In
fact, as noted by Dino Louis, in a process driven at its base by under‑investment
at home and a concomitant export of capital abroad, the economy was rotting upwards
from its foundations, with declining personal incomes, increasing job
insecurity, the disaccumulation of labor from
capital, and deindustrialization. The rotting process was accelerated by the existence of a huge, ever‑growing
government debt, created in large part during the 1980s by the policies of
Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush.
Reaganite policy, in fact, had within a five‑year
period from 1981 changed the financial posture of the country from that of the
world's leading creditor nation to that of the world's leading debtor
nation. This borrowing was
undertaken to finance a vast expansion of the U.S. military, at a time when the
nation was ostensibly at peace, and large tax cuts for the wealthy and the
large corporations (McIntyre). It
produced a floridly growing economy at the time, for which the Reaganites took credit, but that was the product of nothing
but old‑fashioned Keynesian government pump‑priming, although through a very narrow spigot that
dropped the largess almost entirely upon the military‑industrial
complex.
Thus
for many years leading up to this time, American society had been characterized
by economic and social conditions which might have lead to civil and/or labor
unrest. But many people were
easily distracted from the realities of life and the true causes of their problems by the
above-mentioned strategies of diversion. They also included a domestic "anti‑communist crusade"
(against a virtually non‑existent Communist Party), and the foreign
"Cold War" against the old Soviet Union (designed not to "contain"
it, as advertised, but to destroy it, which happened). As noted, the diversionary
strategies also included such elements as manufactured racism and xenophobia.
A
Transition Era poet and philosopher described the latter strategy well
(Morrison):
"Let us be reminded
that before there is a final solution, there must be a first solution, a second
one, even a third. The move toward a final solution is not a jump. It takes one step, then another,
then another. Something, perhaps,
like this:
"1. Construct an internal enemy, as both
focus and diversion.
"2. Isolate and demonize the enemy by
unleashing and protecting the utterance of covert and coded name‑calling
and verbal abuse. Employ ad hominem attacks as
legitimate charges against that enemy.
"3. Enlist and create sources and
distributors of information who are willing to reinforce the demonizing process
because it is profitable, because it grants power and because it
works.
"4. Palisade all art forms; monitor,
discredit or expel those that challenge or destabilize processes of
demonization and deification.
"5. Subvert and malign all representatives
of sympathizers with this constructed enemy.
"6. Solicit, from among the enemy,
collaborators who agree with and can sanitize the dispossession process.
"7. Pathologize the enemy in scholarly and popular mediums; recycle, for example,
scientific racism and the myths of racial superiority in order to naturalize
the pathology.
"8. Criminalize the enemy. Then prepare, budget for, and rationalize
the building of holding areas for the enemy—especially its males and
absolutely its children.
"9. Reward mindlessness and apathy with
monumentalized entertainments and with little pleasures, tiny
seductions: a few minutes on television, a few lines in the press; a little
pseudo‑success; the illusion of power and influence; a little fun, a
little style, a little consequence.
"10. Maintain, at
all costs, silence.
"In 1995 racism may wear a
new dress, buy a new pair of boots, but neither it nor its succubus twin
fascism is new or can make anything new. It can only reproduce the environment that supports its
own health: fear, denial and an atmosphere in which its victims have lost the
will to fight."
In
this analysis, Morrison retrospectively described the development of German
Nazism in the 1930s based on the then‑coming War Against the Jews (Davidowicz). She also chillingly and accurately prophesied the coming of fascism to
America in the early 21st century through the War Against the Peoples of Color,
as the process described in this book might be called, leading ultimately and
inevitably to the establishment of the New American Republics.
By
the time the turn of the 21st century was reached, the economic decline
affecting all sectors of society other than the truly wealthy was quickening,
and social unrest was doing the same. Then it was found by the wealthy and
their political allies that the divisive/distractive strategies
which had worked so well for so many years to keep a relative civil peace began to fail in meeting that objective. This process lead to increasingly violent outbursts on the part of
increasing numbers of people from all walks of life. And some of those
outbursts began to focus on such matters as the widening gap between rich and
poor, the loss of employment security, and the overall decline in the
standard of living for most people.
