You Were A Fascist

If you were an American living here in the U.S. between late 2001 and January 15, 2009; you were living in what could be technically described as a Fascist Dictatorship.

Is there proof? Now there is:

President Obama just declassified critical memos written by “President” Bush's lawyer, John Woo, which nullified the Bill of Rights and created a legal dictatorship.

What... you didn't know? Don't be so surprised, truth is the first casualty of war.

You didn't read about this in the news. No wonder. It was classified. Secret. That's right, the documents that gave President Bush dictatorial powers were too sensitive for American citizens to know about. We weren't supposed to know that Bush's legal team had declared him Commander-In-Chief, with the self-awarded right to do anything he wanted to, to anyone he wanted to, for whatever reason he chose. Of course, there was one requirement. Bush would have to call you a terrorist. But once the enemy combatant claim was made, he could do anything he wanted with anyone his military or “intelligence” forces could kidnap – including Americans. That sounds like dictatorial power to me.

Were there death squads? Apparently so. Seymour Hersh (the reporter who first informed us of the My Lai massacre) has revealed that Vice President Dick Cheney headed an “executive assassination team” – that had no Congressional oversight. “Under President Bush's authority, they've been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people ... and executing them.” ...Of course we were at war, but that's not the point. The point is that Dick Cheney, without having to answer to anyone, could have almost anyone in the world killed... all he had to do was give the order.

The elephant in the room is, of course, Iraq. There were no Iraqis in the 9/11 attacks. There were no WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction) in Iraq. And the Bush Administration knew all of this. The United States invaded a country that had neither attacked us, nor were a real threat to us. (Even if they would have had WMDs, it would have been mass suicide to use them. Doesn't anybody remember MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction) theory?) The Bush Administration knowingly lied about WMDs to get us to invade and occupy a country that wasn't a military threat to us. That's what dictatorships do. Hundreds of thousands of people have died, including thousands of patriotic Americans. And what for? Well... some military contractors made billions – and some big oil corporations got no-bid contracts. They (including Dick Cheney) got richer. However, our dollar is now on the brink of total collapse from 10 trillion dollars of deficit spending during the Bush terms.

And the press? Weren't they supposed to tell us about all this? One Woo memorandum said that “First Amendment speech and press rights may also be subordinated to the overriding need to wage war successfully.” The Bush Administration felt they could shut out the press if they were so inclined. Nonetheless, most reporters kept quiet on their own, since they all knew about the warrantless surveillance going on. Evidently, reporters knew that rocking the boat would have gotten them worse treatment than suspected communists during the McCarthy era.

But of course, there is another reason the mainstream press overlooked our little 7-year trial dictatorship. Only a handful of corporations controlled most of the mass media. For years, it was already known within the news business that promotions were only for “team players.” Most every reporter with a penchant for honest reporting had already been weeded out.

Which leads us to my Fascism accusation. Just what type of governmental system did we actually have? It doesn't make any sense that we had a Democratic Republic Dictatorship. That's a contradiction of terms. We only had Socialism for the banks and military/industrial complex. And we obviously weren't Communists. That only leaves something new – a new form of concealed proto-Fascism.

But where were the goose stepping troops? We didn't have any goose stepping troops. How could there be Fascism without goose stepping troops? Of course, that's not actually what defines a fascist state. Let's consider the dictionary's definition of Fascism; “a system of government characterized by dictatorship, belligerent nationalism, racism, and militarism.”

• I've already shown that we were a “secret” dictatorship.

• Our military spending is more than the next 14 countries combined.

• I'd say our unprovoked invasion and occupation of Iraq has proved us to be belligerently nationalistic.

• And for a while, if you were a Muslim, many Americans immediately suspected you of being a terrorist. That sounds pretty racist to me.

Were we fascists? I wasn't. At least I thought I wasn't. But reality is more complicated than that.

Another more technical definition of one form of “Fascism” is; an unholy alliance between the military, rich industrialists, and radical right wingers. If you don't believe we had that during the Bush Jr. years, you're probably one of those three.

During the Bush years the wealthy who owned the mass media convinced the radical right wing fundamentalists that stealing another country's oil and bringing them “American” values was what God somehow wanted – and if you didn't agree with them, you weren't a patriotic American. Of course, that's the Cliff Notes version of the argument they used, but the results were the same.

And the results? The results were exactly what you would expect considering what the real goal is for fascists. Fascists want to get filthy rich, and they don't care who they hurt in the process. Fascism is about money. In my opinion, fascism is the ultimate corruption of capitalism. And it doesn't last for long. In very short order, all of the sheep get fleeced. And then the system collapses. Is this sounding familiar?

But it could have been worse. When the financial system first started to collapse back in Fall of 2008, the Bush administration could have declared martial law. (This was a real possibility. We were already in a state of partial martial law after the Patriot Act.)

If President George W. Bush did anything truly extraordinary during his terms as President, it was not declaring total martial law. For that, I admire him.

However, declaring martial law last Fall wouldn't have been easy. The Bush administration had alienated the military by their tactics in Iraq. The Bush administration was very unpopular due to the “war,” the economy, the environment, etc. And activists on the internet were getting the message out. These guys didn't have our best interests in mind. In reality, declaring total martial law wouldn't have been a slam dunk. It very likely would have failed.

We Americans like our freedom. If we really knew how close we came to losing it all, we might have stood up and said no for a change.

...But then again, I guess we did.