Slide, slide, slippity slide...

I had a much longer post planned on the continual slide of the US into fascism, but I think I'll instead post some of the points that feminist author Naomi Wolf brings up in her new NYT best-seller, The End of America. She was recently on Democracy Now!, and I highly suggest that you check out the interview, but the gist of her book is this: the slide in to fascist dictatorship always follows the same 10 basic steps:

1) Invoke an internal and external enemy. (Terrorists.)

2) Create a Gulag. (Guantanamo.)

3) Develop a thug caste. (Blackwater.)

4) Set up an internal surveillance system (TIPS program, Gonzales' wiretapping.)

5) Harass citizens' groups (numerous examples)

6)Engage in arbitrary detention/release (James Yee, among many others.)

7)Target key individuals (Valerie Plame/Joe Wilson)

8) Control the Press. (Fox, New York Times.)

9) Dissent equals Treason. (in progress.)

10) Suspend the rule of law.

Wolf seems to have a fairly good grasp on the concept, and I'll just elaborate on one piece which she brings up: the "circle the wagons" mentality that goes along with the threats in (1). The significantly increasing poverty in the US, combined with a somewhat increased consciousness of people that they are being exploited by societal elites means that they look to ideas that guide them in who is their enemy. Unfortunately, with the weak state of the left in this country, this can feed directly in to the ideas spouted by Billo and Lou Dobbs, and present in Ron Paul's campaign. What do they say is happening to the country? It's been taken over from by business elites, secretive cabals, and is losing its ethno-racial purity with the influx of Mexican immigrants and the looming presence of Islamic/Arab terrorists. It is the perfect grounds to begin taking away civil rights: first from people who are "threats," then to immigrants who don't look like "us" or speak "our" language, and then from treasonous dissenters. This is one the scariest things that Wolf does not discuss: the increasing play that these paranoid conspiracy/ultraright groups are getting in politics today. It is not mainstream at all, but it does represent a significant political force.

This dynamic is important to understand particularly with the looming recession right on the horizon. The decline into a totalitarian state is a process, not an immediate action. But it can come with certain jumps, and a massive depression could provide just such an impetus in the not to distant future. It is when you have the dire conditions provided by unemployment that people begin to look to rebuild society in some way, and this process depends entirely on the forces on the ground. And with the growth of right wing nativist groups such as the Minutemen, said forces could be more than willing to forcibly destroy the kind of movement from below that would be needed to provide a barrier to complete dictatorial control.

Regardless of this nightmare scenario, however, immigrants rights are already being detained and abused, non-citizens have been declared enemy combatants and shipped to Guantanamo, citizens are being wiretapped, and there is a full fledged occupation of a country which had no role in attacking the US. The progression here is clear: it is easiest to exact violence and repression on those that seem least "American": those in a non-Western country (Iraq & Afganistan), followed by immigrants from such countries, followed by dissenters. The key to stopping this aggression? Building up the strongest left possible. If anything is necessary now, it is to create the organizations that are capable of resisting the consistent pressures of repression.

Update: As far as spying goes, it appears that the DOJ attempted to subpoena for Amazon.com order records of 24,000 customers. Thankfully, Amazon didn't capitulate to this measure as easily as telecom companies did to domestic wiretapping.