The
economic and political decision‑makers of the society thus gradually
came to view it as a necessity that significant levels of force and repression
be used, or at least made ready, to prevent the occurrence of full‑fledged
rebellion. Hence the final
development of the fascist state in the old U.S.. But it had to be realized, if at all
possible, by democratic means.
Why
so? Because the
democratic tradition was strong in the United States of America. The tradition, and the basic American
concept, "it's a free country," had been encouraged by the operations
of the political system from the time of the nation's founding as the
world's first democracy, however limited at the time, in 1789. "Free speech" and
"freedom from government oppression" were slogans even of major
elements of the Far Right, the foot soldiers of which would eventually and
ironically become the agents of repression on the street and in the camps for
the national decision‑makers.
However,
no country had ever previously become fascist by majority vote of the
whole electorate. Even in the Nazi
Germany of the 1930s and 40s (where the fascists had taken power by
constitutional means), the highest proportion of a free vote that the National
Socialist (Nazi) Party had ever received was 43% (of a high voter turnout).
Just
as in pre-World War II Germany, in the old U.S. it is unlikely that fascism, if
openly put to a vote, could ever have attracted a majority of the eligible
voters. But given the realities of
voting patterns, that was not necessary for the constitutional installation of
fascism. In the old U.S., even in
Presidential elections, any voter turnout over 50% was considered
good. And so, in the late 20th
century a strategy was developed by Right‑Wing Reaction
through which fascism could be brought to the old U.S. by Constitutional means,
if not true majority vote. It was called "The 15% Solution."
"The 15% Solution"
"The
15% Solution" was an electoral strategy developed by the leading
political organ of the Religious Right, the so‑called
"Christian Coalition" (ADL). The "Christian Coalition" was
an unabashed, unapologetic, and out‑spoken representative
of that authoritarian thinking (see also Dino Louis' discussion of
the nature of fascism in Appendix II) which under their
influence was so prominently represented in the politics of the Republican
Party, beginning at their 1992 National Convention. The strategy was designed to win
elections even when the Coalition's supporters comprised a distinct
minority of the eligible electorate. As an early Christian Coalition Executive Director,
Ralph Reed, once said (Harkin): "I paint my face and travel at night. You don't know it's over until you're
in a body bag."
Although
in later public statements, the Christian Coalition made attempts to
cover up or even disavow the strategy, according to its 1991 National
Field Director, it was formulated in the following way (Rodgers):
"In a Presidential
election, when more voters turn out than [in] any other election you normally see,
only 15% of eligible voters determine the outcomes of that election .
. . . Of
all adults 18 and over, eligible to vote, only about 60 or 65% are actually registered
to vote. It might even be less
than that, and it is less than that in many states. .
. .
"Of those registered to
vote, in a good turnout only 50% actually vote. [Thus,] only 30% of those eligible actually vote. . . . 15% of adults eligible to vote determine the outcome in a high turnout election. That happens once every four years. . . . In low turnout elections, city
council, state legislature, county commissions, the percentage
who (sic) determines who wins can be as low as 6 or 7%. We don't have to worry about convincing a majority
of Americans to agree with us. Most of them are staying home and watching
'Roseanne'" [emphasis added. Author's Note: "Roseanne" was a popular
television program of that time.]
As
one of the most influential leaders of the Religious Right, Paul Weyrich, succinctly put it (Freedom Writer, Nov., 1994): "We don't want
everyone to vote. Quite frankly,
our leverage goes up as the voting population goes down."
Elected
allies of the Christian Coalition worked to make this wish a reality. For example, a Governor of Virginia,
George F. Allen, elected in 1992 with open Christian Coalition support,
attempted by the use of the veto to prevent implementation of Federal
legislation designed to make it easier for people to register to vote (NYT).
By
the national election of 1994, Right Wing Reaction was well on its way to
achieving its goal. Only about 38%
of eligible voters voted. That turnout was part of the process that came to be
referred to as the "Incredible Shrinking Electorate." With slightly more than half of those
voting choosing the old Republican Party's Congressional candidates that
year, the Party achieved a major turnaround in Congressional representation
and took control of that body.
