Review: Ten Easy Steps To Fascism

There was a diary (or two) written on this article on Daily Kos last week, but I continued work on this post, because I felt it was too important not to discuss further.

An article published in The Guardian (UK) newspaper had a commentary on how the US is slipping into fascism. The author claimed that there are specific steps a government takes on the road to fascism, and that we are well on our way. She claims it can be boiled down into ten steps. Her first warning is that the “Department of Homeland Security” should have tipped us off – but it did not seem to for the majority of Americans.

Step One: Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy

Well, we know when this enemy showed it’s ugly head. The US government officials at the time declared a global war on terror, with no end point and no national boundaries. It was also portrayed as a threat that was out to kill all of us and our way of life. Or - as some of the government’s supporters claimed – they are “out to kill all Christians” and our Christian way of life. (The fact that people of other faiths were also killed on 9/11, rather indiscriminately, escapes them. I can remember a few years back having arguments with some people about whether we were founded as a “Christian” nation or not – nowadays, I just argue that our behavior is not Christian at all. But I digress.) The author had this to say:

It is not that global Islamist terrorism is not a severe danger; of course it is. I am arguing rather that the language used to convey the nature of the threat is different in a country such as Spain - which has also suffered violent terrorist attacks - than it is in America. Spanish citizens know that they face a grave security threat; what we as American citizens believe is that we are potentially threatened with the end of civilisation as we know it. Of course, this makes us more willing to accept restrictions on our freedoms.

And, of course, any possibility that al Qaeda could ruin our country, or end our country, is ridiculous. We are just too big and they are just too small.

Step Two: Create a gulag

The bush/cheney administration certainly did that – in spades! We have Guantanamo, prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan and secret CIA prisons in god-only-knows-where! This author says that the gulag has to be outside the law, where torture will take place. The people sent there are, at first anyway, not Americans and seen by most of the population as criminals or as enemies.

Initially, citizens tend to support the secret prison system; it makes them feel safer and they do not identify with the prisoners. But soon enough, civil society leaders - opposition members, labour activists, clergy and journalists - are arrested and sent there as well.

This author fails to mention the camps being built, or already build, for immigrants. They are in Texas, Nevada, Indiana – and possibly more places. These are reportedly not outside the law, but when you have American born children being imprisoned without charges (and separated from their parents) because their parents broke the law, I would claim that is outside the law.

And we know plenty of torture is going on in the prisons, secret or otherwise, outside the USA. Is making six year olds sleep in a prison cell without their parents torture? These prisons are growing, and they are a threat to all Americans. As regards the lack of fair trials for the people in Guantanamo, she said this:

By the way, the establishment of military tribunals that deny prisoners due process tends to come early on in a fascist shift. Mussolini and Stalin set up such tribunals. On April 24 1934, the Nazis, too, set up the People's Court, which also bypassed the judicial system: prisoners were held indefinitely, often in isolation, and tortured, without being charged with offences, and were subjected to show trials. Eventually, the Special Courts became a parallel system that put pressure on the regular courts to abandon the rule of law in favour of Nazi ideology when making decisions.

Step Three: Develop a thug caste

This is where Blackwater comes in. And while they originally were employed for overseas operations, they have been employed here at home also. In Iraq, they are immune to prosecution, thanks to Bremmer’s rules. But here is another example:

Thugs in America? Groups of angry young Republican men, dressed in identical shirts and trousers, menaced poll workers counting the votes in Florida in 2000. If you are reading history, you can imagine that there can be a need for "public order" on the next election day. Say there are protests, or a threat, on the day of an election; history would not rule out the presence of a private security firm at a polling station "to restore public order".

Step Four: Set up an internal surveillance system

This is where the Patriot Act surely does shine. And those illegal wiretaps, monitoring of international banking activity, reading emails, - yes, we are under scrutiny by the state. Now, when all this starting becoming public knowledge, I would proudly proclaim that I hope they read every darn email I write, listen to every phone call, read every piece of mail. And that’s because I hope they might learn something. But it was also easy to see where this could go – even if the “surveillance” teams were pure and error-free. It means blackmail to any political (or otherwise) opponent. It means the opportunity for the thug caste to throw their weight around when you say something they don’t like.

