offered a false choice. if ron paul's not on the ballot, i'll be voting for gary johnson the libertarian party candidate.
i say just vote gingrich in and get ready for armageddon. we're all doomed. why prolong it? i'm preparing for a quick enlightenment so i wont get reborn. i dont want to come back and see the future. i've fully realized the 1st 2 nobel truths plus the meaning of meaninglessness.
you ppl r stuck on the 2nd noble truth. you still want and hope. give it up. its very peaceful to not give a damn anymore.
but if i do another circuit thru this birth and rebirth, can i come back as a rock and roll musician?
the republicans made me religious. i now believe in demons.
its not the candidates that are scary; its the demons that cheer for them.
Since the Neocons had their "Reichstag fire" in the 9/11 events, it only seems logical that they would also have a "Kristallnacht". "Shock and Awe" was a 21st Century reenactment of the German Stukas bombing and strafing Polish refugees and leveling Warsaw in 1939. So you see one could go on and on with these analogies.
The other article about 'stupid's following these morons...there's still a huge unfeeling unbelieving uninformed uncaring unaffected as yet, group of people in the US who can't wake up from their drugged pharmaceutical, tv,beer, food and sugar stupor, and those dumbasses are the ones who need to be woke up. There is a faction we cannot convert, the embedded right. But there is a much bigger group we need to wake up.
But as the captain said, save yourselves, cause no one really cares. If you know the ship is sinking, raise the alarm, but make sure you know where your lifeboat is.
Excellent article BTW Jennifer. And read Taylor Caldwell's "Devil's Advocate" for an equally terrifying novel of destruction of the American way of life by corporate Congressionals.