Many of the new representatives were supported by the Christian Coalition
and its allies. In an odd
representation of reality, most media and political figures represented that
victory as one reflecting the views of the "American people" as a
whole. In fact, the Republican
victory was achieved by garnering the support of under 20% of the eligible voters. "The 15% Solution" was well within sight.
The
political posture adopted by the opposition Democrats played a significant
role in the creation of the Incredible Shrinking Electorate. They gave the majority of increasingly
disaffected people nothing to come out to the polls for but either a warmed‑over
imitation of Republican Party policies, or a set of well‑intentioned
but ineffective alternatives.
The
minority of eligible voters who actually supported Republican, and later,
Republican‑Christian Alliance, policies turned out and voted for
them. Those who
wanted something significantly different, consistent with the liberal
tradition of the Democratic Party, not finding it on the ballot, just stayed
home. Implementation of
"The 15% Solution" proceeded apace. It was eventually used by the Right‑Wing Reactionaries
to impose their will on the majority of the people. And just like their German Nazi predecessors, once
they gained power through Constitutional means, they maintained
it largely through anything but.
The Apogee of American Fascism
The
apogee of fascism in America is generally considered to have
been reached around 2017. By that year, while the old Constitution (see Appendix I) was still
technically in force, the old United States of America had for six years
already been existing as that apartheid nation
called the New American Republics. The NAR was designed along the lines of plans for racial separation which had been developed by such late 20th
century Right‑Wing Republican leaders as David Duke of Louisiana
(Patriquin). It was the entirely predictable result of the American Right‑Wing
Reactionary movement that had at its core an ideology of black,
(genetically‑based), inferiority (Herrnstein and Murray), and explicit
or implicit White Supremacy.
There
were still two years to go before the Latin Wars in the Fourth Republic
would begin to turn sour and the formal Restoration Declaration would be
issued by the National Leadership Council of the Movement for the
Restoration of Constitutional Democracy in the old United States.
The
sole legal political party of the NAR was the American Christian Nation
Party (ACNP). In 2008, President
Jefferson Davis Hague had formed it out of the Republican‑Christian Alliance,
successor to the old Republican Party. In rhetoric at least , the NAR was a "Christian Nation," achieving
a goal of many leaders of Right‑Wing Reaction in the old U.S. from a wide
variety of backgrounds, such as the Rev. Pat Robertson, the head
of the Christian Coalition, a one‑time Governor of the state of
Mississippi, Kirk Fordyce, and R.J. Rushdooney,
a leader of Christian Reconstructionism and the
Christian Coalition's more secretive 20th century counterpart, the
Coalition on Revival.
Rushdooney, a very influential if not very well‑known
leader of the Christian Right, for example "advocated total
Christian theocracy and [once] wrote 'Democracy is the great love of the
failures and cowards of life'" (Freedom Writer, Jan., 1995, p.
1). Of the legal theory of Christian Reconstructionism,
the basis for the Supremacy Amendment (see Chapter nine), one David Barton said
(Schollenberger): "Whatever is Christian is
legal. Whatever isn't Christian
is illegal."
The
NAR consisted of four "Republics." The "White Republic" controlled most of the
territory of the old United States, as well as that of the four western
Provinces of the old Canada. The "Black Republic," in
some ways like the Black "Bantustans" of pre‑liberation South
Africa in the 20th century, was a series of disconnected, walled‑off,
"provinces" consisting of selected, old, predominantly black
"inner cities," carved out of the old U.S. All blacks in the country not already
living in what became the collective territory of the republic had been
forcibly moved and confined to one "province" or another.
Similarly,
the "Red Republic" was based on a set of walled‑off former
Indian Reservations to the west of the Mississippi, to which all Native Americans
had been moved and confined. Fourth was to have been the Hispanic Republic, consisting of all the
nations of Latin America, to which, coincidentally, all persons of
Hispanic (Latino) origin living in the old U.S. were to have been deported.