Now, if EVERYTHING in my life were known to everyone, I would have nothing to fear about being accused of criminal activity. But, what if they get partial information or leave something out? What if they make mistakes? What if that Spanish robo-call I got today was from a terrorist cell? (It was a wrong number, probably because I made a few wrong numbers to Spanish speakers myself – those area codes are so important!) Or maybe it was from an immigration smuggling cell? And that wrong number was followed by a call from someone at the DCCC – not a wrong number, but they hardly know me and just guessed that I might be involved in a legal protest this weekend (they guessed right!).

Well, I am sure you all can see this is a problem. A HUGE PROBLEM.

Step Five: Harass citizens' groups

Yeap, the next step is to go after legal citizen’s groups, like the pacifist Quakers, for example. At a training in DC in 2005, it amazed me that the people running the group claimed that there was likely a police infiltrator among us. I immediately wanted to play “out the cop” but the leaders of this group thought that would be a poor idea. I still think it would have been fun. But the serious side of this: the definition of what constitutes a “terrorist” group grows to include any group the ones in power don’t particularly like – no matter if they are terrorists or not. I think they target the Quakers not because they are pacifists, but because they just are not materialistic. They just are not part of that “go shopping” crowd.

Step Six: Engage in arbitrary detention and release

It starts with a list – and then protestors or dissidents are subject to detention. We already have the “list” of people who are considered “security risks”. And, once you are on this secret list, you almost never get off. Often, you never find out why you ended up on this list.

And arbitrary detention and release has already happened to James Yee. And Brandon Mayfield.

Step Seven: Target key individuals

Threaten civil servants, artists and academics with job loss if they don't toe the line. Mussolini went after the rectors of state universities who did not conform to the fascist line; so did Joseph Goebbels, who purged academics who were not pro-Nazi; so did Chile's Augusto Pinochet; so does the Chinese communist Politburo in punishing pro-democracy students and professors.

Academe is a tinderbox of activism, so those seeking a fascist shift punish academics and students with professional loss if they do not "coordinate", in Goebbels' term, ideologically. Since civil servants are the sector of society most vulnerable to being fired by a given regime, they are also a group that fascists typically "coordinate" early on: the Reich Law for the Re-establishment of a Professional Civil Service was passed on April 7 1933.

The bushies have already put pressure on academics, military lawyers, US attorneys – or outright fired them. Then there is Joe Wilson – and the Dixie Chicks. Per this author:

Elsewhere, a CIA contract worker who said in a closed blog that "waterboarding is torture" was stripped of the security clearance she needed in order to do her job.

Step Eight: Control the press

Quite frankly, I thought this was hardly necessary. They are such stenographers, I doubt if more needs to be done. But, I was wrong -at least for those outside the typical corporate media.

The Committee to Protect Journalists says arrests of US journalists are at an all-time high: Josh Wolf (no relation), a blogger in San Francisco, has been put in jail for a year for refusing to turn over video of an anti-war demonstration; Homeland Security brought a criminal complaint against reporter Greg Palast, claiming he threatened "critical infrastructure" when he and a TV producer were filming victims of Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana. Palast had written a bestseller critical of the Bush administration.

And this is nothing compared to the suppression of the press in Iraq. Both AP and CBS had staff imprisoned, without charges, in Iraq. And then there is the “fake news” department – illegal here in the states (but has still happened), but acceptable in Iraq. And then there are the lies upon lies upon lies upon lies………….. so no one can easily figure out what the truth is.

Step Nine: Dissent equals treason

We already have this here. Plenty of examples of the rightwing noise machine calling people traitors to our country because they disagree with them. More seriously, sometimes they issue death threats. Even more seriously, any one of us could be labeled an “enemy combatant” by the bush administration.

And here is where the circle closes: most Americans do not realise that since September of last year - when Congress wrongly, foolishly, passed the Military Commissions Act of 2006 - the president has the power to call any US citizen an "enemy combatant". He has the power to define what "enemy combatant" means. The president can also delegate to anyone he chooses in the executive branch the right to define "enemy combatant" any way he or she wants and then seize Americans accordingly.