Full deportation was never achieved by the NAR government, just as full
control of Latin America was never achieved either. But a "Killer Fence" (see Chapter 15) had been constructed
along the length of the old U.S.‑Mexican border, and the Fourth
Republic was on the books.
How
did all of this come to pass legislatively, one might ask. In brief, through
the use of "The 15% Solution" Right‑Wing Reaction had by the national
election of 2004 taken full control of the Congress and the Executive
Branch at the Federal level, and of more than 38 state governments. (The assent
of 38 state legislatures was required for the ratification of any
Constitutional Amendment.)
And
where, one might also ask, was the Federal Supreme Court in all of this? Well, it had not reviewed actions of
the other two branches of the Federal government for their
constitutionality since it had handed down the Anderson Decision in 2003. In that decision (see Chapter five), based on the strict Borkian interpretation of the Doctrine of Original Intent, the Court removed from
itself the power to review the actions of the other two branches of the
Federal government for their Constitutionality. The Court was thus out of the picture. Anderson was the most far‑reaching Supreme
Court decision in U.S. history since "Dred Scott" of 1857. In one sense, Anderson set the stage for the Second Civil
War just as Dred Scott had set the stage for the
First.
The Social Profile of the NAR
The
very existence of the New American Republics in 2017 was the at least
partly predictable result of policies that the American Christian Nation
Party and its predecessors had been advocating and at times implementing
for many years leading up to the NAR's creation in
2011. The social profile of
the White Republic was fully predictable. It was just what Right‑Wing Reaction had told the
American people it would impose upon them if it ever got complete power. These changes were achieved largely
through a series of Constitutional amendments which the Right‑Wing
Reactionary dominated national and state legislatures were able to
adopt with ease in the first decade of the 21st century, even before the
establishment of the NAR (see Chapters four, seven, eight, nine and twelve).
Freedom
of speech was a thing of the past, except on paper. "Christian Thinking," as defined by the ACNP
and based on the "Innerant Bible," as
interpreted by the ACNP, was the only way of thinking acceptable throughout the
White Republic. People not accepting
"Christian Thinking" who did not keep their thoughts to themselves
were subject to a wide variety of penalties, from loss of employment (a
practice previewed in the old United States by the so‑called "black‑listing"
practice of the "McCarthy Era" of the 1950s) to confinement
in a "drug rehabilitation" camp.
Freedom
of the press and the media in general was also a thing of the past. Although all media outlets, newspapers,
radio, television, and political virtual reality were privately owned,
they were all licensed and no one who was not known to be an absolute supporter
of ACNP policy could get a license. Freedom of choice in the outcome of pregnancy had long since vanished. The public school system that had been
developed in the old United States since the early 19th century had
ceased to exist, replaced by a combination of public and private religious
schools and home‑based education. Sex education and the provision of contraceptives were
banned. Homosexuality had
been made a crime. The old "welfare" system had been terminated
completely, and the principal remaining achievement of the
"New Deal" of the President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1933‑1945),
the Social Security System, had been dismantled by a process Right‑Wing
Reaction called "Privatization."
The
16th Amendment (providing for a Federal income tax) had been repealed. Subject to Congressional review, the
President had been given the power to rule by proclamation in "times
of national emergency" (very similar to the "Enabling Act"
passed by the German Reichstag [parliament] in the early days of the Hitlerian Chancellorship which gave him, through the democratic
process, the authority to rule by decree [Shirer]).
By
Constitutional amendment as well, the "Laws of God" were established
as superior to those of the Constitution. (Although at the time of the Supremacy Amendment's ratification there
had been some controversy about just what the phrase "Laws of God"
meant, as noted, upon the creation of the NAR the ACNP proclaimed that
thenceforth it would make all such determinations.) The 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments to the old
Constitution had been repealed, under the Borkist theory of "Original Intent."
Economically,
as a result of the previously noted under‑investment in both the private
and public sectors, manufacturing, the basis of American world‑wide
economic dominance for most of the second half of the 20th century, had
declined to a very low level. However, all limitations on lumbering and coal mining had been
eliminated, in order to establish what the ACNP called a "Resource Based
Economy." That had made the
takeover of the four Western Canadian Provinces with their largely
untapped coal and timber reserves essential, and had at the same time reduced
the NAR to the status of what in the 20th century had been called a "Third
World," raw materials exporting, country, although one operating at a very
high level.
But a one‑party, theocratic state, based on a racist
theory of human existence, with a continually declining standard of living, and
a significant number of oppressed people under its thumb, even if it came
to power by democratic means, cannot maintain that power without the use of
brute force. The history of all
other such countries demonstrated that fact. Thus there was a national police force called "The
Helmsmen," "those with their hands on the helm of the ship of
God's state."
The
Helmsmen enforced ACNP rule and rules, legally and extra‑legally
(although there were no legal means to combat their extra‑legal use of
force). Having both a public and a
secret face, it had much in common with the Schutzstaffel (SS) of the old Nazi Germany. A series of camps, under the control of the
Helmsmen (as the "Concentration Camps" of Nazi Germany had been
under the control of the SS), were located on closed former military
bases. They had been originally
established by one of the first acts of "The Last Republican,"
President Carnathon Pine (2001‑2004), as part
of the "Real Drug War" he had announced in his Inaugural Address
of 2001 (see the next Chapter).
Well
before 2017, the camps had been adapted to the broader purpose of
confining, in not too pleasant surroundings, opponents of the regime. (The camps were, however, not nearly as
unpleasant as the extermination camp for "homosexuals" which would be
set up in 2020 as part of the "Second Final Solution" [see Chapter
18].) As noted, the Mexican border
had long since been closed with a pro‑active, at times seemingly life‑like,
"Killer Fence." More
advanced versions of the "Killer Fence" were used to completely
isolate the "Provinces" of both the Black and Red Republics.
And
that, in brief, is a picture of the NAR in 2017. This book will fill in that picture, will add color, depth,
and focus to it, by tracing the history of the the Fascist Period through a description and analysis of the documents which shaped it, and by
hearing the voices of a few of those who lived it. In brief here is presented an overview of that documentary
history.
The Documentary Trail of American Fascism
2001
The Inauguration of President Pine, the Last Republican, and
the Declaration of the Real Drug War.
2002
The "Preserve America" (30th) Amendment to the
Constitution. It provided that henceforth no person could become a
citizen of the United States unless at least one parent were a citizen of
the United States.
2003
The Supreme Court decision in Anderson v. the United States. It reversed
the early landmark decisions by the Court of Chief Justice John Marshall,
from Marbury v. Madison (1801) to McColluch v. Maryland (1823),
which had originally established the Supreme Court's power to review and void
on Constitutional grounds Executive and Legislative branch actions, a
power nowhere to be explicitly found in the Constitution.
2004
The
First Inaugural Address of President Jefferson Davis Hague (delivered
from the National Cathedral on Christmas Day). He had won the Presidency as the candidate of the new
Republican‑Christian Alliance.
2005
The Morality (31st) Amendment to the Constitution. It outlawed abortion under any
circumstances; prohibited any teaching in any educational
institution on any matters concerning sexual functioning; declared homosexuality
to be a matter of choice and denied any civil rights protections to homosexual
persons; prohibited all forms of Federal, state, or local government
funded outdoor relief for the poor; and repealed the 16th Amendment
(which had established the income tax).
2006
The Balancing (32nd) Amendment to the Constitution. It required a balanced Federal budget,
with no provisions for exceptions; required a two‑thirds vote of the
membership of each House of Congress for the approval of any tax increase;
established a line‑item veto; repealed the Fourth Amendment (prohibiting
unreasonable search and seizure); and gave the President the power to declare
"special emergencies" during which he could rule by decree.
2007
The Supremacy (33rd) Amendment to the Constitution. It gave the President and/or
the Congress the power to declare the Laws of God as superior to
those of the Constitution. It
bound all judges, Federal and state, to abide by the terms of the
amendment. It allowed the
establishment of religious tests for any elected or appointed government
official. Finally, it guaranteed
organized prayer in the public schools.
2008
Hague's
Second Inaugural. He announced the
planned conversion of the Republican‑Christian Alliance into the American
Christian Nation Party.