Even if you or I are American citizens, even if we turn out to be completely innocent of what he has accused us of doing, he has the power to have us seized as we are changing planes at Newark tomorrow, or have us taken with a knock on the door; ship you or me to a navy brig; and keep you or me in isolation, possibly for months, while awaiting trial.

And the day may come where we don’t get a trial.

Most Americans surely do not get this yet. No wonder: it is hard to believe, even though it is true. In every closing society, at a certain point there are some high-profile arrests - usually of opposition leaders, clergy and journalists. Then everything goes quiet. After those arrests, there are still newspapers, courts, TV and radio, and the facades of a civil society. There just isn't real dissent. There just isn't freedom. If you look at history, just before those arrests is where we are now.

Step Ten: Suspend the rule of law

The John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007 gave the president new powers over the national guard. This means that in a national emergency - which the president now has enhanced powers to declare - he can send Michigan's militia to enforce a state of emergency that he has declared in Oregon, over the objections of the state's governor and its citizens.

….... Beyond actual insurrection, the president may now use military troops as a domestic police force in response to a natural disaster, a disease outbreak, terrorist attack or any 'other condition'."

And this is where it gets real scary. Things look normal, but freedom has slipped away.

Something has changed profoundly that weakens us unprecedentedly: our democratic traditions, independent judiciary and free press do their work today in a context in which we are "at war" in a "long war" - a war without end, on a battlefield described as the globe, in a context that gives the president - without US citizens realising it yet - the power over US citizens of freedom or long solitary incarceration, on his say-so alone. That means a hollowness has been expanding under the foundation of all these still- free-looking institutions - and this foundation can give way under certain kinds of pressure. To prevent such an outcome, we have to think about the "what ifs".

What if….. what if……

From the article “Working for the Clampdown” further verification of the John Warner Defense Authorization Act and how it can suspend the rule of law:

Section 1076 of the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2007 changed the name of the key provision in the statute book from “Insurrection Act” to “Enforcement of the Laws to Restore Public Order Act.” The Insurrection Act of 1807 stated that the president could deploy troops within the United States only “to suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy.” The new law expands the list to include “natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident, or other condition”—and such “condition” is not defined or limited.

But it just “slipped in” with support from both Republicans and Democrats. But there were some critics:

Every governor in the country opposed the changes, and the National Governors Association repeatedly and loudly objected. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, warned on Sept. 19 that “we certainly do not need to make it easier for Presidents to declare martial law,” but his alarm got no response. Ten days later, he commented in the Congressional Record: “Using the military for law enforcement goes against one of the founding tenets of our democracy.” Leahy further condemned the process, declaring that it “was just slipped in the defense bill as a rider with little study. Other congressional committees with jurisdiction over these matters had no chance to comment, let alone hold hearings on, these proposals.”

What does “martial law” really mean? Again, from that same article, a definition:

“Martial law” is a euphemism for military dictatorship. When foreign democracies are overthrown and a junta establishes martial law, Americans usually recognize that a fundamental change has occurred. Perhaps some conservatives believe that the only change when martial law is declared is that people are no longer read their Miranda rights when they are locked away. “Martial law” means obey soldiers’ commands or be shot. The abuses of military rule in southern states during Reconstruction were legendary, but they have been swept under the historical rug.

So, under this president, he ignores laws he does not like by issuing ‘signing statements’. He sets up free speech ‘zones’. He makes up reasons to follow his policy of preemptive war and trashes both the Nuremberg Principles and the US Constitution along the way. He decides the Geneva Conventions are to be ignored and his Attorney General says they are “quaint”. This president is certainly not above declaring “martial law” on some pretext if he is capable of declaring war on a pretext.

Senator Leahy is fighting to overturn Section 1076 but getting little traction. The DC establishment pretends this new power will not be abused, in spite of the massive evidence that this particular administration is not above abusing anything and everything.

And who is to say what the next president will be like - if we even have a fair election. If there is martial law, we will not have an election at all.

And, under martial law, even our second amendment right to own guns could be overturned – as what happen in New Orleans after Katrina.

Allies in this fight to maintain our freedoms:

Center for Constitutional Rights

ACLU

Please support them.

This was also posted on Daily Kos.