2009
The Proclamation of Right of 2009. It made homosexuality a crime.
2010
The Original Intention (34th) Amendment to the Constitution. It repealed the 13th, 14th, and
15th Amendments to the Constitution (that had, respectively, abolished
slavery, among other things applied the due process guarantee of the 5th
Amendment to the states, and guaranteed the right to vote to former slaves and
other persons of color).
2011
The Declaration of Peace. On July 4 of that year, it established the New American
Republics (NAR).
2013
The Natural Resources Access Act. Among other things, it terminated the National
Parks and National Forests systems.
2015
The National Plan for Social Peace. It was intended, among other things, to
deal with the many social and legal problems not solved and/or created by the
Fascist Period Constitutional Amendments.
2017
The Legitimation Treaty of 2017. This tri‑partite Treaty, between
the NAR, the rump Canadian government based in the Maritime Provinces, and
the Republic of Quebec (RQ), recognized the independence of the RQ, the
annexation of the Western Canadian provinces to the White Republic of the NAR,
and the partition of the former Canadian Province of Ontario between the NAR
and the RQ.
2019
The Restoration Declaration. The first formal statement by the new National Leadership
Council of the Movement for the Restoration of Constitutional Democracy,
which for the first time joined together previously unconnected resistance
movements in the Four Republics.
2020
The Second Final Solution (the Second Holocaust). It was a secret program, purportedly
designed to exterminate the remaining homosexual population in the
NAR. However, its real purpose was
to exterminate, without involving the local messiness created by the Death
Squads, any opponents of the regime it could find.
2021 ‑ 2023
The
intervention by the East Asian Confederation in 2021, the successful
conclusion of the Second Civil War in 2022, and the Restoration of
Constitutional Democracy in 2023. Restoration formally dissolved the NAR (in the process
formally liberating the Latin American countries), recognized the
establishment of the Federal Republic of Canada within the former Canadian
boundaries, including Quebec, with the reestablishment of the former U.S.‑Canadian
border, and created the Re‑United States of America. The new Constitution, based in many
ways on the old but in many ways different too, featured strengthened
protections for individual freedom and liberty, and strengthened governmental
powers for intervention in the operations of the economy.
References:
ADL: Anti‑Defamation
League, The Religious Right: The Assault on Tolerance & Pluralism in
America, New York: 1994, pp. 31‑39.
Cobb, C., Halstead, T., and Rowe, J., "If the GDP
Is Up, Why Is AmericaDown?" The Atlantic Monthly, October, 1995, p. 59.
Davidowicz, L.S., The War Against the Jews, 1933‑1945, New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1975.
DeParle, J., "Census Sees
Falling Income and More Poor," New York Times, October 7, 1994.
Freedom Writer, "Church Organization is
key to Coalition's success," November, 1994,
p. 2.
Freedom Writer, "Profile Chalcedon," January, 1995, p. 1.
Freedom Writer, "Concerned About
Concerned Women of America," January, 1995,
p. 3.
Harkin, T., Fund‑raising letter, Washington, DC: July, 1995.
Herrnstein, R.J. and Murray,
C., The Bell Curve, New York: The Free Press, 1994.
Lind, M., "To Have And Have Not," Harper's Magazine, June, 1995, p. 35.
McIntyre, R.S., "The
Populist Tax Act of 1989," The Nation, April 2, 1988, p. 445.
Morrison, T., "Racism and Fascism," The Nation, May 29, 1995, p. 760.
NYT: New York Times, "U.S. Countersues
Virginia Over Motor Voter Law," July 9, 1995.
Patriquin, R., "Duke plan calls
for dividing America," Shreveport Journal, February 7, 1989.
Phillips, K., The Politics of Rich and
Poor, New
York: Random House, 1990.
Rodgers, G., "Turning Out the Christian Vote in
1992," Christian Coalition Conference held at Regent University,
Virginia Beach, VA, Nov. 15‑16, 1991 (partial transcript, p. 16).
Schollenberger, J., "Concerned About
Concerned Women for America," The Freedom Writer, January, 1995, p. 3.
Shirer, W.L., The
Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1960,
pp. 198‑200.